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Friday, 25 September 2009

Dates for MN/IA gatherings and speaking schedule

Here's where I'll be when:

Sun. Sept 27 - at River Valley Church in Apple Valley (all 3 a.m. services)

Sun. Oct 4 - at Meriden EV Free in Meriden, Iowa (a.m. adult Sunday school)

Sun. Oct 11 - at Hayden Heights Baptist Church in St. Paul (a.m. adult Sun. school class & 6 p.m. prayer service)

"Get Togethers"- Come join me for coffee at Caribou on Snelling Ave, across from Har Mar:

Tues. Oct 6, anytime from 7-9 p.m. or Thurs. Oct 8, anytime 7-9 p.m.

Monday, 21 September 2009

Hi MN friends...

Still trying to nail down dates & locations for get togethers... so please check back in later this week!
I do know for sure that I'll be at NWC homecoming this Saturday, the 26th for most of the football game... I'll be hanging out by the food or alumni tent :)

Friday, 18 September 2009

Zuniga Update, Sept 09

Hello dear friends and family!

"And He will be the stability of your times, a wealth of wisdom and knowledge..." Is. 33:6
The Lord has been speaking to me a lot through the book of Isaiah. It's been a comfort to know that He indeed
is the stability of my times, especially with the heaviness of the shepherding ministry I do in Swaziland & the
many transitions in missionary life.

LET ME CATCH YOU UP WITH SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST FEW MONTHS...
At the end of April, the Lord blessed us with an amazing Bomake (women’s) camp - He far
surpassed any of our expectations & made all of the work & faith-stretching worth it! See blog below!

MAY
* I was in Johannesburg, South Africa for a few days. The day my friends & I were
heading back to Swaziland, the vehicle we drove was STOLEN,
along with our laptops & personal belongings (Bible, keys to my house, suitcase, clothing, purchases, etc).
The vehicle belonged to my friend's organization & it was taken from a busy mall parking lot in broad daylight!

* Later that month, all of Children’s Cup staff served at a SWAZI PASTOR'S CONFERENCE
hosted by Cup. It was a good turn out and the
pastor’s were encouraged to press on & try new things in their ministry.

JUNE
* I spent PREPARING myself & fellow staff (Nelly & Karabo) for my visit to the U.S. and
saying good-bye to the cooks at our Care Points - we minister at 17 different ones.

* I also concentrated on preparing a group of 5 Swazi women ("D2 Bomake") who began going around with
us to minister to their fellow cooks. We started meeting earlier this year & discipling them
has been one of my GREATEST JOYS!

* I arrived in the U.S. at the end of June to craziness - 4 states in 10 days! A visit to
meet one of my best friend's new BABY in MN, a cousin's WEDDING in CA
& Ripe For Harvest STAFF CONFERENCE in AZ before heading to TX to be in another cousin's
WEDDING!

JULY
* TEXAS this month with Mom & family there. After the wedding excitement I was able to
get some down time & much needed rest.

AUGUST
* CALIFORNIA to visit Dad, family & friends there. We made a trip to AZ, then I made my
way up to Bakersfield, CA to visit my 17 yr. old sister, Danielle, who just had a KIDNEY
TRANSPLANT in June. Praise God, she's doing well! I was able to hear her speak at
church, giving God the glory for how He had worked in her life through her illness these
past 2 years.

SEPTEMBER
* I just arrived in MINNESOTA to visit my home church, friends & ministry partners. I'll
also be going to IOWA in early October to visit a partnering church there.

** For those in MN, please CHECK BACK TO SEE DATES for when I'm planning get togethers!

While I'm glad to be in the U.S., I miss Swaziland & my loved ones there!
* Please PRAY that the Lord's purposes would be accomplished in me & through me while I'm
here.
* PRAY for my co-laborers in Swazi, that they would be strengthened & encouraged to press on.

I'll end with a verse the Holy Spirit gave me to meditate on, from ISAIAH 25:1. I pray
it's a blessing to you:
"O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You
have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness."

With love, Jacci / Sibongile (- my siSwati name!)

Monday, 11 May 2009

Bomake Camp Update: Truly in Awe of the Lord!

At the end of our camp we got a group photo. Out of our 108 cooks, 103 were able to come! - This was a HUGE answer to prayer! We praise God for the spiritual fruit that we believe was stirred in their lives while at the retreat & that the Lord will continue to work out in them! All we can say is, "THANK YOU LORD!", "SIYABONGA NKULUNKULU!"

The theme for our camp, "Created for Life, Designed to Heal" written in Siswati on the banner

After all the time of prayer & planning, the day finally arrived to welcome our dear cooks for some spiritual, emotional & physical renewal! I was SO EXCITED... and thoroughly ENJOYED every minute of it!

Nelly & I welcoming the women to the camp

Praising & worshipping - it was awesome to be a part of this!

This may have been my favorite part - the women worshipping in dance! Before each session we'd spend at least half an hour singing & dancing before the Lord - Swazi style!

The women in small groups praying over each other.

We had a "store" for the women - donated clothes that each small group had 20 minutes to choose 20 items, free of charge!

A special gift we had for the women were brand new Nike tennis shoes that had been donated! These weren't just any shoes... they were like Air Jordan's & others in that price range! They were very blessed. NOTE: If you read my last blog... Siphiwe came!! A HUGE ANSWER TO PRAYER! She's 3rd from the right in the white hat. PRAISE GOD!

The Cook Discipleship Team... Karabo, Nelly & myself. We were so in AWE OF GOD & how we saw Him work from the moment he dropped this idea of the camp into our hearts all the way through. SO MANY ANSWERED PRAYERS! It was amazing... and JESUS IS AWESOME!!

We did games with the bomake (sorry you have to twist your head to see it!) Here's a picture taken while they were doing the limbo! The Swazi women are so fun - many of them participated - and we all laughed SO HARD & SO MUCH!

Me & 'Mama' Elizabeth, our speaker who came from Johannesburg. When I used to live in Pretoria, South Africa, I would go out and minister with her in the squatter camps. She's such a blessing & a dear woman of God. I'm challenged by her faith... and so were the women!

The women once again dancing! The Lord impressed on my heart after the camp that many of them were "dancing over their graves"... places in their hearts & lives where there has been brokenness & death BUT where the Lord instead wants to bring healing & LIFE!

Ezekial 37:12-14
"...Thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people;... Then you will know that I am the Lord... I will put My spirit within you and you will come to life..."

This is what the Lord had put on our hearts for these women - and we believe in faith that this is exactly what He's doing! It is He who started the work in the women's lives, it is He who stirred it in their hearts during the retreat... and it is He who will continue what He has begun!
In a word, the camp was AMAZING! When it ended, the best way I could describe how Nelly, KB & I felt was IN AWE OF GOD. Words can not express... it truly was "exceedingly, abundantly more than all we could ask or think..." (Eph. 3:20) It's been a journey of faith, and many, many answered prayers! (** See the answer to prayer about Siphiwe from my last blog in the pictures above... one of many!)
The 3 days were jam packed with all sorts of great things...
- sessions that directed the women toward the Lord, healing &spiritual growth
- praise, worship & dancing Swazi style
- small group times to share & pray together
- games (musical chairs, limbo)
- a movie: Passion of Christ
- a special meal where the men who help out at the CP's joined us
- a "store" with donated clothes
- a special donation that we got - brand new Nike's!
- a precious time of testimonies at the end... I wish y'all could've heard what they said - encouraging one another & sharing things they'd learned and been challenged by.
At the end of the retreat the women were saying, "Our spirit's are full, and so are our stomach's!" - The latter is an especially big compliment coming from a Swazi! Different people who would stop in and help observed that there was a genuine joy coming from the women! Thank You, Jesus!
A COUPLE FUNNY THINGS...
- You know it's a great women's camp when even the guys who came to help said they didn't want to leave! :)
- We had to explain that the silicon packets in the boxes with the new Nike shoes WERE NOT SALT PACKETS and that they shouldn't be eaten! :)
We are believing that seeds have been planted in our women's hearts, that they would be transformed and that what has been poured into their lives will in turn be poured out into the children's lives they care for everyday. And we're believing the Lord for the promise in JOHN 15:16:
"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain..."

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Today's the day!

After all the prayers and planning and hard work, the Bomake Camp starts today!! it's truly been a journey of faith & we're excited about all that's yet to be seen in the Swazi women's lives!!
I thought I'd quickly tell you one last story of how God is working in one of our women's lives... so you know how to keep praying...
** On Friday I found out that when one of our cooks, Siphiwe, asked her husband if she could go to the retreat, he beat her. I, along with 2 other Swazi friends spent Friday afternoon at the police station. We reported the incident (it's not the 1st time this has happened) but all they can do is go & warn the man that the community knows this is going on - without Siphiwe's consent, they can't press charges - and she's unwilling to do so.
As you can imagine, I was broken-hearted -- it is for precisely for women like Siphiwe I believe the Lord is leading us to have this retreat - so He can bring healing to the broken-hearted & bind up their wounds. So we started praying and asking the Lord that she would be able to come - I was determined that she come! I, along with another member of the community were planning on going on Sunday to personally invite her, and even her husband, to come to the camp - so he could see that she was not lying to him. BUT when we arrived on Sunday, the LORD HAD ALREADY GONE BEFORE US and changed the husband's mind... we never even had to go to the house!! Siphiwe told one of the women that he was allowing her to go to the retreat!! THANK YOU, JESUS! So, we are believing in faith, that she will be there later on today! When I saw her on Sunday, she smiled and pointed to her eye & told me in SiSwati that it was healing!
And we are praying that he same will be true for her soul!
We're heading down now to the retreat venue now to set up & decorate & prepare for the 107 coming! When Nelly called all of the Care Points yesterday to see how many women were planning on coming, ALL but one were coming! YAY GOD!!