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..."

   

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