Starting work

We got two "home chickens" from a visit to some of our church members.

February 15th was Mapile and my 6 month wedding anniversary. I don’t know how the days keep flying by, but it seems like the longer we are married, the faster it goes.

February started a lot of new things for Mapile and I. School opened up at the Bible College, so Mapile has been busy with all the things that come with his responsibilities as a staff member like teaching, doing the librarian work, helping plan social and sport activities, and anything else that he is asked to help with. We also have a discipleship group with several of the students from the Bible College that meet at our house on Wednesday evenings. We are excited about our discipleship group because we have often talked about wanting to have a Bible study in our home, and now we have a great opportunity to do that. It’s really nice to have the student’s back on campus. Mapile likes to play soccer and volleyball with the guys on Wednesday afternoons, and occasionally in the evenings. Also, the Bible College has a ping pong table and a pool table, which has been a great way to hang out and play games together.

I started working on February 2^nd at a private clinic in Manzini that’s about a 30 minute drive from where we stay. I work in the outpatient/ER department. Most of the time I sit in my little triage room, and when the patients check in at reception I can see their names pop up on my computer, so then I get to call them in to take their vital signs. You might think that’s an easy task, until you call people’s names like, “Nonhlanhla Ndlangamandla,”or worse, a name with a “c” or “x,” which makes the clicking noise. I have to break social norms sometimes and use first names because I’m too intimidated to try the last names. Other times both names are so intimidating that I just have to take a deep breath and try my best to pronounce it phonetically. 

When we have emergency cases, we have a little casualty room where we see to them. We also use that room to prepare patients that the doctors are admitting or to give patients IV/IM injections.

In the four weeks I have worked, I sure have learned a lot of things. Healthcare is really different here, and I don’t even know where to begin telling you about all the differences. It’s certainly a big learning curve, but the Lord has helped me in countless ways. It’s certainly different working at a private clinic because we only see patients who have insurance, or who can pay cash for our medical care. While it is somewhat hard to work for a business, I keep feeling like the Lord is telling me that this is a training ground, where I am learning so much about healthcare in Swaziland. I believe that the stuff I am learning at this clinic will be so helpful for our future. I work from 7am-5pm, and around 190 hours per month.

In the car going to work on my first day at the new job. 

Mapile and I continue to pastor the small Wesleyan church at Mphosi. We have been working on getting a building for the church because now the church is made from wooden poles and corrugated iron. We haven’t made much progress on the building though, because the community leaders in the area haven’t given the final decision to let us go ahead and build yet. So we keep waiting and praying for the go-ahead to keep building so that the church can have a real building. With all of the responsibilities that Mapile has at the school, we have decided to resign from pastoring at the Mphosi church. However, since there is still no other pastors available now to take Mapile's place, we plan to stay with the church until another pastor is found. 

One of the little kids at church snoozing up in the front of the church during the service. 

In other news, Mapile got his driving license this month! It was quite an interesting and difficult process. There is no written test that he had to take, but he had to go to the police station and have an oral test with a police officer. He passed the oral test and the driving test on the first try, which many people are not able to do! It's been really exciting for him to be able to drive, and I'm certainly enjoying not always having to be the one who drives us everywhere. 

We had these two stay with us for a week back in January. Sithembiso, the little guy next to me, is one of Mapile's cousins. Skuta, the one next to Mapile, is a friend of ours who is still finishing high school. 

I came home from work the other day and stopped to remember how beautiful this place is where we live. This picture does absolutely no justice to the view out of my front door... but it's all I have for now to share with you all. 

We really appreciate your prayers. The pace of our lives has picked up a lot. I'm certainly not accustomed to working this much, and I've felt quite exhausted. I think part of it is that the transition from having no job for over 6 months, to working 50 hours a week is really tough. The Lord continues to be faithful to us in so many ways. We continue to be so thankful for His presence in our lives. A few weeks ago we prayed that the Lord would give us opportunities to share about Him with others. Soon after we prayed that, Mapile had an opportunity to share about Christ with a lady who was at his driving school. Then I also had an opportunity to share God's plan of salvation with one of my coworkers. 

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever." - Psalm 136:1-2.
We are so thankful that the Lord does not change - He is the same, and His faithful love endures forever.