25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 5:25-34
Swaziland. I’ll be honest is a country that I had only heard about from having studied some geography in college. Even when we were told we would be going to Swaziland for month 10, I didn’t really have a care at all to go and was just anxiously hoping it was already month 11 so I could be in South Africa.
I am working slowly through Matthew using a commentary as well as writing my own. Ironically a section of verse we so commonly quote but don’t truly understand are the ones listed above from Matthew 5, talking about worrying. God has used these verses and this month to teach me about being focused on the present, because tomorrow is not guaranteed. He has totally rocked my world this month being here in Swaziland. I absolutely love everything about this country including the amazing Indiana fall weather and the amazing landscapes.
This month we are living in Mpaka with another team, The Janes, in a small house on the grounds of a Nazarene Church.
We are spending the week working at a pre-school near the church, known as the Care-Point. The mornings are spent with some of us doing much needed manual labor and repairs around the grounds while the other half of the team helps teach.
Working manual labor has been fun and so far we have chopped firewood, built a fence around the garden with thorn bushes, put tires in for the children to play on, and repaired the jungle-gym that was lacking several bolts and had several missing planks (One hole is big enough that while I was playing with a child under the jungle-gym another kid fell through the hole and landed on me!) On Sundays we attend and help teach at the Nazarene Church we are staying at.
This month has made me realize how we need to look at each day and not look ahead and miss things that the Lord is placing in front of you. I was so excited for South Africa that I was almost ready to skip Swaziland. However, Swaziland is a country that is ravished with HIV, with around 64% of the deaths each year comes from HIV. HIV is tearing this country apart and breaking the families.
I see it in the eyes of the children I play with and hold each day at the preschool. As I stare into their lifeless eyes, there is no joy. There is no happiness. There is no emotion. I can only try to begin to imagine the horrific things these children had to experience. I am so truly blessed to try and bring some of Jesus’ love to these children. All I can do is hold them, and tell them they are loved in broken Swati. Realizing that my team and I might be the only ones that ever show them God’s love makes me so blessed and honored to be here, and to think I was so selfish that I wanted to get to South Africa so bad.
(photo credit: Amanda Grimwood)
DON’T WAIT FOR TOMORROW! Live in the present. If God throws you a curveball, don’t duck because you might just miss something.
