Saturday, July 21, 2012

Back home

Hey all! I am back home and well it's bitter sweet. I'm excited to be home yet at the same time i so desire to be back in Swazi with my new friends!
We flew into Atlanta yesterday at 7am and stayed at hotel there last night. We got to debrief and worship which was so good and needed. Please pray for myself and my team as many of us are sick from traveling or just sick in general. Also pray as we transition back to American life and begin processing a whole months journey and experiences.
Whew!! I'm quite overwhelmed and feel terrible. I cry randomly and miss my friends and the people of Swazi so bad!
I don't have much to say-
I do want to say a huge thanks to all my supporters andthose who have been praying. You have no idea how thankful I am. Keep te prayers coming.
Love you all. Will update when I'm sane.

Laura Beth

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Rough week, but so good.

Hey everyone.
So this week as definitley been a tougher week for our team. several of us have been sick and on the toilet because of it....no fun.
also, it seems like we had been sitting in darkness and we couldn't get out of a lil pit of funk. but what is so cool about our group is that we are aware of it and pray at that moment.we have been praying ephesians 6 everyday over each other. Yesterday was so much lighter that the rest of the days and we are all well rested now and back on our feet in full health. praise jesus.
God's been breaking down several of our walls we have built up and is continuing to teach us so so much. most of all he has been teaching us love. his love never fails. his love never grows weary or gets tired. he delights in us running to his arms and he calls us by name. he doesn't ever abandon me. he breaking down my pride and my selfish desires.
yesterday i saw jesus staring back at me through the eyes of a 7 month old baby boy. i got to hold him and feed him. his name is Kleo. Wow...amazing!!!
I just can't get over how much God has been stretching and growing us all. I love this team. At night time we always have a big snuggle session and its our favorite haha.




i've loved working at the carepoint we the preschoolers. they are so so smart for there age. they know there abc's and can count to 100...all in english!!! so awesome.
they are always smilng, and if they arent smilng they will as soon as you pick them up and wipe away there tears.
i love these kids and there laughter and joy...its contagious.

please continue to pray for wholeness, for light and life. Pray against darnkess death and lies. pray habakkuk 1:5 over us that god would show us things that are so bizzare that we wouldn't even believe it to be true. pray he take us deepere with him. that we would all experience and feel so much more of his love. love to permeate us.


i love this country and these people. i love my team so much. i don't want to come back home...so i haven't been focusing on that.
pray that each of us would live in the here and now. to live in the present and love in the present.
pray for more of the holy spirit. more of jesus and less of us.
JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS. only JESUS!!!

pray pray pray pray.
love,
Laura Beth Harbin

Monday, July 2, 2012

Hello From SWAZILAND

Sawubona!!! Hello!
I will try my best to write as much as i can but i don't have much time so bear with me and show me grace with spelling errors, etc.
I have a story to start off with real fast. So...my group was supposed to come to the cafe to blog and email friends on saturday. however, it wouldn't work so we decided that on our way walking to the hospital that we would stop by the other cafe. Let me tell you that we pretty much walk everywhere. haha. SO....the walk to the hospital took about 1 and a half hours!!! yes, one and a half hours. It wasn't bad but what made it stink was that when we were going to the cafe it ended up being closed!!! so that definitley put a damper on things that we walked almost 2 hours and got no internet. haha
but it was good. we got to spend time together instead and pray and ready our hearts before going into the childrens hospital. I've never seen anything like it...I honestly have no words to describe it. There was so so so much pain and hopelesness. However there was this one little girl that was maybe 2 years old suffering of malnourishment and she just luaghed and smiled so so so much. That's what got me through....the joy and hope in her eyes.
after that we hitchiked so that we didnt have to walk back for 2 hours in the dark. it was so much fun.
sunday we went to church and it was so so so so much fun!!! i absolutely love there beautiful voices.
today we went to a few carepoints to get a feel of what we'll be doing for the next 3 weeks.
i fell in love with one little boy today called NANA. he is not even 1 yet and ahhh he is beautful. i also have already been peed on :) nothing like some african baby pee on ya.

oh yeah....we are living in Manzini right now...to be honest we are incredibly blessed and have it pretty easy. we are sleeping on mattresses on the floor. our team loves to snuggle and talk about poop. hahah. oh my word. im so thankful fo my team.
we are so diverse and its so cool to be goofy at one point and then another time gather around each other and pray intentionally and see how god has been working miracles and speaking to each of us. its so bizzare.
okay im about to have to go.
i ask for more prayer....i feel like theres this layer over my heart thats holding me back and im not sure what it is. pray that its broken off. pray for deliverance and freedom.
pray for my team of 15 and our 3 leaders. pray for the poeple of swazi!!!
THNKS
Anyway so we have been in swaziland since wednesday and boy its such an interesting country. It's one of the most beautiful places i've ever been too. The mountains are outrageous.
habakkuk 1:5

Laura Beth Harbin

Monday, June 25, 2012

At airport!!!

Hey everyone!
There's so much to tell and so hard to articulate it all!! Right now the team and I are at the airport in Atlanta. Out flight leaves at 730pm.
Training camp has truly been a blessing. It has been amazing to connect with my team. HHS by the grace of god we can goof off and talk about poop then be completely vulnerable and honest about our walks with god and how we feel about Africa. Wow it's been so good! Worship has been off the wall! It's so real and raw-ha like it should be. We have learned to listen to God and it's been so cool to hear what he has to say to us.
He is breaking down walls an loving on us so much already! I'm so thankful and blessed!
Ah so mch to say and hard t write it all out.
Praise god for just sitting under the stars and singing worship song because we can and for laying hands on one another because we want to! Jesus is doing so much!!!
Keep praying!!!!!
Love y'all

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Friday is the big day

Well, just two days away and I'll continue further in this journey to Africa!!!!!
God already knew from the moment he breathed life in me that I would go to Swaziland. The team and I are going on purpose- ad that's JESUS! I'm my going to change Swaziland I'm going to love. I simply desire to sit in the dirt with children to hold them and whisper in there ear that they're loved!!!!

I am so honored and humbled that God picked me, Laura Beth Harbin from Murfreesboro Tennessee to go to Swaziland for 4 weeks to simply learn about the love of jesus from the orphaned,widowed, and diseased.
Words don't express my excitement and anxiousness!

I pray to be emptied only to be filled with Jesus!
More of Jesus, less of me.

I'm thankful for all who have kept up with me, encouraged me, supported me financially, and most of all for the prayers! It's finally here and happening!!!!

If I don't get to update this a whole lot-no worries we have a team blog that our team leaders will post on saying we made it safely and other details like that-so feel free to keep your eye out for that! :)
I love y'all and thanks so much! Please pray pray pray!

More of Jesus, less of me.
Laura Beth Harbin

Here's the link to Swazi team blog.
http://swaziland-hs.adventures.org/

Sunday, June 10, 2012

ONLY JESUS

Can you believe it??? I leave in just 12 days!! It seems so bizzare.
I know that I have probably told you this a million times, but just to reitterate, this blog is meant to be raw and honest. I never want to sugar coat whats going on. Its totally okay to feel any way whether its immense anger, deep sorrow, outrageous joy, are anything in between.
Today I felt a mixture of all of these, even the in betweens. To be honest I'm still wrestiling with it which is why I'm blogging. It's my way of taking the things within and getting them out.

Some know about my trip to Haiti last year and others don't....
To give a brief overview....I have always had a desire for 3rd world missions. There have been certain instances in my life where that desire was made clearer. however, when i went to Haiti last year it became more than clear that this was my desire, but that its my life and my very being. I remember always praying "Lord break my heart for what breaks yours." He's always faithful....He is breaking my heart for what breaks His....
My heart is BREAKING!!!!

I expereinced several emotions since being home from Haiti and preparing for Africa. In fact as I prepare for Africa I am brought back to the things God taught me through the eyes of the Haitians.
One of those Haitians that God taught me through was a little boy named Jivens. Those who know me most have heard me talk about him and if they havent heard me talk to them well then i was obviously jacked up on coffee or down right tired.
Anyway, so here we are one year later and the youth group went back to the same village in Haiti. Thats where Jivens is at this very moment...Guitton, Haiti.
It absolutely tore me to pieces knowing that I couldn't go to Haiti this year. I miss Jivens voice and the way he looked with his eyes. I miss his mannerisms and how he was always shy except when I was around. Just typing this makes me miss him so much.
Anyway, my friend who went to Haiti made a video of him and I can not help but replay it over and over and over and over again. I just want to keep hearing his voice. Each time i play it i wish i was back in haiti more than anything to hug his sweet neck.
But I'm here.

Through this year and through missing Jivens so much God has shown me that Murfreesboro and the people in front of me are just as in need as Jivens in Haiti. The people I drive past, walk past, and see out of the corner of my eye are each as valuable as Jivens.
The deep compassion I have for Jivens should be for each person I see. Compassion and Love should never be conditional. But rather, unconditional.
I want to love each person the same that i have immensely loved Jivens. To do so Jesus has to become greater in me. and for that I simply need be still before Him and rest in His love...

okay I'm about to go on a rant...speaking of resting in his love.
People have asked how i've prepared for africa and if im prepared. I believe there is no 6 step process to preparing for a 3rd world country...there's is NO way!!! No matter what each person's experience is going to be something that only them and God truly know because it is such a deep work in the heart that can not be explained.
So the way i answer is simple...Yes I'm as prepared as i can be. I believe in Jesus who lives in me. Because Jesus lives in me I simply rest in His love and allow Him to do His thing. I have Jesus and he has me...what more do i need to do to prepare?? haha
It's only Jesus. It's only jesus. It's only JESUS!!!!!!


Another thing...Jesus has shown me that it's so easy to put the needs of people or countries above Him. It's easy for me to put Jivens above God. I don't want to do that. I want to Love Jesus more because when i love jesus more then i can love jivens and the people i will meet in swazi that much more!

A fear of mine is that I will place expectations from my experience in Haiti onto my trip to Swaziland. I do not want to do that at all. I want Haiti to be a past memory that has a place in my heart and has changed me but doesnt hinder me! I want to be completely present in Swaziland.

I simply pray for more of jesus and less of me. I can do nothing of my own. I can not stop fearing and stop being upset, i can not stop puttin jivens as an idol above God. I can't do it at all. It's christ in me!!! Christ IN me!! I need simply abide in Him. To cling to Jesus and rest in His love and grace as he becomes more and i become less. And as He begins to be above all else and be my reason for going and living and breathing. As i rest in His love, His love will cast out any fear and any ungodly motivation or action upon an emotion. ONLY JESUS!!!

I feel like I'm done writing for now and I have no idea what I have written until i read back over it later. All i know is that I have written was has come to mind and what the Lord is so graciously speaking to me.

"Oh daughter, I'm all you need. Let me be your everything. When you let go, you gain more because you gain me. Let go and allow me to become more in you so that you can love my people as I have loved you, touch my people as i have touched you. Just abide in me, cling to me, rest in me my beloved princess in whom i delight in. You are doing well just as you are. You are exactly where you are supposed to be. I am doing a work in you that is for the world to see so that they see me. Hold fast to me. Trust me. Only I can satisy and comfort and heal. So let me do that, you must drop your nets to come follow me. You can't take them with you. Leave the old and come to newness. Come to me my child. Let me love you and teach you. Stare into each person's eyes and see me-they hunger and thirst for life that only I can offer. You can offer that because of me in you. Trust me. Cling to me. Abide.
Let me love you more so that you can love me more to love my people as I have loved you."

This is what Jesus just spoke to me.

Love,
Laura Beth Harbin

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Update on Some Details

19 More days!!!! I can't wait until the single digits!!!!

Anywho, I thought it best to give yall an update on the trip! I now know that I will be at training camp from june 22-25 in Gainsville, Gerorgia and fly out from atlanta on the 25th. I'm very glad to have a 3 day training camp so that my teammates and i can ease into Africa rather than just being thrown into an unkown country. haha

So i fly out the 25th at 7:30 pm and will arrive in johannesburg, south africa on june 26th around 630 pm. from there we will drive to swaziland which is about a 4 hour drive.

We will be staying in two different places. Manzini and Nsoko(they are about one hour apart). Both have beds, one has toilets and showers and the other has a bucket and pit toilets ha.

We will be doing a variety of relational ministry such as visiting families, loving on children, serving at care points, etc.
 I am so so thrilled for the opprotunity ahead that I get to partake in for a month.

Please continue to pray fo myself and my teammates as we prepare and are experiencing several emotions leading up to Swaziland!!.


Here are there names so that you can specifically pray for each of them.
Jamie, Ally, Emily, Samantha, Jess, Katherine, Kayla, Riley, Courtney, Ami, Millie, and Anna. Also there are three other people(2 girls and 1 boy) that are on the team that we don't know yet. Pray for them as well. 
Also, these are out team leaders names. Pray also for them as they lead us: Katie, Ryan, and Krista.


 Thanks so much for all of the prayers and encouragement!! God is teaching me so much recently and is renewing, refining, and showing me more and more grace every day.

I've enjoyed conversations with people about preparing, both with my teammates, family, and best friend. It's been cool to see them give insight from the outside looking in and I've gotten so much out of it! 
Keep the prayers comin'

Love,
LB