Sharpening My Pencil for Swaziland

"I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." -- Mother Teresa

For the next 35 days myself and a team of 5 others from our church are getting ready to take the trip of a lifetime -- to Swaziland, Africa on a vision trip with World Vision. 119 families in our church sponsor 122 children in a small county in Swaziland called Sithobella. We are going there to see what God, World Vision, and our church partnership is doing there. We are going there as learners and lovers -- to learn from the people in the midst of a poverty and the health crisis of HIV/AIDS, and to love them as our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.

In the next few weeks, I want to make it a goal to put a little pen to paper (or in this case, keystrokes to blogsite) and journal a little on what is going through my mind and in my heart as we prepare. Our team has been in place for six months, and each of us in our own way is both anxious and excited about what is to come. My hope is that I can encourage and challenge you (as you hear me encourage and challenge myself) to examine what it means to be lovers of people and a nation that is so radically different than ours.

We'll see what happens.

Jeff