“Ngaze ngajabula eNkosini” (I’ve rejoiced in the Lord)
A Brief Summary
This month we’re staying in Manzini, Swaziland at a team house (that means there’s twenty of us sharing one space). We’re helping Adventures in Missions staff and Children’s hope chest, who’ve planted a base in the city. Their focus is to mentor/disciple the children in the area as well as raise up leaders and empower them to succeed in Christ and the community.
The twenty of us were assigned to different carepoints including: manual labor, IT, data entry, teaching, graphics, and curriculum—I’ve been happy to be assigned to curriculum.
SO what have I been doing this first week of ministry?
The shepherds (raised up leaders) teach Bible lessons to their small group and translate from Swazi to English, and they’ve been developing new curriculum. I’ve been looking over the English translation and making sure the content makes sense. I’ve also helped with the content for the training that they’re planning on presenting to the potential small group leaders.
Why Focus on Empowering Children?
On my first day in the office I found myself doing lots of observing. I was working with the shepherds on the new curriculum, and I noticed that some were more or less hesitant to voice their ideas/opinions than others. I didn’t think much of it—we were, after all, tired from working nonstop from 9am-3pm.
It wasn’t until I was talking with one of the coordinators afterwards that I began to feel enlightened.
“How long do people usually go to school here?” I asked purely out of curiosity.
“Until their money runs out,” he answered.
This caught my attention. He explained that primary school is free, but high school costs money; it’s not uncommon for a kid to take a break for a couple of years to save money and then go back, but they may not advance to the next grade. He mentioned a shepherd at the base who’s 23 and she’d just finished high school.
“When you talk about graduating school, you mean college or a university. When they tell you they finished school, they mean high school.”
He continued to explain that the teachers aren’t paid well, and some recently went on a strike which resulted in them getting beaten by police. In school, the children are not as encouraged to ask questions, they listen to the teacher. This is why many times if you’re a guest, the people here will listen to what you say, and even if you’re wrong, they won’t say anything. They’ve never been encouraged to voice their ideas/thoughts.
It began to click why this program is so important. The people are smart and capable, but they’re not told that enough. That’s why the idea of a shepherd raising up and mentoring a small group leader is vital. The heart of this curriculum is to empower the children and challenge them to change from the inside out. They allow Christ to change their hearts, and they grow in confidence as they begin to understand their worth in Him, then they can have a positive impact on their community and church.
I’m far from knowing everything about how things work here, but this week God showed me the importance of being involved in this type of ministry.
Hard at work on curriculum
Some people from our team with some of the staff
