wow!

So . . . I think I have been too addicted to facebook as my means to keep connected! I have totally neglected to take the time to write down experiences and life as I live it! We have officially been back in Swaziland one year now, amazing! Experiencing some of the things that have been accomplished in the past few months are truly amazing. We had a handful of teams here this winter (American summer), and were truly blessed as they all put wind in our sails in different ways. Encouraging, just having some other Americans to connect with. Blessed, by all three teams in amazing ways! Overwhelmed, as we began to see some of the dreams that we have had come to life in front of our eyes. As for ministry we have continued with regional trainings for our churches in teaching, and equipping them on how to work with kids and providing for them some basic tools to get started. We held our first National Children's Rally in August expecting 200-300 kids and registered over 750! Amazing day for us! As for the family. . . Kylea and Kaden are finishing their third term of school and are on the countdown for Dec. 4, the last day of school before Summer and Christmas break! Kylea was selected as the only second grade girl for the cross country team! Carsten is currently potty training and doing well I might add. "Wee" trained after day 2 and dry upon waking up from naps and in the morning! Now just for #2, we are getting there though! He made his first successful deposit this morning! HA! Doug and I are doing great, we are enjoying making our house more a home, which helps in the kind of lifestyle we live, moving back and forth, everything seems so temporary sometimes, which can be pretty hard. I am still organizing all of the Kids ministries at the International Church here, baby thru age 12 and teaching one of the classes. Also have a Wed. morning bible study I lead in my home with 18+/- ladies! I hope to do more teaching, but for now that is what I feel God has for me with keeping my hubby and kids my priority first! Pics from a recent team, thanks! Tasha

IC (International Church) Kids Church

Another great day in church for sure!! My favorite part of church has always been worship. I think if I could have asked the Lord for a gift, that would be it, an amazing voice and talent of leading worship (it skipped me and landed on my bro. instead I guess!). I still do lead with the kids though, and I love it. I love singing, dancing, and especially teaching them about worship. Something I learned when Doug was an associate under Pastor Brian Dolleman was that there are only two times we worship, 1. when we feel like it, and 2. when we don't feel like it. I love teaching this to the kids in detail and how to and why we worship. It is such a passion of mine I guess. I have caught myself actally this week in the mornings going outside to do my devotions and taking my i-pod. I made a favorite worship playlist and blast it. I began singing and thought that I will probably disturb someone so headed to the back by the swing and waterfall to cover some of my "joyful noise". I was listening to the music pretty loudly and had no clue what I sounded like nor how loud I was. Later Doug mentioned to me that I must have been enjoying myself because he could hear me from the bathroom while brushing his teeth! Oh, well hope the bible college students enjoyed it as we are only
separated by the dunga/small ravine.

I thought you might enjoy some of the fruits of my passion as I do. The first pic is of Samkaliso, our bible college intern we are training under us for kids ministry. The next are a few of our kids in church worshiping.

our home

dining room looking into the kitchen and back patio

Ok so some of our family and friends keep asking what our home looks like over here...well very "Americanized"! We have brought most of our furniture and stuff from the states thanks to containers! We were approved to retile and recarpet upon our return, which was a huge blessing. It is amazing how healthy we have been this term. I know part of that had to do with the "nasty" carpet that had been here for over 15 years. Doug has been doing a lot of "fix it" stuff and still has a lot to do. The missions house is 20 years old and no one had ever really taken care of it or done any up keep on it. So thanks to my handy hubby, he is doing most of it, in his spare time, which means not much lately!

kitchen looking on to back patio

our bedroom looking toward front of the house

kylea's room

So, on the way home from school yesterday I was asking the kids about their day and what they did. Kaden piped up and was telling me how they talked about what their parents did. So I asked him what he said. He began to inform me of what other people said that their parents did and then proceeded to say that "I told my class that daddy is a pastor and my mommy does nothing!" I began to laugh as from the eyes of a kid, I do not have a "job" outside the house. We talked about it at dinner with daddy and we all had a good laugh. Doug then begin to build my confidence as he started asking Kaden, "who got up and got you ready? Who made your lunch? Who watches Carsten while you are at school? Who gets kids church, the nursery and 3-5's class ready for Sunday?, etc.". I was feeling pretty good after that.

I love the innocence of a child, most of the time! So brutally honest!

Kylea came home on Monday after team swimming and was pretty sad. I guess they had try outs for the teams for the swimming gala on the 20th of February. She got in the car very sad and kind of teary and began to tell me that only she and one other boy out of all of the second graders did not make it. Than she began to cry as she said that they informed them infront of everyone. My heart broke. Dealing with rejection once again, but through my little girl. I wanted to fight, but knew this was a great teaching moment for her.

I struggled to believe her at first because while in the states she was in swim lessons and at age 7 was one of the younger kids at a higher level, swimming with the 10+ year olds. I have to recognize though that swimming is huge here and she is at the top school and most competitive! So we set some goals to work at. Doug and I also talked to her about finding sports and activities you love and going for it. She does love swimming and was excited to see her get in the pool yesterday and doing a little work out of her own, trying to better herself, go kylea go!

International Church

Last term here we stepped in as the Children's Pastors of the International Church. We did it for a year and a half + and trained some of the national students at the College of Theology here into that position. IC is an English speaking church so we have many different nationalities represented in the church.

Coming back to Swaziland, this position was not even on our radar, until one of the interns graduated, went home to South Africa, and was offered a position about 9 hrs. away from here. So I was asked with Doug to take over and train up some more of our College students into Children's Ministry. Honestly I had a hard time getting into it. I got into the curriculum and worship, but actually putting everything together and pulling it off, I felt like I have been "going through the motions". I hate that! I have been praying about this and other things that God would change my outlook and heart, ugh! So today is Sunday and the third week that we have been with the kids now and I actually enjoyed it today. I did not feel like I was once again "going through the motions". I felt like I (and the team) were actually teaching and getting through and having a blast doing it.

This picture is of our group of kids we are growing, 34 the first week and 51 today.

We also are getting involved a bit with the youth here at the church, God put it on Dougs heart very strongly on a long ride home from Johannesburg, South Africa. So, we decided to open our home this past Friday for a "Back to school Braii (bbq)". Pastor Raymond, the youth pastor, told us to prepare for 40ish kids to show up. They meet on Friday for their youth meeting, so we met at our home instead. I had it all set up, we were going to set up tables out on the patio in the back yard and Doug would Braii Chicken and sausage. Well . . . it began to rain at 2, bummer. So on to plan B, we set up our table and three folding tables in our dining room with chairs to seat 37. Yeah, wish I would have taken a pic. So at 4.30 two of the guys show up for the braii that was to begin at 6, very un-African to be that early!! I started prepping the kids for "strangers" in the house, as we really don't know many of the youth, rooms closed, no one in any of the rooms, let me know where you are at all times, etc. I was beginning to be not so excited about opening up our home for all these kids. "Were they going to be rude, dirty, mess up my carpet?" (just being honest!) I found myself having the "self talk" that is not so healthy! I stopped myself and asked the Lord to prove me wrong!! The night came and went and we had 42 students, our 3 kids, and 4 of us adults! We had a blast, the food was eaten, my carpets still clean and some of the most polite kids ever. I guess I was a bit shocked having done more with more "rural" kids who are a bit tougher and have more of a poverty mentality of being out for themselves, esp. when it comes to food. God did prove me wrong!

"I go to sool to mommy!"

Now that Carsten and I are home all morning from 6.30am til 2.30pm, we are having a lot of quality time together! I have enjoyed some one on one time reading, coloring, doing puzzels (his favorite), playing Mr. Potato Head, and of course trains!! He still goes throught the day asking for sissy and bub, and I always reply, that they are at school. Last week I found Carsten in one of Kylea's pair of tennis shoes, with his backpack on, walking around in a shirt and diaper telling me "I do sool too Mommy!" (I go to school to Mommy). So cute, little stinker. He is so full of life and expression and loves having Mommy all to himself, and does not want me out of his sight now, hmmm.

first day of school!

Being in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are opposite and so is the school year. We start school here the end of January and there are three terms with a few weeks break between each term and school ends around the first week of December, just in time for summer! This year Kylea started second grade and Kaden went to grade 0 (aka kindergarten), here they actaully call it grade not. So this week has been a little different. We are up and at it by 5.45 am to get dressed, eat, and uniforms on. Then by 6.30am we are out the door to catch the bus. The bus and school are both private f.y.i. The are in school from 7.30am -12pm then after school activities are until 1pm, when they catch the bus again back home, by 2.15ish when I pick them up. We love the school and all the teachers and curriculum are great. The only thing we struggle with is the long bus ride. I pray over them daily as I drop them off (would love any other prayers too)!

And they are off . . .
It is very quiet at home these days with just Carsten and me! We have enjoyed some extra quality time though reading, building blocks and he is now totally into puzzels! But I cannot get over having Kaden now at school from now on though, when did they grow up so fast??