Happy Mothers Day

to all you moms out there. I am in Nelspruit South Africa for the next 4 days where we are preparing to go into re-entry to the United States. Well worth the time to talk about things because it is going to be difficult to the changes and the differences that have occured over the last months. I am very excited to get home and share God's glory and who He is with all of you.

Tomorrow is my 21st Birthday YAHHHHH!!! Holla, and we just so happen to be going on a all day game drive at the best game park in the world. KRUGER NATIONAL PARK!!!!!!What a way to celebrate an important day. right eh!!!! Im stoked and it probably will be the first time I get to see WILD animals. seriously I have yet to see any crazy animals. I want to keep this short and simple so there you are and I will be emailing you all when I get to the states in a few days. thanks for all your support and love. miss you much and I look forward to the moment I get to see you.

love always. a daughter of the most high king,

AUBS

hey guys, Right now I am at the Pratts house in Mbabane, Swaziland, they are missionaries who were sent out from Abbott Loop Community Church. Which just so happens to be the same church that I attend while I am in the states. I have spent the last couple days with them at their place and its been great. Their family is wonderful and very FUNNY!!!! I have enjoyed so much just getting to know them a bit more and I encourage those that read this and would like to support missionaries out there in the world, that their organization is a awesome one to support. I have seen the Sandra lee Center, a home for orphans. they have more than 4 homes with Makes ( mothers) that live in the homes with children in each home ranging from all ages that stay there till they are maybe 18-20 depending on their situation but they grow up there until 18 or so.

So far life in Swazi has been very rewarding( blessings all around) !!!!!

I do have prayer needs !!!!!!

Treasure _ 19 years old she live with us in our team house and has been there since Feb. What an amazing help she has been too us because we fall short of the language considering it can be a barrier for us who no very little Siswati. Well she had her appendix taken out a week ago. It was an emergency!!! it was unknown and had to have it done immediately due to lack of knowledge that it was about to burst. although she was in a great amount of pain the doctors just gave her meds thinking it would take it away and it continued she finally went to get an ultrasound and was told go to the ER now!!! well I want to throw out an opportunity to HELP with the cost of the surgery which happens to be 1700 american dollars, we have lowered our budget for our food for some time so that we can help out from the team budget because its quite too much for her family to pay. If you would like to help you can contact my mother who will be more than willing to put the money in my bank account where I will take it out and give it to my leader Kate who will use it to re-imberse her account where she has so graciously taken out the money from her own savings to help pay for this surgery. Treasure is doing amazing in recovery and is thankful for all the help that she has been given. please continue to prayer for her and the teams that are here in Swaziland doing God's work. love always AUBS

also I injured both my knees a month ago and have been very discouraged due to having to lay low a little because it is worse than last semester but I am not going to go home early this semester, there is one month left here in Swaziland and I refuse to leave even though I have been limited to things that I can do  but during this time GOD has been rocking my world and I am spending lots of time in the word and with Him...... I will write much more about this on my next blog, I just want people to pray for me, whether it be for healing, or just encouragement. whatever you would like.

thanks so much Nobuhle

hey guys so the bibles that I have asked for donations for were ordered last week and have arrived. katie and I are going to pick them up today from the store and in a week we will be distributing them to the students at ROADS PARK. I am very excited to play a part in giving someone the word to have for themselves, considering there are so many people here that do not own their very own bible. 

Also an update on the strike that I last blogged about.... there was to be a resolution by this friday and if not other matters would take place and so we are taking pre-cautions for our safety this friday and jsut staying out of Manzini. So right now we do not know if they are going to resume into strike but we are praying so that we can continue our ministry here and I believe that things will work out. Just keep praying that soon a resolution will come about. otherwise we are safe and having been living normally as if nothing had happened. thanks love aubs

Today we found out that there is a stike in Manzini at the bus rank and we have heard that if it does not get fixed in the next day or two then it could get out of control. We normally take public everyday to our ministry locations but with the strike there is no transportation so we are in need of hardcore prayer. This could get better in a day but we have been told its also serious and if it goes on very long people are going to get upset and there is all sort of possiblities of riots which would put us in danger for just being here in Swaziland and so we are praying that the strike ends in the next day or so and if not we will see how things are going to be handled.

If Manzini breaks out into riots we will most likely have to leave the country and continue life back at ALABANZA. I do not want to leave this early to another location so please pray for this to be in the LORDS hands and for our us to stay safe and away from the people who are anger with the factory owners.

as of today we are safe and it has not gotten out of control yet so we need the prayers for it to end soon.

thanks love aubs

A Place To Just Go And Die

It was 2 Fridays ago in the morning when I knew that I was not going to Roads Park that day. I just felt the LORD put on my heart to go to the hospital. Now I hadn't been to the Hospital since September and it was a eye opener, a shocker, and a lot more than I ever wished I would expect to come across. So for that to be the place that I was feeling the LORD bring me to that day, I was going through mixed emotions because I knew what I had seen the last time I paid a visit.

            So I went that Friday to the hospital and I knew that I was going straight into the children's ward because I knew that is where GOD was calling me to go. Now guys picture a one -story building, with beds that you would use like when hurricane Katrina hit and people who lost their homes where sleeping on  in the arenas. A little nicer than a cot but still an uncomfortable and crappy bed put into a room the size of a elementary cafeteria, well actually a bit smaller than that and everyone is about 5 feet apart lying in his/her bed with maybe a visitor. Its not like anything you can imagine but its close to what I described.

            So that's part of the hospital……. I walked around just praying and asking for the presence of the LORD to go with me in such a place and that there would be opportunity to just love on the mothers that die to themselves and stay there day and night with their babies and small children. I prayed over a few babies that I was led to and just talked to the mothers that could understand English and prayed with them as well. My heart hurt and I knew that the only thing I could do was so respect and comfort the women there. I cant heal GOD can, that's all that I was thinking while I was there. Finally a little bit before visiting hours would be over I walked into this room with 2 babies and a 12 year old girl. I knew that this girl was special and that my heart was to be with her and share with her who JESUS is.

            I had no idea that she spoke English, because I asked to pray for her and she just nodded, so I finished the prayer, which by the way I totally believe the LORD is going to answer and GOD told me to ask her if she would like to read my bible and she said YES. I was stocked first off she understood me ( English) and she could read perfectly. I pulled my NKJV bible out that I carry with me  and opened to Luke 4, I sat with Senanile and she read 2 chapters very slow but with a desire to continue even when she was losing her breath. God told me to give her my bible to keep so I blessed her with the word of the LORD and soon after that I had to depart from the place to die  and on my way back to the house.

            The next day the entire team was doing family ministry as usually and we all decided to go to the hospital. I got to visit most of the mothers that I had seen the day before, I wanted to go see this mother that I had talked to and got to know her a little more than the others and I realized that she was no longer there along with her precious baby. I went to ask the nurse where they were and she told me that the baby had died the night before, which wasn't much of a surprise to me because of the lack of care that they have from the staff which there is not much of. I went on with my day, talking and praying and kissing babies and visiting Senanile again.

            A very awesome thing was when I walked in to see Senanile she was sitting in her bed with a cute little yellow dress on that she had wore the day before and was reading the book of Matthew chapter 7. It was such an encouragement to see someone so young that was in the hospital because she has TB and there is no one to visit her yet she still has strength, hope, and joy. I talked with her a little more and shared some of my heart with her up until it was time to leave.

            My next hospital visit was 2 days later on a Monday, which happened to be my off day. My heart was so yearning for the people at the hospital and the desire to just be there and comfort them was leading me in the direction again for the 3^rd time back to the children's ward. I was again so excited to get to see the babies that I had prayed for and the mothers that where there in the last days that I visited, plus precious Senanile that is always a joy to see her smile light up when she sees me come into her room. I first headed into the rooms with the babies all to come to find out that 2 more babies had died within a day that I didn't go to visit. There was this mother that I had met and  I came to her to say Hi and notice that the one year old child was not doing good at all. He was lying in her arms with his head slanted and his eyes rolling up into his head off and on. At the sight of that I fell on my knees with such pain in my heart and cried out loud to the LORD, I prayed and prayed to GOD for him to do a MIRACLE because honestly that is what this child needed. Well really what can I do other than trust in the LORD and ask him to do the MIGHTY WORKS that HE knows HE can do? Its hard but at the same time GOD was speaking to me a lot during this time and showing me a lot of stuff that has helped me in my walk with him. Eventually I had to leave in order to get home on time before dark but that didn't stop me from feeling the pain or praying to the LORD for him.

            It was one more visit on the next morning right before I was leaving for 5 days for a prayer retreat in Johannesburg that I got to see Senanile and found out that the baby that I was crying over had died. It hurts to see these children in so much pain just laying in beds to die in with no nurse, no actually medical attention other than a DRIP ( ivy bag) and there dedicated moms to stay there in the roach infested hospital. So in 5 days I have not seen but came to the conclusion that 5 babies had died within less than a week of going there. That's more than I have ever heard of back at home happening. Please pray for Swaziland and the people its because of bad choices that some of theses people are in this situation and the children are suffering because of it. There is some good news out of this though. We were heading to Johannesburg on Thursday and my last visit was on Tuesday and one of my leaders came up to me was telling me that she had met Senanile on Wednesday and when she walked into the room  she was in sitting on the floor praying over a little baby boy that apparently has TB as well. It was such a blessing to get to hear that as well as getting to visit her again once I returned from a 5 day trip to find her out of her bed sitting with other patients and to see that baby boy looking incredible much better than the first time I met him. I was touched by what GOD can do when you just BELIEVEin him and the POWERthat is in PRAYER. please continue to prayer for Senanile and the little ones in Swaziland.

            God is so good and  I am so thankful for following the path that He has asked me to take. Jeremiah 29:11 "for I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD, " they are plans for good and not disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

The past 2 weeks have been full of excitement and emotion due to the reality of life here in Swaziland and the things you encounter everyday. To continue with sharing about the high school ministry that I have been involved in the past 2 months, things are going ok. I don't say that with the most enthusiasm but with hope to see much more in the next month that is left with the students at school.

            Since I last wrote I mentioned that my friend Lawrence was unable to go to school because of the fees that they are required to pay, he has been able to go back to school because his mother was able to pay the fees just a few days after getting asked to leave. Praise the LORD!!!!! Thank you for praying for him and his situation. .

            I want to also update you on the BIBLES that I asked for help with. Although I was blessed with a donation for bibles we were still in need of more in order to get enough for all the students at the school so Katie who works with me has brought the offer up to her youth group that she was a leader at and they have decided to help raise funds for some of the bibles, on top of that her dad is going to donate funds for some of the bible. In all we will be getting enough money to buy the bibles and we will be distributing them sometime in the beginning of April.

                        The past 2 weeks have been full of excitement and emotion due to the reality of life here in Swaziland and the things you encounter everyday. To continue with sharing about the high school ministry that I have been involved in the past 2 months, things are going ok. I don't say that with the most enthusiasm but with hope to see much more in the next month that is left with the students at school.

            Since I last wrote I mentioned that my friend Lawrence was unable to go to school because of the fees that they are required to pay, he has been able to go back to school because his mother was able to pay the fees just a few days after getting asked to leave. Praise the LORD!!!!! Thank you for praying for him and his situation. .

            I want to also update you on the BIBLES that I asked for help with. Although I was blessed with a donation for bibles we were still in need of more in order to get enough for all the students at the school so Katie who works with me has brought the offer up to her youth group that she was a leader at and they have decided to help raise funds for some of the bibles, on top of that her dad is going to donate funds for some of the bible. In all we will be getting enough money to buy the bibles and we will be distributing them sometime in the beginning of April.

            We recently had a bible study last Wednesday on SAUL/PAUL and there were quite a few students that came to that and it was very successful. So now every Wednesday during sports we will be doing a study on Paul's life, I look forward to what's to come with that and for the students to soon have their bibles when we do bible study. Please pray for the bible study and that the door stays open up until April 18^th, which is when the semester breaks for them.

            I just went over to the school ( last Thursday) and I came to find out that Career Guidance has been taken off of the time table so there is no longer a spot in the schedule for us to teach. I was shocked to hear the news because it just happened over night and it was unexpected. I am going to meet with the vice principal tomorrow and see if there is something we can work out, such as doing a bible study during lunch and getting confirmation on the bible study I mentioned that we do on Wednesday to see if we can still continue to do so.

            So when I say that we have been hitting some rocky times in the high school ministry this semester, I really do mean some BIG rocks that seem to continuously being thrown in our way. Now I had a conversation with Katie when we found out that it was cancelled and she mentioned to me that all week every time Kristen and she would go to do ministry at other high schools while I stayed at Roads Park that something was cancelled. She's absolutely right every day something changes and so we are definitely seeking the Lord in this and asking him to give us wisdom and discernment in our choices, judgment and anything that we are coming across so that we know how to better prepare ourselves.

            Sometimes when doors open and close and you think that it is the LORD and others think that it may be Satan. Is God closing the door at Roads Park? Because HE accomplished what HE has desired for them in that season. Or is it the ENEMY trying to keep us from bringing the word of the LORD to these amazing students? Well, there is my prayer request that you can lift up to the LORD for me!!!!!

Continue to open and close doors

Wisdom and discernment

A right heart

Patience/humility (with team and Swazi men)

Spiritual growth (growing everyday - especially during my quiet time in the morning)

The Swazi team

Safety (so far so good- GODS HAND IS UPON ME)

Health (I'm doing good)