Thursday, November 6 - Arrival in Johannesburg

Christopher and I arrived in Johannesburg on time. Good flight on South Africa Airlines, nice plane an Airbus 340/600. Even though we were delayed from leaving Charlotte because somebody had overloaded  the cargo. It was a smaller plane to Dulles from Charlotte.  It may  have been our  eight 50-pound duffel bags of shoes:) Nevertheless, all eight bags made it to Johannesburg. We moved through emigration and customs in record time. They did want to know about the shoes and wanted to see some paperwork. I used the updated paper I put together from the Brazil trip, rewriting the donation letter with the Swaziland ministry instead. They wanted to see the notary stamp more than the page from the State of North Carolina, Secretary of State seal, go figure. I think what caught their attention was the pile of four large duffel bags each. The Brazilian team should be fine carrying two each. One customs official particularly like our work and gave me a couple of places in Swaziland where they knew had great needs.

The Airport Game Lodge is a good choice in places to stay, especially for teams. It is very close to the airport. It took them maybe fifteen minutes to pick us and our bags up from the airport. The ride back to the game lodge was quick, even in rush hour. There are several areas on the grounds to have team fellowship and food.

We ordered delivery and had a great meal for reasonable prices. They said it would take about an hour and a half to get the food delivered, but we got ours in under 45 minutes. The food was great and it was very convenient and nice having dinner onsite.

Pray that the Brazilian team has as easy a time getting in country as we did! Our transportation will pick us up first thing in the morning and we will then ride to the airport to get the rest of the team. We will then drive to Swaziland.

Friday, November 7 - Johannesburg to Swaziland

The Brazilian team arrived this morning and made it through customs. We loaded the bus and left for Swaziland. We stopped in a couple of places to fuel, eat and rest. We had a good Brazilian meal in a mall an hour from Swaziland. The passing through the border was made easy by our bus driver, Elliot. Elliot brought us to the lodge near Mbabane. Swaziland is mountainous, the temperature is pleasant. It  is a very nice place and surprisingly clean. The people seen very pleasant and peaceful. It still doesn't hide the poverty. We ended the day with a team meeting and prayer.  The lodge is very well-suited for teams.

Saturday, November 8 - Communications

My cell phone won't be working again until we get to Mozambique. The internet had not been working at the Airport Game Lodge since June. At the Willows Game Lodge in Swaziland, they don't have wireless yet, but they did just get their internet restored to service as of today. The office wasn't open when we got back from the two shoe distributions. I hope to send my emails out Sunday morning when the office opens.

We had two shoe distributions at nearby churches. We had about 150 children and adults at the first and about 60 children at the second. The team did a good job with the footwashing. Dianne did a wonderful job with Bible Club presentation. She did it in English and some Portuguese and it was translated into Swazi. We used only the English speakers as footwashers and also used interpreters to translate into Swazi. We ate quickly at each church, as they insisted on feeding us. It was raining on and off most of the day. It was hard to keep the shoes dry as we only have an open trailer for the shoes. Peter made two trips to the container to get two dozen cases of the adult shoes. We were still needing to use the smaller sizes out of them. At the end of the day, we had returned in a heavy rain and needed to move all of the shoes to a porch in the dark. Since we had eaten at the church and every one was exhausted, it was time for bed. After these two outreaches and working with the Peter and the local pastors, it is very apparent that we need to return to Swaziland soon. This is an area that has been overlooked.

Sunday, November 9 - No access to internet yet and no phones in the room.
 
The time difference makes it hard to call when you have the time in the morning. We will be going to church this morning at Peter's international church. The plan is to head to Maputo, Mozambique after we have church and can break some of the cases of shoes into extra bags, it will be a full load. If we can get on our way by noon, we should be alright with travel time and border crossing. The hope is to arrive around 4:00 pm at Iris Ministries, Zimpeto base. I haven't had a chance yet to debrief the team on the two outreaches on Saturday. We left the lists of names from the churches with Peter. I will talk to each footwasher to get a better accounting of  decisions.

Continue to pray for us as we head into a full week of ministry.

Wednesday, November 12

The Mozambique Team was divided into two groups for today's projects, of which there are four.

Team One:

9:00 am, Iris Base Clinic - Wednesday is a medical clinic day for the community. Pro Health set up shop and saw 45 patients. The dentist did a number of cleanings and 3 extractions. While the people were waiting, we did the footwashing and shoe distribution. It was a surprise to them and they were amazed at the blessing.

11:45 am - Left for the Iris base in Machava. We had a Pro Health doctor and dentist go along here as well. the had thirty five patients and the dentist did an amazing 8 extractions. In the sanctuary we did the foot washing for another 180 people.

Team Two:

9:00 am, Iris Base Sanctuary - Bible Club presentation.  Footwashing and flip-flops for 90 kids.

12:30 pm, Pastor Edwardo's Church - 115 people.

Somehow we have been able to not have to turn to many people away. The crowds have been pretty controlled even with so many different types of venues.

Tomorrow we will be leaving to go to a village about an hour or so away. We will be going as a full team. We are completely out of sizes 4 through 7, but we hope to finish strong and everyone is still focused and joyful. We will be up early again in the morning.

Thursday, November 13 - Everyone is still doing very well.

We got on the road today about 8:30 am to go to a village about an hour and a half away. We took everything we had. We did a major outdoor presentation in the small village of Gumbase, in the middle of nowhere.  The village had three or four wells and all of them, but one, had a broken pump. The well that works is very shallow and salty. We brought our own water and donated the extra barrels of water to the village.  We were afraid that no one would come to the presentation due to the rain. In this area, when it rains it is a big deal for two reasons; 1) it is when they plant and work the ground and 2) they collect the water in the muddy puddles and then filter it though cloth to use it. The rain held back and the villagers came to the service. The local dialect is Shangana so everything was translated even from Portuguese. We had 180 people and we were able to do about 140 with shoes. The clinic did about 85 patients, but could have done all 180 people. Every person wanted to see the doctors. They just didn't get much care in this remote area. The dentist didn't have the same problem, many wanted to see him, but they got scared and changed their minds. He still did about 4 extractions. We got back to Maputo early enough to do some souvenir shopping. The vendors were so desperate that they nearly attacked you with their wares. It was the worst hounding I had ever seen. You couldn't hardly make it into your vehicle to leave. The Brazilians were up to the challenge and managed to make some good purchases!

It should be noted that it rained every day and night so far, but it never interrupted a ministry time. God is good!

We closed the week with a Thursday night service. It started out as their usual powerful worship time where every one comes to the altar/stage to worship in singing and dancing. It had a very African/Mozambiquen flavor - needless to say, very energetic.  We were then called forward to do our presentation and then given a gift each of a capalana (African Dress - wrap). The women use these as both a dress and to carry everything or a baby. We were then prayed over like never before and it became a very emotional time for the team and the local ministry leaders. We went back to our meeting room and had time to share, again emotional. The Brazilians adopted Christopher (my son), gave him a Brazil soccer shirt and told him how much they appreciated him, his attitude and hard work. One after the other loved on him.  I was amazed and  deeply moved. Chris shared his testimony. He said he had given up on God and felt that he didn't deserve to be on this trip. He said that God had found him in Mozambique! He rededicated his life to Christ. I saw a big change in him at the Monday morning service and footwashing of the fourth-year bible school students.

Needless to say, I'm overjoyed to have my son back!

We leave in a couple of hours for Kruger Park (4:30 am).

Friday, November 14

The morning started out with a very hard rain. The driver didn't show up the night before as was the planned. He finally arrived at 6 am. He decided to stay with family. We got on the way and made it through the border and arrived at Kruger Park at 9:30 am. At 10:00 am, the skies cleared and we had a great time. Almost immediately, we started seeing animals, including many of the big five. The rain had cooled things down and the animals were active later. All in all, it turned out to be perfect timing. We checked into the chalets and they were very nice. We had a good dinner and did souvenir shopping. The team had a fantastic time.

Saturday, November 15

We got on the safari early and put in a couple of hours before breakfast. This is a beautiful park! After a few more hours, we finished and left the park for Johannesburg.

Sunday, November 16

This morning, the Brazilian team left for the airport. Chris and I will be heading for Zambia in the morning.

One of the team from Brazil left their laptop in one of the safari jeeps. I have been trying to contact the tour guide, a good mission-minded Christian. Her phone has been off, so I will keep trying. Hopefully she can find it and send it out via FedEx. Many people had put their photos on his computer and had erased their storage cards for reuse.

Keep praying!

Bruce Bodman
Director of International Missions Projects
Samaritan's Feet International