We made it to Swazi! It’s beautiful and simple and I absolutely love it!
We are staying on Adventures in Missions base about one hour outside of Manzini. We stay in our tents because the rooms are way too hot and lots of creatures like to go stay in them too. We make all our own meals and clean every night, burning trash and dusting the new cobwebs. We see geckos, lizards, spiders and all sorts of bugs all day and everywhere, in the bathrooms, on the walls, in my hammock, absolutely everywhere. There are snakes here too unfortunately, I am very grateful to have not seen one, but I’m not going to lie, it’s terrifying knowing they’re here. There has been a couple snake sightings, but I am praying every night none come crawling around my tent.
It’s been amazing having our whole squad back together again. Especially in Swazi, with little else to do, it’s so nice just being with each other again. We eat meals together, clean together, worship together and have squad game nights every night! God is restoring such unity within K Squad and it’s beautiful to see our squad grow as a whole. We are all leaning and growing so much and it is such a blessing to be able to grow in an amazing community all in God’s design.
Ministry has been nothing but sweet. We get to play with kids all day long, and visit homes in the community. Because our squad is serving at 3 different care points we actually aren’t doing ministry with our team but we have made random groups to do ministry with. My group has been going to Joyella care point and it is amazing! It’s been kind of strange not doing ministry with my team but it’s be so awesome getting to know other people on my squad on a deeper level. Getting to do ministry with new people has been such a blessing of growth within our squad as well! Ministry is my highlight every single day, I come back dirty and sweaty, but my heart is so full! These kids come from all different backgrounds, many of their parents are rarely present as they are forced to leave early for work and get home late, having to walk over an hour to work. Because of this kids are either raised by their grandmother or they raise themselves and their younger siblings. Despite their circumstances they come in every day with huge smiles on their faces and will cling to us for the whole day.
Each morning we leave for ministry at 10:00, but I wake up pretty early each day because my tent gets hot real quick in the morning. It’s been such a blessing to have that time in the mornings to sit with God and read the Word. We start each morning of ministry with a devotion led by a member of my team and setting our focus on Him. Then we begin playing with kids on the playground. In the morning there is only a small group of kids because most of them are at school. It gives us a lot of time to be intentional with each kid. Then around 2 o’clock all the older kids, anywhere from 5-14, come from school. They get their meal for the day and then we simply get to play games and hang out with them. Because of many of their circumstances the best things we can do for is simply love them. They just want to have someone care for them and hug them. The care point is the place where they get to simply be a kid. Many of these kids take care of their younger siblings, but at the care point, we get to take care and love them. It’s so awesome to be apart of this ministry, it’s very different from the ministry we did in South Africa. In South Africa we shared the gospel and here we share the love of Jesus by simply loving on these kids. It’s different but both hold so much value! Kids just want to hug you all day and each day they get more and more comfortable with you, it’s already so hard to leave each day.
Nights are eating meals together as one big family, spending time with our team, which has been even sweeter since we aren’t doing ministry with each other, and watching the sunset and stars! It’s beautiful here and every still moment reminds me of God’s love. When everything else has quieted, the Spirit of God can come freely, His love can come freely. His peace is in the stillness and I am so thankful. I am so thankful for all the ways I’ve been growing and all the ways God’s been showing up in my life. By His love, I can love others, and His love is overflowing and never ending!
Thank you for reading and for all the prayers. I don’t have wifi (expect for this once) so unfortunately I won’t be posting updates until later, but please continue to pray, for my squad and all the kids and families here!
Fundraising Update!! I am 100% funded and so so grateful to all of you who supported me and continue to support me in prayer!! Thank you, I appreciate it more than I can say, so thank you!
(So sorry, none of the pictures are uploading. Hopefully I will be able to get photos on my next blog if the wifi is better)
