Shop Your Closet for Swazi!

We are in need of gently-used children's clothing - sizes 3T to XL (14 or 16). No socks, shoes or underwear please. Deliver to Capital Church (1010 East 700 South, SLC) by March 22nd.

Yesterday I went shopping. I had a precious hour to find a few things. I survived the typical, horribly-lit dressing room which prevents, by my estimation, at least another thirty percent in store sales annually. I eventually found more than I planned to purchase. More, of course, than I needed. Got home, brought my new threads up to my closet and found myself with a problem. Hangers. See, I have a rule. In order to hang up something new, I need an empty hanger - and no new hangers are allowed. With my hangers taken, something has to be donated. What ever is a girl to do. For the second time that day, it was time to start shopping.

This May, the 2014 Swaziland Mission Team will be bringing thousands of pounds of carefully chosen supplies to our Mkhombokati friends. Part of that poundage is a "new" outfit for each of the 200 kids it's our privilege to serve. Swazi-style shopping doesn't involve tags that need to be ripped off. Instead, new = gently used. And gladly, sadly, madly ... I have plenty of that. So, I shopped my closet for Nokwanda and Anita and Dora and Sihle and Zama, among others. I could just picture them, showing up at the Carepoint the day after they receive these outfits, strolling through the gates and up the Swazi-style catwalk with lowered eyes and sly smiles, clothed in their version of "new" -- and in the strength and dignity we are promised.

My old becoming their new.

Doesn't that somehow sound like what I hope for my heart? That my old becomes His new? "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

Sitting among empty hangers, I know I can't buy what I really want to wear. Money is of no use. I just want to get dressed in a way that pleases God.

Hello, my name is...

Friends, we are just months away. In some ways that's an eternity. Forever to step foot on the ground at the carepoint and see the trampled dirt against the vibrant African sky. Forever to look curiously at a child as he quizzically investigates just who and/or what you are. Forever to run with, laugh with, play with, and embrace those kiddos. And on the other hand, just months away seems more like moments than months. Just moments to gather donations, purchase supplies, and pack them all into massive duffle bags on the verge of bursting, but still within the 'recommended' weight allowance. Just mere moments to plan activities, develop crafts, and master playful and occasionally humiliating hand motions. Just moments, and yet so distant.

It is a joy, to live in the anticipation of what is to come while embracing the chaos of what is. It's fun. It's exciting. To interact with fourteen other people, moving in and out of committees, working together as one, and growing individually.

Our team is in full swing now. No more learning names. We know each other now. Now, amongst the tasks and checklists we are learning how to laugh with each other. We are learning how to help each other, to interact with each other and how to love one another, so we can love Mkhombokati more... together.

This team will leave Capital, travel half-way across the globe to interact and build relationship with a community that is very much a part of our own right here in Salt Lake City. And you, Capital, Mkhombokati, world, should know who we are and why we are doing all this. Who the ambassadors of this community are.

Check out the team and our biographies here. As you read about us, who we are, why we are going, what we hope to see and do, please, if you feel led, pray for us and continue to pray for us over the next few months as we prepare, go, and return. Pray for our health and safety. Pray for our energy and strength. Pray for the logistics and preparations. Pray for our unity. Pray for our special friends in Mkhombokati. Pray for the missionaries and D-Team. Pray that God would be alive and thriving in and amongst all of us and that love, God's love, would prevail in and through us.

Thanks friends. Grace and Peace.