"Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.”- 1 John 5:12

Over the last few months I’ve been a part of a missionary ladies Bible study in Manzini. We’ve been reading through the book of 1st John and discussing it each week. This Bible study is a breath of fresh air for me, and it is life giving! It’s so wonderful to meet with other foreigner ladies, hear their testimonies of what God is doing in their lives, and be a part of a community that’s so easy to relate to. Lately life has just been going at full speed and doesn’t seem to stop, and it’s been hard. I was so encouraged this week as I read from 1 John 5:12, reminding me that I HAVE LIFE BECAUSE I HAVE THE SON! Sometimes I am so discouraged because I live away from family, my mom isn’t around to help when the baby is sick, I’m not there for the birth of my nieces and nephews, and life in Africa is just extra hard sometimes. But while I was reading 1 John this week I was encouraged that my life is full, and lacking nothing, because I know Jesus.

God has been so good to us, and we have lots of things to be thankful for! When we first got back from the States, I was really worried about going back to work because I didn’t have a babysitter to watch Simo while I was working. Through some of the missionary ladies at work, I found out about Zodwa, who lives in a small town close to my work place. I’ve been able to pick her up on the way to work, then she watches Simo at my work place.  She is wonderful, and Simo absolutely adores her!

Simo and Zodwa

We’re thankful for the jobs that God has given us. Mapile was really busy in October and November wrapping up the school year at the Bible College. There was also a missions team here from Pennsylvania that came to do Pastor's Camp at the Bible College, as well as other ministry. Pastor's camp happens the week of graduation, and all the alumni are invited to services and seminars at the Bible College. 

I've also kept busy out at Project Canaan, where we now have 174 kids!

Mapile translating for the Bob Croft at Pastor's Camp 

Mapile translating for Angel (Part of the missions team) at Mphosi Church, the church we used to pastor when we were first married

Simo and I were busy in the back of the church while the service was going on at Mphosi

Simo playing with Ed, one of the members of the team

The Bible College had graduation on November 4^th, and there were 5 students that graduated. It was a fun time of celebrating with them as they accomplished their 3 year diploma. Mapile had plenty to do through that season, trying to keep up with all that goes into graduation and students leaving campus.

The five graduates

Simo at Graduation - you can see Mapile sitting up on the stage if you look closely

Shortly after graduation, we were able to switch houses on the Bible School Campus! We had been staying in an upstairs 4 room flat (bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living area), and we got to move to a house that is bigger – it has 5 rooms (an office, 2 bedrooms, bathroom, and combined kitchen/living room). It’s been so great because now Simo has her own bedroom! She is sleeping better than she ever has before, and that means we are also sleeping better than we have in the past YEAR!

The new house!

Mapile standing in our driveway/car port

Simo in her bedroom while we were getting settled

We're also thankful for the church family that God has given us. We have been attending Liberty Church in Manzini, a new church plant. We've loved being involved there and having a church family to connect with. 

Mapile often plays a part in the service, either speaking for the welcoming time, or offering, or a prayer time..

Oh yeah, that’s right, Simo also turned ONE YEAR OLD on Nov 1st! She is such a joy to our family, always keeping us busy and making us laugh. She finally figured out how to crawl at around 11 months. She recently started pulling herself up to a standing position. She’s not interested in walking at this point, because crawling is still so much fun! She loves music, dancing, and clapping. She’s got some rhythm already (which I’m sure is from her Dad, as I have none!).

Simo on her first Birthday

She often gets herself stuck in awkward situations

We’re also thankful that God has helped us to raise some finances to help with extra costs of things like fencing our land, car stuff, and saving for travel expenses. If you’re interested in helping to support us go to https://www.thecause.org/partners/the-vilakati-journey/.

In other news, we do live in Africa, and after we moved to this new house I started getting a lot of bug bites! They were definitely not mosquito bites, and we kept wondering what they were… until we figured out that they were eggs from a putzi fly!! This is disgusting, but the fly lays eggs in wet clothes while they are on the clothes line, and when you wear the clothes the eggs burrow into your skin and hatch into small larvae worms. While this is extremely gross, I’m encouraged that we know what the bites are, how to prevent them (making sure clothes are properly dried), how to treat them, that it’s nothing serious as far as sickness goes, and so far Simo and Mapile have been free of them. I’ll spare you the pictures on this one. 

Thanks for your continued prayers. We really appreciate them!

Praises:

-          For Zodwa, our wonderful babysitter for Simo

-          For our new, bigger house

-          For God’s abundant provision in our lives

Prayer Requests:

-          Homesickness – I’ve been missing my family a lot lately

-          Health – besides my putzi fly issues, Simo has also been more sick lately than usual with fevers and feeling miserable

-          Settling into our new home – it’s a lot of work to move! We are still sorting through things and figuring out how to put our house together

-          That we’d live our lives in a way that pleases the Lord! It’s so good to know Him!

Here we are visiting at the Fakudze's house - Mr Fakudze is the principal of the Bible college

We went to a harvest party for Halloween, and Simo just happened to have this cute outfit!

Driving lessons

Christmas decorations have been up for a month now (at least!) in the malls, thought we haven't decorated for Christmas yet! 

“Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts" - 1 John 5:21

The Vilakati Journey

So we came back to Swaziland at the end of August, and to say that we have hit the ground running would be an understatement. We arrived in Swaziland on a Friday evening, and the following Monday we both went back to work. Mapile started teaching a New Testament course at the Bible College, and I dove back into nursing care of the children at Project Canaan (where we currently have 164 children).

A week after we got back, four kids from Gogo’s (Grandma’s) house came to stay with us for a week. We weren’t exactly ready to have four children staying with the three of us in our already one bedroom apartment, but we knew we needed to help out our family. Two days after dropping them off at Gogo’s house, our car broke down. Some type of problem with the gear box. We aren’t sure how long it will take to get fixed.

Our car getting towed

 Why am I giving you all these details? Well, for awhile now Mapile and I have been watching our income and expenses, and seeing how things just aren’t adding up. We make enough money through our jobs to cover our expenses of rent, groceries, electricity, gas (petrol), help with a few needs of our family and friends, but we don’t have room for things like unexpected car expenses, starting to build a fence around our new property, saving for a trip to visit America every few years, etc.

All the while we have known since we got married that God has given Mapile a vision for his home down in Mbutfu. When Mapile first became a Christian, God placed it on his heart to go back to the place where he was raised, and help to make a difference in that community. The vision that God gave Mapile is to build a community center that can be a place for youth to go and get tutoring, have access to more resources, play sports, and be encouraged/discipled along the way. We are still in the very beginning “grassroots” stage of this ministry, but we both know that the Lord has given us a special burden for this place of Mapile’s upbringing.

We have partnered with an organization called The Cause to help us in the area of support raising. The Cause is an organization that helps keep us financially accountable and provides a way for you to give that is tax-deductible. We are actually totally set up now through The Cause to start receiving financial donations! Our goal is to raise $3500 a month in monthly donations.

The money we raise will go towards:

-          Building a fence around our new property

-          Starting to build our own house

-          Saving for a reliable car

-          Travel to and from the ministry site

-          Process of getting land for the community center

-          Internet service

-          Emergency fund

-          Sabbatical travel expenses (visiting family/friends in America)

 

We’re inviting you to become a part of The Vilakati Journey with us. If you have more questions or want other details, please feel free to contact us via facebook inbox or our email at thevilakatis@gmail.com. If you can also just be patient with us, we don’t have internet at our house currently, so bear with us as we deal with that issue.

If you are interested in supporting us go to https://www.thecause.org/partners/the-vilakati-journey/.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers too!

-          Pray for the Lord’s provision in our lives as we take this new step of Faith

-          Pray for God’s continued strength and wisdom to face the various challenges and situations that come up on a daily basis here.

-          Pray for our family, that God would protect us and keep us focused on Him.

At Gogo's house, where the kids stay and where Mapile grew up. Simo loves watching the animals (which are mostly chickens and cats)

Simo with two of the kids from Gogo's who were staying with us

Playing with her toys in her tiny play pin

“May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.” – Psalm 90:17

Visit to the US

We are rounding up the end of our 6 week trip to the US to visit family. This has been a very fun and refreshing trip, and it came at such a great time for Mapile and I. It had been two years since I had been to the States, and it's been so wonderful getting to see my friends and family! If you have traveled over seas much, you can imagine it's also been an emotional roller coaster for us (especially me) - so many feelings of: happy to see family, missing things about Swaziland, overwhelmed about all the stuff in America, uncertainty about the future, excited to experience more of America with Mapile, exhausted keeping up with a 8-9 month old through jet lag and different schedules each day... Yes, roller coaster of emotions for sure.

My entire immediate family

We were able to connect with my entire immediate family while being in the States. We took a camping trip out to Idaho, where we also met up with a lot of extended family. We camped up there for 7 days, with a 3 day drive there and back! On the way to Idaho we drove up to Minnesota so stay with my brother Matt and his family, and we stayed there for a few days before driving all the way to the camp site in Idaho. It was so nice to be with family, but very tiring as you can imagine camping with a baby. It was a neat experience for Mapile because he got to go on excursions with the other guys and ride on four wheelers and motorcycles into the mountains where they all went fishing. Mapile learned how to fly fish in the mountains of Leadore, Idaho. He also touched snow for the first time! I spent most of my days at the camp with other ladies, which was fun because I spent a lot of time with my mom, sisters in law, and nieces and nephews. I also soaked up the time I got to spend time with Simo, just resting in the hammock together, taking naps in the tent, or going for walks with her in the baby carrier.

Mapile fishing

Mapile and Nathan

Scroll down for more Idaho photos...

After coming back from Idaho, we have been staying with my brother Nathan and his family in Marion, IN. We have been busy doing stuff like getting my name changed on my US documents, shopping for stuff to take back to Swaziland with us, catching up with friends from the area, and continuing to spend time with our precious family.

Summer fun with cousin Caleb

Mapile with our nephew Isaiah in their Zambian soccer jerseys

Mapile learning how to ride a dirt bike in the field by my brother's house

We are also in the exciting and beginning new stages of raising a base of supporters for a ministry God has called us to do in the southern part of Swaziland! We have partnered with an organization called The Cause to help us in the fundraising aspect and financial accountability aspect of mission work. You can check out www.thecause.org and click on The Vilakati Journey under "Partners" to see more. We'll also be talking a lot more about this in the weeks and months to come.

We fly out this Wednesday to go back to Swaziland, and we'll arrive back there this Friday. We are excited to get back to our home, but also a little anxious as we will both hit the ground running. We both go back to work on Monday, August 28th. Mapile will start teaching his New Testament class that day, and I'll drive out to Project Canaan with Simo to start back with the kiddos again.

Please keep us in your prayers:

- Pray for our travels and transition back to Swaziland

- Pray that the Lord would continue to guide us as we follow hard after him - particularly in the journey of starting to raise some financial support

- Pray for us as we handle the emotions of leaving family again, and all that goes with that

- Pray that God would protect our family and help us to grow spiritually

On the way to Idaho!

Simo went swimming for the first time at a hotel on the way to Idaho, and she loved it!

Check out that morning face!

Mapile with our nieces, Amelia, Audrey, and Annabelle

My 3 brothers, and our family friends, Silas and Stephanie Clark

 

 
 
 

Simo with Jeanne Argot, a dear friend of mine from my time at IWU

 Simo with Melissa Jo, a friend from Brookhaven Wesleyan Church in Marion

At my Alma Mater!

Lily and Maribeth - these are two friends I lived with in college.

We got to spend a long afternoon together during this trip.

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." - Hebrews 11:13-16