Seth Barnes Feb 2, 2009 7:00 PM

Wow! Swaziland trip report - crocs & crocs

After enduring limited internet connectivity for the last ten days, I'm back on line at the Joburg airport while we wait to catch our plane. It's bee...

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After enduring limited internet connectivity for the last ten days, I'm back on line at the Joburg airport while we wait to catch our plane.

It's been a wonderful trip.  Karen debriefed our World Racers at a retreat center on the banks of the Crocodile River and then helped lead a vision trip in Nsoko, Swaziland.

Staying at the Nisela Safari Camp just a few miles down the road from our center, we ate our dinners just a few yards away from the crocodile pond (with a huge croc in it).  Giraffes and zebras grazed nearby and Racers had to occasionally shoo ostriches away from their tents.

I took a number of videos and will be sharing them with you over the next week.  Every day we took care of widows and orphans in some way or another.  Here are four highlights from the trip:

  • Seeing how well our Racers are doing.  We left them dancing and singing at our closing South African bar-b-q (called a "brai").
  • Our Nsoko base looks tremendous - so much work has been done on it.  The orphans looked so much healthier!
  • Getting to spend time with a number of my blog readers on the vision trip was a thrill. Gabe, Kevin, and Shawn had all participated in our discipleship experiment last year.
  • Yesterday's shoe distribution, though chaotic, was amazing.  We washed the feet of hundreds and hundreds of children and some Gogos (estimates were upwards of 700), then we prayed your prayers over them (119 of you posted them on this blog - we laminated the prayers, prayed them individually, then gave them to the children), and then we sized their feet and gave them new shoes.  You should have seen their expressions when they'd get brand new Crocs or Nike sneakers! Here's a video:
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