And It Continues…
ESWATINI UPDATE:
One year ago today, we had to tell our 3 squads that were in country that they would be leaving the next day to go back to the States because of Covid-19. The Swazi Government had just made a statement sharing that the borders would be closing and issued a State of Emergency on 17 March 2020. The country went into full lockdown – which meant schools closed, carepoints closed, some restaurants closed and much more. We could only go out if we needed the hospital or food. At one point, cases in Manzini (the city where we live) were so high they closed it off to outside areas…you had to have a letter from your chiefdom saying you could come in for work. During those first few months of lockdown, I (Morgan) was the only one that went out and only went out once a week to get groceries. For the first month, we would sit in our backyard and talk with our neighbors (thank you Greg & Michelle).
On 08 May 2020, the government eased the lockdown some, so we were able to open our carepoints, where the kids could come and get a meal and return back home. No activities were going on, just feeding. We stayed at home everyday…minus our one camping trip and a few fishing trips, until we had to unexpectedly come to the States in October. The government opened the border on 01 October to outside people, but shortly closed it back in the new year. You can cross now for medical, work or school only.
A year later and we are still on a partial lockdown; no gatherings, schools are still closed for now and have a curfew from 11pm-4am. To say this has been the hardest past year is an understatement, but the Lord has been faithful and good to us! We have remained healthy and we pray that continues.
This year there are so many unknowns, but what I do know is the Lord will continue to provide for our needs, and bless us in many ways! We are thankful for each one of you and pray for you as well!
FAMILY UPDATE:
If you are on social media, you have seen that we have found land and are building a house soon! We are very excited for this next phase in our lives because we know Eswatini is home and why waste money in paying rent! So with the land, we paid someone to come in and clear the trees. Our next step is to have a TLB machine come in and level some of the ground for us. We will then put up fence to mark our land. Once fence is put up, we will start on the building process. Our plan of building is to have 2 houses…you might be wondering why 2 houses, but a lot of houses here have “flats” attached to them. A flat is a one bedroom “house” with a small kitchen and bathroom. Our goal is to build a 2 bedroom “flat/house” first that we can move into while we build our house. Because every year they tend to go up on our rent, we want to get out of this house ASAP…I will be honest, we are paying over $700 for rent every month. That is money that we can be putting into building our own house where we are rent free! Once we are able to get into our house, we will use our 2 bedroom flat for friends/family when they visit and even staff who might need a place to stay for a bit.
We are coming to the States!! My brother Luke and his Fiancée, Lauren are getting married in November…so we are going to use that time to spend with family and to update you on Eswatini! We are very excited for Luke and Lauren and we pray that the Lord will bless their marriage in many ways!
Prayer Updates:
– We will continue to stay healthy and safe during the Pandemic. 20,000 vaccines just arrived yesterday, so there is still a while before things make a turn for the better here!
– The Lord will provide in miraculous ways for our house building so we can be RENT FREE by November when we come to the States.
– This might seem silly, but for Jonathan to become fond of people! For the last year, it has been the 3 of us and Jonathan isn’t a fan when people come around!
This is a long update, but had to share everything! We love you all!
-Bongani, Morgan & Jonathan
