Swaziland is such a beautiful country. The views are absolutely breath taking. And the people are so full of life and always so welcoming. Here are some memories that I made with my team right along side me.
The first day we got to Manzini we naturally picked our rooms to sleep in. The girls on my team got a room with each other. Not 5 minutes into being there I hoped on my bed, thinking that was okay… it wasn’t. Lets just say the bed wasn’t put together very well and four boards broke from under me.
We found out our ministry the night we got into our home. We were told that we were going to be doing hospital ministry with Hope House. I wasn’t quite sure what that consisted of, but on The Race that’s pretty normal. We got there the first day, and it was slightly awkward. Some of the patients couldn’t speak English nor understand it. After being there for a week, relationships were quickly formed. The patients loved the company, and I fell in love with their joy and high spirits.
Esther is the mother of one of the patients, Timba. When Timba first got the he couldn’t hardly talk because he had so many sores in his mouth. Because of these sores it was hard for Timba to eat. We would go into his room talk with Esther some and then pray over Timba. After a week of doing that, Esther told some of my teammates that Timba always asks when his friends are going to come again. She also informed us that every time we were in his room praying for him he would start to feel better. We started to see an improvement in Timba. Esther said that he was eating A LOT, and his sores were going away. It was very obvious that Timba was physically improving, and for us that was so encouraging.
Oh Valentine’s Day. The best one I’ve ever had. We woke up to a decorated house with some candy and encouraging words everywhere. The all girls team that was with us this month decorated the living room with hearts and encouraging words about who God says we are. Later that night the men sat us down and told us they had bought all 15 of us girls, pedicures. Of course there was screaming. Then followed a short dance party. Never have I felt so loved but 20 other people. It was beautiful to see the body of Christ come together and lift each other up with kind words and actions. The pedicure was amazing. After being in Mozambique for a month, the feet needed some TLC, and they got it.
Our team decided to finally give into my nagging and play a game! Many people know it as fish bowl, my San Angelo peeps know it as Naked (I have yet to figure out why we call it that). I have yet to laugh as hard as I did that night with my team. We always have a good time, but that night was full of laughter and memories.
During our travel day, our whole squad got the opportunity to drop off two of the teams at their ministry. Little did we know our eyes were in for a treat. Their ministry was on top of a mountain. I have yet to see a more beautiful place. The mountains and the sky went on forever. Our Father knew what He was doing when creating that place. We have a crafty Maker.
We went to a church, Living Waters Church of Nazarene, right down the road from where we were staying. I walked in and immediately missed my home church. We have yet to have the opportunity to go to church, sit, and listen. We got to do this for two Sunday’s in a row. It was so refreshing. This month was Youth Month. Their hearts behind that is basically raising up their youth to know Jesus and make Jesus known, and the Lord was and is blessing that. The first Sunday we went a 15-year-old young man, JJ, preached. He preached on the Great Mission, which we all saw fitting. It was so encouraging to see The Church come up behind their youth and encourage them in the Lord.
Our first weekend in Manzini and of course our team wanted to make memories. We had heard about the Cultural Village of Swaziland from one of the patients at Hope House. We decided for our first weekend we wanted to do that. We got to the place where it was supposed to be and paintball caught our eyes. Needless to say, we went paintballing… in Swaziland. We ate the best pizza of our lives afterwards, and then decided to find this Cultural Village. We walked, and walked, and walked. Oh yeah, and it rained and rained and rained. We eventually found it, but unfortunately it was around 4 o’clock and the showing was at 3:30. Our day was packed with fun and we definitely made memories.
