Some Great Reasons To Be Thankful!

Friends & Family,

Some Great News!

We first want to thank you for your prayers regarding our internet situation!  We have had a breakthrough and I am updating this blog post from our own house in Swaziland!  After months, & months, & months, the telephone company finally came and installed our internet a few days ago.  Right away I got to updating this blog.  What a blessing it is to be able to communicate right from where we live!  Thank you for praying for this, and we look forward to being in contact much more often in the future. :)    

The Highlight of our last few months...

We were so blessed to have a visiting missions team from our home church, Kenmore Alliance Church.  The KAC team was here from the 7th to the 19th of July, and they were a huge encouragement to our family!  We know the Lord really sent them at just the right time for us!  Their love and all the work they did were a huge blessing everywhere they went!  It was also fantastic to have some old friends return on the team as well as to make some new friends from KAC.  The team spent four days ministering here at the Sandra Lee Centre, and four days working with an awesome medical ministry called The Luke Commission.  They also ministered at a government hospital, and at Ludlati Care Point in the rural community of Ngculwini.    

KAC Team @ The Sandra Lee Centre

The KAC Team worked hard to install these water tank stands at SLC!

Dennis with some of the great men from the KAC team.

The stands today complete with the water tanks. 

One of my personal highlights working alongside the KAC team was ministering at the government hospital.  Before coming to the Sandra Lee Centre, I was very involved in hospital visitation and outreach ministry.  Being back in the hospital alongside the team made me realize how I still need to be involved regularly in this ministry.   No one ever wants to be in a hospital anywhere, and for sure you wouldn't want to be in the government hospitals of Swaziland.  The level of care is very poor.   People are suffering often needlessly because of lack of proper equipment and medicine, and many times people are suffering in their last days alone.  It seems like such a dark place, but we as Christians have the chance to bring the light of Christ to this darkness.  It is a tough ministry for sure, but it is a very needed ministry and such an awesome opportunity to offer the hope & love of Jesus Christ.  I have been back to the hospital a couple of times this past August.  I know this is a ministry that our family needs to be more and more involved in in the future.   

It was also great to be with the team ministering in the rural areas of Swaziland.  Whether it was with The Luke Commission, or spending time at Ludlati Care Point, to be in the rural areas again was refreshing!  Ludlati was a care point that we used to minister at while we were with AIM.  That community and the care point has a special place in my heart!  

The KAC Team observing The Luke Commission staff perform a surgical procedure.

 

   

The team helping to restock medicine that will be offered free to people in the rural area. 

John & Musa putting together a wheelchair with some help from Thandeka.

Bheki & John teaching @ Ludlati Care Point

Katie & Phendulile teaching the younger kids outside @ Ludlati Care Point

The KAC team also purchased 30 chairs for the preschool class at Ludlati Care Point!

A Personal Dream Come True! 

When Zwakele & I were first married we were able to build my mother-in-law a 2 room house made of concrete blocks.  Zwakele, her mother, and my sister-in-law had been living in one room stick and mud house until then.  It was a huge blessing to get them into a safe & secure concrete structure.  After the 2 room structure was finished, my mother-in-law still had one of her children living at home along with 3 grandchildren, and 1 great-grandchild!  2 rooms were not enough!  So about a year and a half ago we started extending her house to 4 rooms.  The project was carried out bit by bit as we had means to do proceed.  The extra space was finished just before we came home to the States in December 2012.       

When the KAC team was about to depart they made a special financial gift to our family.  Because of that gift we were able to make a personal dream of ours come true!  First, we were able to install wires, outlets, lights and everything else needed for the 4 room house to have electricity.  Secondly, we were able to pay the large fee for the electric company to come and install the electricity.  Well we are very happy to announce that the company just came this past week to install the electric poles and connect the house!  What a huge blessing this is for our family!  Without the love and generosity from the KAC team I can honestly say this would not have happened anytime soon.  We are so thankful to Lord for this amazing blessing!  I (Dennis) grew up in the great privilege of the middle class suburbs of Buffalo, NY.  Thankfully, we always had lights, heat, a refrigerator, and other appliances that made our lives much easier.  It's so easy to take that for granted.  My mother-in-law is in her 60's and she never had electricity up until this past week.  She is so very happy and thankful for this blessing.  A huge "Thank You" to KAC & it's mission team for helping to make this dream come true!  And of course a huge "Thank You" to JESUS!               

Zwakele's mom's house, showing the pole of the newly installed electricity!

 

 

 

 

 

Zwakele & Thandeka inside the house showing the fuse box and the refrigerator! 

Meet Celucolo

Just last week we received the 30^th child to the Sandra Lee Centre.  He is a 6 year old boy named Celucolo.  His name is a bit hard to pronounce for the native english speaker, because in the Siswati language each letter “C” means one makes a click sound.  Celcolo originally came from a rural area in the northern part of the Swaziland.  He was placed @ the Sandra Lee Centre by government social workers after he was discovered in a very dire situation.  He is now living with 4 sisters and 3 brothers in the Blue House at the Sandra Lee Centre.  Will you please pray for him as he adjusts to life @ the SLC?  Please pray that he will really be impacted by the love of Jesus and feel very welcomed to his new home.  Thank You!   

Celucolo (in front) with his brother Sibusiso from the Blue House

     

Would you please keep us in prayer: 

1.  This Saturday (7th September) I have the awesome privilege of speaking at a men's & single father’s fellowship outreach.  Will you please pray that the Lord will use me to communicate His truth to the 30+ men that will be in attendance?  Also, in the next couple of months I will be preaching a lot on Sunday mornings both at the church we regularly attend, and at some other church's that have invited me.  

2.  Thank you for your prayers for our ministry to the staff at the SLC.  Things have been going well in this.  Will you please pray for Zwakele & myself as we continue to minister to the care givers of the 30 children here.  We meet every Friday morning for worship, bible study and prayer.  Please keep those times lifted up and also the many opportunities throughout the week we have to listen, give counsel, and pray with these ladies.  Please also pray the love of Christ would be so evident amongst all the staff at the Sandra Lee Centre. 

3.  Please pray for our health.  This past couple of months all 3 of us have had various repeated sicknesses going on.  Nothing major, but regular cold, flu, & stomach bugs that have sidelined us at times.  Would you please pray that the Lord would bless us in this area so that we could stay effective in ministry.            

We are so thankful for your continued love & support to us!  Thank you for standing with us in prayer, we need it!  We also pray for you our family and friends of our support team regularly.  May the Lord bless you all!  

For the King,   

Dennis (for Zwakele & Thandeka)       

Hard Work, Trials, & Some Success!!!

Hitting the Ground Running...
After a couple very long days of travelling we arrived back in Swaziland on the 5^th of March.  We had a nice little welcome sign on our door made by some of the children of the SLC.  It was great to be back in home in Swaziland!! 

We took the 6^th of March to rest and start to unpack, and then on the 7^th of March we hit the ground running, fully back to the work.  I ended up needing to unexpectedly preach in our very first Sunday back in Swazi (the 10^th) and from then on all seems to be a complete blur up until today.  We have been very busy! 

 

We were so happy to be back with the children of the SLC.  Of course many of the boys proudly told me: "We have been practicing with our lightsabers while you were gone!" :) 

 

Trials

In our second week in Swaziland my mother-in-law started to have a bunch of medical problems.  She first went to the government hospital in Manzini, but they would simply give her pills and/or some type of an injection and send her back home.  We would ask her: “What did the Doctor say?”  She would tell us “He said nothing.  He just gave me these pills.”  No one wants to be a patient in any hospital, but being a patient in the government hospitals in Swaziland is so very difficult.  The facilities, resources, and level of care are simply terrible.  Even as an admitted patient, it is hard to see any doctor at all.  You are not really allowed to ask questions regarding your care, and if you do start to ask questions you are hushed up & rarely get an answer.  You really have no voice.  I know the US medical system has tons of flaws, but after living here for nearly 9 years I have such an appreciation for the health care that we do have access to in the USA!   
So, after seeing what was happening to my mother-in-law, we decided to take her to a private clinic.  There are 2 really good private clinics in Swaziland.  The difference in care compared to the public government hospitals is like night and day.  The kicker is the cost!  It is very expensive for any persons budget!  Sadly, for most Swazi people this care is never an option.  Well, after 5 clinic visits, and a bunch of blood tests over a 3 week period, we thankfully we got some answers and my mother-in-laws health condition improved greatly!  Thank you Jesus!  Basically, she was experiencing complications from Diabetes & complications from medications that were conflicting with each other.  We were able to get her on the right medication and also a meter to regulate her blood sugar.  We thank the Lord that she is now doing well!  It's only because of the financial support we receive from our friends and from our Kenmore Alliance Church family that we were able to get her the proper care that she needed.  We thank you so much for your love to us!                  

Easters with YWAM!

In Swaziland celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is referred to as "Easters." This is mainly due to the fact that many churches have multiple day services that happen from Wednesday or Thursday through to Easter Sunday.  This year our good friends @ YWAM Swaziland hosted a special day for the children of the SLC.  It was an amazing celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection! They prepared a great time with teaching, worship, fun games, an Easter egg hunt, and a special meal.  It was a lot of fun for both the kids and our staff!       

Some of the YWAM staff leading us in worship

 

 

Some great teaching on what Easter is all about!

 

Sack races!

 

Zwakele & Thandeka getting in on the fun!

 

Thandeka w/ her friend Siphiwe having fun. 

                                                                                                                         

In the first half of April a lot of our effort was spent on working with the children of the SLC to get ready for their 1^st term exams.  We now have 21 different children schooling in grades 1-6.  The children’s first school term ended on the 24^th of April and they were all happy to have a bit of a break.  We were happy that we had 4 children who placed in the top ten of their classes! 

The directors of the SLC, Mike & Robin Pratt, left for the USA in the last week of April and were gone throughout May.  With their departure we were busy “running the show,” and had a lot of extra responsibilities.  Some of those responsibilities we were used to, like preaching @ Checkers Community Church where the Pratt's are pastoring, picking up and sorting through various donations, paying staff, various admin, and helping to care for the SLC’s chickens, rabbits, and goats.  However I (Dennis) was able to help in a new way as well.   This new job was driving 2 of our goats to the "Dip Tank."  Goats and cattle are required monthly to go to the dip tank, where they walk through a tank of water & a medical solution that is designed to keep ticks and other parasites away.  It is part of a regiment to keep them healthy.  Well, in all my 9 years here I had never taken animals to do this!  It was quite an interesting and comical process of myself and another staff member trying to get two goats into the back of a pick up truck, and then drive them to the rural community of Gobholo where the dip tank was located.  I was happy to help out and will never forget the experience :)!!!  Some pictures are below:             

 

Some of the donations from Hammond's Pick n Pay that needed to be sorted through

 

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get 2 goats into the back of a pickup truck!

 

Quite an imposing & slippery road to the dip tank!

The beautiful rural community of Gobholo, where we have to dip the goats. 

About a half hours drive from the SLC

Meet Nonduduzo! 

Sometime in the middle of May we received our 29th child to the Sandra Lee Centre.  Her name is Nonduduzo and she is a beautiful & lively 7 year old girl.  Nonduduzo was a child who attended the AIM Neighborhood Care Point in the community of Bheveni.  This care point was one of the places that both Zwakele and I ministered at while we were with AIM.  We are so happy to have her at the SLC!!       

Nonduduzo or "Nondu"

 

Nonduduzo came from a tragic situation in which she needed to be removed from immediately for her own safety.  Sometimes it is sadly quite a lengthy bureaucratic process to get a child in need placed into a home like the Sandra Lee Centre.  Nevertheless, Nonduduzo needed to get away from the situation right away.  Good friends of ours, and missionaries with AIM, Steve & Amy McAdams, welcomed Nondu into their home for over 3 months until she could be officially placed @ the SLC.  They stepped up to the plate big time and helped this beautiful girl in need!  Because Nondu only came to us in May we had a challenge finding a school that would take her mid-year.  It was my (Dennis) job to try to get her a place in a school around our community.  It took many days of visiting different schools, meeting with principals and teachers, praying, and flat out begging.  But finally the Lord provided a place for her to go to school!  The only catch was that all school fees needed to be paid for literally that day, and then Nondu needed a complete uniform, new shoes, stationary etc.  Again, because of your love and financial support to the Brock family here in Swaziland we were able to get all of this done & Nondu into school immediately!! Thank you Jesus!!  Nondu is so happy to be in school and she is already doing well in her 1st grade class!  Zwakele & I are humbled and privileged to be partnering with God as he brings His restoration to Nondu's life.  Please keep Nondu in your prayers as she gets used to life @ the SLC.      

Nondu in her new school uniform for St. Mark's Primary. 

Our supporters made this happen! 

Thank You!!

Some Prayer Requests

Would you please pray with us in the following areas:  

1.  KAC Mission trip to Swaziland.  We are privileged to be hosting a team from our home church in less than a month from now.  12 wonderful people will be with us from the 7th of July through the 19th.  Will you please pray as we continue to get all the details and preparation done for this trip.  We are very excited to have this team coming!  

2.  Please pray for our role in ministering to the staff at the SLC.  We continue to have weekly times of prayer, worship, & bible study with the women who love and care for the children.  Please pray that the Lord would lead us in this effort and that we would see greater levels of love and unity amongst the staff of the SLC.    

3.  Communication problems.  Since we arrived back from the USA we have been trying to get internet installed right in our house.  We applied for the service even before we left for the states, and reapplied as soon as we got back!  Well, as of today we are still waiting on the company to even start the first step of the process.  In order for us to use the internet we currently need to get to the internet café in town.  It is really hard to get away from our work @ the SLC during the day, and the café is not open after our work hours.  We really need something to happen in this issue!           

 

In closing, thank you so much for your continued love and support to us!  We really appreciate and need your prayers!  Our family can never say thank you enough as your love empowers us to live out our calling the Lord has given us!  May God bless you and your families! 

 

A Slice of Victory!!! It’s Not in Vain!!!

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”   1 COR 15:58

Last month I attended a meeting run by the Ministry of Social Welfare and the office of His Excellency the Deputy Prime Minister.  At different breaks during the function, dramas were presented by a group of student’s from St. Mary’s High School.  The dramas were very touching, as they dealt with teenage orphans being abused by people that should have protected them.  Most of the student group that performed the dramas were in fact orphans themselves. 

At the end of the function one of the student performers came up to me and said “You’re Babe Masoma right?”  I told him I was.  He then told me his name was *Andile, and that as a child he used to attend the Neighbohood Carepoint (NCP) in Mahlanya.  

The above picture is not of Andile, but myself & 2 other boys from Mahlanya Care Point.  Andile would have been around their age at the time this pic was taken.

To give some more context, the Carepoint in Mahlanya was one of the first ministries the staff of AIM engaged in when establishing the base in September 2004.  We had 5 staff and around 15 participants in a program called First Year Missionary.  I usually spent a couple afternoons a week @ Mahlanya from September 2004 until the end of 2005.  Below is a pic of the care point.

What Andile told me next floored me:  “I want to thank you for all you did for me.  Look at me now – I am 17 years old, next year I will be graduating high school, I am still walking with the Lord, & I am in the schools drama group – I made it this far because of what you did for me.  You guys were paying my school fees, when I had no one who was helping me.  I am here today because of what you guys did for me.”    

I was speechless; I couldn’t believe this was one of the children from the care point.  He then went on: “I just want to thank you, thank you for what you did for me, you guys changed my life & I am doing so well today because you all loved me.  Babe Masoma, I thank God for your love to me…”  Tears were in my eyes and all I could say was “Praise the Lord bro!”  We hugged each other for some moments, I thanked him for sharing this with me, and made plans to visit him one day @ his high school.    

I was so touched by this.  I am not exaggerating Andile's words.  He was so thankful, and had this maturity and realization of God's grace that one hardly sees (especially in a 17 year old).  I don't know about you, but at 17 I was very different than this young man.  I was not thankful at all.  What a victory!  Praise God He used us in this boys life.  I love that this is a group victory, because this was a group effort, the Body of Christ working together to bring change.  None of us could have done this ministry on our own, none of us could have paid for these children’s school fees on our own either.  We put our money together and look what the Lord accomplished through it.  And if you supported myself or any members of our team in 2004, this is a victory for you as well!  The Body of Christ working together!    

What makes this even better for me was that my first year in Swaziland (right when I was working with my friend Andile) was pretty difficult.  Honestly, there were times when I seriously considered leaving the ministry in Swaziland and heading back to America.  We dealt with a lot:  Our residence was broken into so many times, I had health problems, we had the normal conflict that happens as a staff or with our team, money issues, car problems, all while at the same time dealing with adjustment to a totally different culture.  It was difficult, and sometimes that difficulty made you think “Is it worth it?  Am I really accomplishing anything?  Shouldn’t I just go back home?”  The challenges were there and sometimes they seemed to outweigh the fruit.  

But Praise God, here in 2012, standing before me was a young man who’s success was directly linked to the Lord’s work through our team.  Here was a slice of victory from those times which seemed so chaotic.  Seeing Andile, and hearing what he had to say, made up for any discomfort we experienced.  I know there was other fruit, but even if we reached only Andile it would have been worth it!  Thank you Jesus!      

Special shout outs go to our team from '04 & '05: Julie Anderson, Ben Messner, Janeen, Lee-Anne, Katy, Kara, Sarah, Caleb, Amelia, Molly, Ben C., & the list goes on and on...Below is a pic from that time

 

We know that our labor in the Lord is truly not in vain.  Sometimes we see fruit right away, sometimes we may not see until 7 years later, and sometimes we may not see fruit this side of eternity.  But we must stand firm and give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord.  We must by all means press through the challenges as there is so much at stake.  The Brock Family's vision here in Swaziland is to see orphaned children encounter the love of their heavenly father, help raise them up & equip them to go and change their world. Thank you for your love & support to our ministry from 2004 up until today!  

Jesus thank you for your victory, thank you for your work in us and through us!  Continue to use us all Lord to bring your glory on this earth!  Amen!    

Up Up Up the Tea Road

Fridays afternoons & Saturdays around the SLC are more of an open time for the children.  We like to use this time to take the children out on excursions.  Usually we head out somewhere in the beautiful Swazi countryside.  On the 16th of June I took a group of 6 young men and we headed for "The Tea Road."      

Starting in the Ezulwini Valley, The Tea Road winds its way to the top of the Mdzimba Mountains, the traditional burial place of the Kings of Swaziland.  It's a bumpy and dusty ride up the mountain, and there is some interesting architecture along the way... 

But once you reach the top you are greeted with some stunning views.

  
We hike around, have lunch, do a bible lesson, and have fun!  It's a great time!  It is essential to get the children out and see this beautiful country they live in.  And as guys It's good to get away and have time together.  Doing these excursions has been a particularly favorite time for me.   

Part of the goal is just to spend intentional time with each other,  to disciple these guys and speak the purposes of God into their life.  Another long term goal is to get the children to see the world that exists beyond themselves.   Eventually we will transition to also be serving others in the community. 

We want to see these young men, who faced so much adversity at the beginning of their lives, grown up in the Love of God.  Knowing Him powerfully, and being used by Him to change their world.  

  
It's an honor and a privilege to be used of God to speak into these precious kids lives.  I am so happy to be on this journey with them.  Please pray that God would continue to give me His wisdom, love, and power to do the work He calls me to.  A continued huge "Thank You" to KAC and the rest of our friends and family for helping us to live out this vision!