http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org Amber Kottwitz, - Africa en-us Sun, 6 Jul 2008 02:45:19 GMT 30 http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=lethiwe-will-be-missed http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=lethiwe-will-be-missed The Mbabane Government hospital has been a little difficult the past couple of weeks.  Melissa and I found out that Lethiwe passed away about two weeks ago from respiration complications.  One of the caregivers from the orphanage was watching Lethiwe when she died.  It was the same care giver who was watching the baby that got burned and also watching a baby at the orphanage when he died.  This caregiver has had quite a few tragedies happen in the last couple of weeks.&nb Tue, 6 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=market-ministry http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=market-ministry I visited Denise (one of my teammates) at her ministry last week. She started a bible study with some ladies who work at a culture market in Ezulwini. She prepares a bible study for them during the week then afterwards spends time with them at the market. Some of the ladies have taught her how to bead and make necklaces that they sell. She has come very close to them and cares deeply about them. We hear her talk about them all the time so it was nice to meet them all. They meet under a tree ri Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=the-twins http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=the-twins A couple weeks back a pair of twins was admitted to the hospital. Their father was there to care for them which is very unusual to have a father taking on that role. While the babies were getting treated in the children's ward their mother was dying of AIDS in the women's ward. We went to visit and pray with her a few times but unfortunately she did not make it. Then the father was clueless on how to care for the babies so he opted out. Phumzile, a lady who works at the Emmanuel Orphanage was Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=carnival http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=carnival On Saturday we had a carnival in a rural area where about 150 kids showed up.  The kids were broken up into teams where they went to the different stations.  I helped with the bobbing for apples station.  There was also face painting, ring toss, sweet walk, balloon animals, necklace making, and a big blown up castle for the kids to jump in.  They had a lot of fun.  Then Katie and Erin shared the story of Jesus with all the kids and prayed with them.  They told the c Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=the-emmanuel-orphanage http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=the-emmanuel-orphanage A lady at the hospital told us about an orphanage that she worked at.  She said that they needed help and wanted us to come.  The next day Abby and Melissa went with me to look for this orphanage that was somewhere in Mbabane.  We didn't get very good directions so we stopped at the post office and the post office worker knew directions for us to get there.  What a blessing.  When we got there and talked to the gogo in charge we realized this was a different orphanage.&n Mon, 7 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=preciouss-story http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=preciouss-story  About two weeks ago we went to South Africa for a prayer weekend.  It was nice to get away and spend time in prayer for the people we are ministering to.  We also got the opportunity to go back to Atteridgeville and visit the people we ministered to last semester.  We met up with a young lady named Precious, who one of our teammates Chelsea would visit in the hospital.  Precious had a premature baby and was in the hospital for awhile waiting for her baby to gain weight. Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=my-hospital-buddies http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=my-hospital-buddies   These are some of my friends at the hospital from the abandon baby's room that I spend quite a bit of time with.  The three older children are all handicapped in some way.  I was talking to a lady named Phamuzile who is physically handicapped and is in a wheel chair.  She is thirty four years old and has been living at the hospital her whole life.  Children who are handicapped have a hard time getting adopted.   There is Sphiwe who has been at the hospital near Mon, 3 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=mbane-hospital http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=mbane-hospital Melissa and I went back to the hospital to continue our ministry there.  It was hard at first because the last time we went was the day Mlamuli died.  At first we didn't really know what to do since we had spent so much time with Mlamuli before.  We started bringing crafts for the children to do and played some card games with them.  Which has helped us to build relationships with the children's moms in the different cubicles.  There are four cubicles filled with about Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=in-memory-of-mlamuli http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=in-memory-of-mlamuli I have been spending quite a bit of my time at the hospital this last week. There is this little abandon baby boy who is severely malnourished (I have wrote about him before). His name is Mlamuli Shongwe and he has been at the hospital since January 2, 2008. Some good samaritans found him locked in a house by himself and brought him to the abandon baby room at the hospital. The hired caregivers didn't know how old he was for sure but they think he was about two or three years old. He looked li Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=the-neglected http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=the-neglected     I checked out some more ministry sights last week.  I went to a care point that is run by 17 gogos (grandmas) who volunteer.  They provide breakfast and lunch for the children who are not able to bring anything.  They have about 25-30 kids who are there all day and about another 100 kids who receive breakfast and come from school to receive lunch.  While we were there visiting, the kids would flock to us just desperate for love and attention.&nb Mon, 4 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=ministry-opportunities1 http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=ministry-opportunities1     This past week I have been visiting some different ministry sights.  A couple of us went to check out a care point in a rural area.  At the care point they taught the kids who didn't go to school and feed them.  We took public (a big van stuffed with a bunch of people) and it took about thirty minutes to get there.  Once we were dropped off we walked about a mile on a dirt road to get to the care point not sure of where it was.  After asking a Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=i-made-it-to-swaziland http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=i-made-it-to-swaziland I arrived in South Africa last Tuesaday and stayed at Alabanza ( that is where I stayed last time while I was in SA).  We stayed their a couple of days waiting for the rest of our team to get in.  I was able to go and visit some friends in Atteridgeville which was amazing.  I had missed them so much and it was so good to see them.  They were also very excited to see us.  I was also able to see the little children from the cresh that I used to see everyday.  We left Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=update http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=update Hello,   I just wanted to update you on what is going on.  My leaders prayed about the situation in Kenya and decided that it was not safe so we are going to go Swaziland instead.  I have visited Swaziland for about a week during the awakening.  It is a little disappointing but I understand with all that is going on.  I am excited to go to Swaziland and do ministry there.  As far as ministry goes I can do hospital visits, street ministry, care points, and there Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=kenya-needs-prayer http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=kenya-needs-prayer I have been back in the United States for about two weeks now and I go back on January 14, 2008.  It has been such a blessing to be back with my family for Christmas.  When I first got back I was in shock I couldn't believe I was really back and with my family.  I had the best Christmas gift this year.  My sister and her family surprised me by coming home Christmas Eve.  My sister and her family had just moved to Arizona while I was gone so I was excited to see them Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=jeffreys-bay http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=jeffreys-bay     We took a fourteen hour drive to Jeffrey's bay for a dicipliship/leadership conference.  We joined the First Year Missionaries stationed at Jeffrey's Bay for the conference.  Jim Bailey and Ben Messner were our speakers along with them were Greg Beel and Nathan Haas.  All the participants were split into either the dicipleship or leadership tract.  I was put in the dicipleship tract which was taught by Jim Bailey.  He is the Lead Pastor at Metro Christ Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=thanksgiving http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=thanksgiving I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I celebrated with about 100 other people and went out to dinner for Thanksgiving.  One of the girls from a Real Life mission team got a surprise visit from her family.  They came down and treated us all to dinner at a five star restaurant.  It was amazing and we were all so thankful.  It was a bitter/sweet last week in Atteridgeville.  It was sad to say goodbye to our friends that we had made.  One of the ladies, Lo Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=back-to-the-basics http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=back-to-the-basics We have been having these teachings in the morning taught by Claude, a very godly man.  He is only 27yrs. old and gave up a successful family business to go out and preach the gospel all over the world.  Anyways he has been teaching in Hebrews.  "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all ov Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=god-is-good http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=god-is-good It has been a long week.  I am sorry this is so long but so much happened and I have never been through anything like this.  Last Saturday the Kenya and Swazi teams were woken up at 4:30 in the morning and were told we had fifteen minutes to pack a small bag and our sleeping bags for the next couple days.  We were also told that there would be a consequence if we were not on time.  Then we were given two chickens that were now our new teammates that we had to carry around eve Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=kenya http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=kenya Today we were split into Kenya and Swaziland teams.  I am going to Kenya!  The people who are going to Swazi are leaving this Wednesday and will be there for two weeks they will come back to Alabanza afterwards and then we will all leave for Jeffery's Bay and will be there for two weeks.  Then we come back to Alabanza for debrief.  So that is a rough schedule of what will be going on.  It is starting to warm up and get really hot.  For awhile it was rainy and chilly Fri, 2 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=aville http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=aville I went back to Atteridgville again this week.  We visited our friends we had been praying for Lydia, Sara, and Salommie.  Lydia and Sara both had a stroke and are paralyzed on the right side and we are not sure what is wrong with Salommie.   These ladies are always home and love to have us come and visit them.  We were unable to see them on Monday because we had some car troubles and they all asked where we were and that they had been waiting for us.  We went to see Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=atteridgeville http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=atteridgeville I went to Atteridgeville all this week during ministry time.  We have been leaving earlier so we are there for about five hours four days a week.  We started the bible study this week with some ladies we met there.  One of the ladies is taking a bible class through her church.  So we helped her with her homework which was going through the New Testament.  Then next day we were on our way to Loraine's house for bible study and we were stopped about five times o Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=safrica http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=safrica I am back in Johannesburg. I was able to go to some different ministries. I was able to do some physical labor for this place called Refilwe which is a community that is self relient. They plant there own crops, make bricks for this huge building they are working on. They make all of their resources. So we helped shovel a mixture of dirt and rocks for a couple of hours. I have blisters to prove it. The next day I went to an orphanage where I played with toddlers and took care of them. Th Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=swaziland http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=swaziland Swaziland is beautiful.  There are lots of mountains.  We will be going back to South Africa on monday.  I was able to experience my first real African church service.  It  is a little different then in America but I like it.  Over the week my team was split up into smaller groups and we went to some different locations.  On monday I went to the hospital.  They have it split up into different wards.  O went to the womens ward.  They have some ind Fri, 5 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=i-am-in-africa http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=i-am-in-africa Hello everyone!I want to start off by saying thank you VERY much for your support. I arrived at training camp in Georgia on September 12. During that time we camped out and had some guest speakers come and prepare us spiritually as well as culturally. We have also done some team building. I am part of a team of about 40 people so there are a lot of us in Africa. I made it to Africa last Friday so I have been here for a week. We are going through some training right now. We were also abl Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=africa http://amberkottwitz.myadventures.org/?filename=africa God has given me a passion for missions and is something I have always thought I would do in the future.  I remember writing a paper in Jr. High about how I was going to be a missionary when I grew up, but for some reason I never thought that I would be going to Africa .   When I started doing research about this trip I was excited and wanted to go but didn't think it would ever happen.   And now here I am raising support and leaving in two Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT