Greetings from Manzini, Swaziland!  The Lord has been at work big time this week.  Last week I was team leader of the house.  It's amazing the change that has happened in me since the Lord removed the people pleasing attitude in me.  For the first time in my life I can say that I am only serving the one who sent me to Swaziland.  I have struggled with people pleasing most of my life, and it seemed to only get worse as I came back to Swaziland for the second semester.  Two weeks ago the Pastor I was working with, Pastor Gift, prayed that God would push that mountain out of my life.  God has been faithful to that prayer!  Praise God!  It was amazing to be our team's leader and to be obedient to the ways God was calling me to lead the team.  If there were complaints and gripes about too many meetings it didn't bother me at all.  I was obedient to God this week, and he has been teaching me many things in my walk with Him.  I encourage y'all this week to pray like that against the mountains you face.  In just a few powerful words that mountain will be cast into the sea and out of your life.  Whatever you're going through remember God will be faithful to His promise to forgive us if we confess our sings.  God will be faithful to His promise to welcome us back like the prodigal son.  Because God is faithful at the core of His being, He can't do anything different without denying who He is.  In John 1:1 it is written that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  In Strong Enough to Be a Man, Tim Riter writes that faithfulness is keeping our word, following through on commitments, being reliable, not changing every moment, based on the current trend or what's to our advantage.  If we believe what the bible says we read that the Word was God.  God is the creator of faithfulness, and you better believe anything that's in that book he'll be faithful too.  Remember that as you're praying!  Don't doubt God's power and authority.  He'll surprise you.

God is transforming my life more and more as I seek Him day to day!  Through ministry, my quiet times, and spending time in our community God is planting in me things of his character.  Lately I've been studying God's faithfulness and gentleness.  Lately God's been challenging to always look for the value in people.  It helps in my strive to put faithfulness to action in my life.  When we see little value in people our commitments to them become less important.  I want to be a man that is faithful because God is faithful not because other people find it important, only because it is a fruit I inherited when he changed my heart for Him.  Gentleness is another character of God I've been spending a lot of time looking into.  I used to look at gentleness as weakness.  The Greek word for gentleness is "humility."  With humility we're able to deal with pride and self-absorption.  I heard a great description of faithfulness I want to share.  Gentleness is a God-given strength to control our attitudes and actions so we can deal with people according to their needs, not according to our own weakness."  Perfect example of gentleness happened just last night. 

A drunk man and woman were walking home in front of our house last night, and the man was beating the woman.  Natural reaction would be to cut this man down like tall grass.  All 4 of us guys went out to deal with the matter.  It took every bit of gentleness in me to not destroy this fellow, and same with the other guys.  We prayed together after the incident and realized that we handled the situation to their needs.  We sent the man on his way letting him no that it was only the grace of God that spared him from the same beating he dished out to the woman, and encouraged him to never touch a woman like that again.  The woman stayed at our house last night, and we comforted her and prayed for her.  What a lesson in gentleness…..praise God!  Psalm 37:11 says, "The meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace."  Isaiah 42:1-4 says, "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.  He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice on the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.  In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.  A couple other verses I was looking into were 1 Corinthians 4:21, Galatians 6:1, 2 Timothy 2:23-25.

The farm was busy and getting greener this week.  I went to a meeting with my boss on Tuesday to further discuss the problems not getting fixed.  I had not met with the father Larry yet, but it was nice that I have worked on the farm for over 2 months now.  He asked me a lot of questions about the farm, and it was good to be able to answer them.  I had the favor of the Lord on my side, meaning that the meeting went really well.  We didn't get everything figured out, but Robert and I will be meeting with him again sometime next week.  On Wednesday I was back in the field.  We planted around 6,000 onions.  I worked with Robert on fixing the clogged irrigation hoses, and we irrigated the spinach and onions for a few hours.  Thursdays we planted the other 6,000 onions and transplanted about 500 spinach plants that were big enough to move to another field.  Friday another AIM team came to my farm.  They have been coming for the last 3 weeks.  We weeded the spinach, and celebrated afterwards by roasting corn on the cob.  It is so good, however sweet corn is much better. 

The conversations this week continued to glorify the Lord.  Robert was really down about things going on at the farm, and the Lord used me to lift his spirit up and reassure him that God was testing us in new ways to grow.  Sanele had a crazy story to tell me.  On Friday as you know I invited him to a teaching we were having.  When he left he went back to hang out with some friends.  He said he felt something inside him telling him to share Christ with his friends.  He testified to me that he fought with everything in him to keep quiet, but the power of the Lord triumphed.  He shared God with his friends.  I was amazed at the story, and I am patiently awaiting the celebration that awaits when Sanele's heart is fully changed for the Kingdom.  I know it will be soon.  Please be praying about it.  I hope what the Lord is teaching me and that these words have been encouraging to you.  May the Lord meet you where you are on your walk with Him.  Have a blessed week.