Here I am with my Swazi friends: Cynthia, Ncobile, Londiwe and Phendulile on our way to Umhlanga.

I was the only white person at the Reed Dance dressed in the traditional Swazi attire and I was really proud of it. Never once did I feel uncomfortable; I really liked it and I will definitely wear my attire more often. There were other white people too who came to look, but none of them were dressed in the traditional way. Some of the women were even really disrespectful towards the culture by wearing shorts and pants. And this was one of the things that made me sad. I definitely don't agree with the culture, but I do want to respect these people. If I respect them, they will respect me and then I can be more effective in my ministry to them.

(Oh, I was stop by the French media and they did a quick interview with me. So funny! My white skin did turn a few heads and I had a couple of requests for pictures / photo's.)

But back to the dance: I have never in my life seen so many girls together. There were thousands and thousands of them. From young (really cute) ones up to 18 year olds. The newspapers say there were about 55 000 maidens cutting reed this year. Amazing! And they were all dressed so colorful in their traditional attires. It was awesome to hear them sing and see them dance. They were dancing for their king. (Wish all of us and them could be so passionate about dancing for our King!)

Through all the excitement I also had a few sad thoughts and questions. Are people using culture to justify sin? Or is culture the enemy's way of deceiving people? Or is it both?

 
I don't know. All I know is that here these girls were; dancing half naked and showing the entire nation the things that only their husbands are suppose to see one day. The more I am learning about the culture, the more I see things that I do not understand and many of it goes against what the Bible teaches. 
 
 

Even sadder is the fact that many Christians here don't see anything wrong with a lot of the things that are happening … because it is part of their culture. ‘First Swazi and then Christian,' they say.