It’s been three months since I left the States, and for the last two months I have had slim to non internet. Actually, lets be real, I have had no internet, minus a few five minute spurts, long enough to send out pre-typed messages and emails. Though it has been hard to not be able to communicate with friends and family back home – my days have been packed out with amazing ministry opportunities and activities.
I wanted to take a blog and make it super chill yet informative for all of you at home that may be interested. I simply want you too feel like you are with me on this race. So I thought it would be fun to include some of my favorite memories, highlights, bloopers, (this is what Kindred labels all of our ridiculous moments when we laugh our tooshy’s off), and heart movements.
So, grab a bowl of popcorn, get yourself cozy and enjoy the freedom of looking into the life that I have been living for the past two months.
Month two:
-We were located in Swaziland on top of a random mountain in the middle of the tiny country with less people in it than in Indiana.
-It was all squad month which meant that the fifty four of us were all together, rather than just my team.
-We worked at an orphanage, called El Shaddai. El Shaddai is run by a woman and a few aunties (local women). They serve the community and the children with love and have amazing kiddos that will stir something up inside of you.
-Because it was all squad month, we were given jobs to focus on for the month. I got to work in the clinic on Monday’s and Wednesday’s with my team mate, Kait and a squad mate, Eric. On Tuesday’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s I was on the fencing team.
-From 8am-1pm we would report to our jobs. From 1pm-2pm we had a break for lunch. Then from 2pm-4pm we had buddy time. 4pm-5pm was team time. We usually ate dinner at about 7/730 pm and after that was free time.
-Buddy time was a time set aside for us to have one on one time to interact with our assigned child. My buddy’s name was Siphe (see-pay) and she is 12 years old. She was packed with stubbornness and sass. But God really pushed me to love on her with His unconditional love and patience.
Most days I would leave buddy time feeling very defeated and ready to burst into tears. But by the last week, Siphe had told me she loved me and we worked toward a healthy relationship where we both loved on one another.
-At the clinic Kait, Eric and I would see patients that would come from all over the mountain side. We did the best that we could to serve the physically frail and pray over them before they left.
-Fencing team was an absolute blast! It mostly consisted of digging up old fence poles that had been cemented three and a half feet into the ground, digging holes and mixing cement. I really enjoyed the physical labor and all the laughs that filled those days.
-In free time, I usually found myself spending a significant amount on the rocks at the top of this mountain. I swear the Holy Spirit was living inside of those rocks. Jesus was always so faithful to meet me there every time.
-My first run was 2 and 1/2 miles down the mountain and then literally 2 and 1/2 miles uphill all the way back….needless to say that I leaned more towards my “to-go” CrossFit work outs and circuits with the bro’s.
-All squad worship nights were my favorite nights. One night we gathered in the chapel, completely dark, yet lit by the candle light. Some of my squad mates sang worship and we sat, worshiping, listening to spoken words, and taking communion together. A very special night for the squad to share together.
-One day, Kait, Kell and I walked to a near by waterfall. A local 14 year old boy led us there. However, to get to this beautiful nature piece, we had to walk through a couple of marijuana fields, across a river, through a mini jungle and scale down the water fall to get a good view and dip our toes into the lagoon.
-Getting to the nearest city that had wifi and a real grocery store was quite the trip. Myself and about 12 other squad mates packed into a 6 person vehicle and drove 2 hours. It was here, that Kyle, Kaitlyn, Kelly, Danny and I found out the news about our whole team getting fully funded!!! Praise the Lord!
-One day, all 8 men on U squad served the women of U squad. It was unreal, really! We woke up to strawberry pancakes and coffee being served to us at picnic tables that appeared from no where. At lunch, they made a food truck, called Peter, Boaz and Jesus, serving PB&J’s, an apple, and a hand written note with a piece of chocolate. Then we arrive to dinner in our nicest dresses, and are served a three course meal, on top of homemade hot chocolate to warm us up before we indulged. After dessert was served, the men told us that we were going to move into a time of worship. During worship, we were pulled aside, one by one and they washed our feet. It was one of my favorite days because I could see Jesus’ humility, love, intentionality and admiration for all of His daughters through the men on our team.
-On the last night in Swaziland, the squad made all the kiddos on property homemade pizzas! It was a joy to make them a classic american dish, then watch them go cooocooo over it! Its the simple things, right?
-One of my favorite blooper moments was our team got labeled as the team that talks about our bowl movements and our wiping methods the most. Haha Our squad knows our team to be very open and sometimes vulgar – but hey at least everyone knows that they can talk about anything with us.
Month 3:
-It took us a whopping 54 hours to get from Swaziland to Mozambique. Barf. To give you a perspective, it took us longer to move one country up on the map than it did for us to fly from Georgia to South Africa.
-During the bus ride, we rode with two other teams: Raj and Wildfire. We dropped Raj off somewhere along the way and Wildfire stuck it out with us for 52 out of the 54 hrs. We hardly stopped to eat, stopping to pee wasn’t really a thing for our driver, and most of us slept on the bus. We got stopped in Dondo, Mozambique for about 2 1/2 hours because the police wanted us to pay 250 USD to keep moving through the country. The boys stepped outside to relieve their bladders, but when it came time for the girls needing to pee, the men would not allow us to pee outside. They claimed that too many sketchy men were around and they didn’t want any of them trying to catch a peep show. Instead, our only option was a pringles can…yep. myself and a few of the girls had no other choice but to create a mini bathroom in the van and use our only resource. Haha It’s one of my favorite memories from that horrid bus ride.
-We were in Mafambisse, Mozambique, staying in a village with a family that runs an orphanage. The primary language is Portuguese, followed by Sena, which is the local tribe in the area. 15 kids live at the home we stayed at and then there are some that are scattered around the area and a few are attending University.
-Our main ministry was building a home for a widow, going to homes and praying over people, and then we did hospital visits. While at the hospital we would go from room to room praying for the sick and weary inside. I loved hospital visits, but it was also incredibly heart breaking.
-We walked almost everywhere, but if we weren’t walking, we were riding on motor bikes. Don’t picture a Harley Davidson motorcycle – picture a dinky dirt bike. However, these were a blast to ride on and many laughs filled the air.
-Sarah, Kelly, Kaitlyn and I would all wake up at 6am to help the women with the previous nights dishes and then we would move onto our workout for the day.
-For breakfast we ate a bread roll. Lunch consisted of rice and beans and dinner was usually rice or noodles with chicken. Our poor guys on the team were consistently hungry this month, but I never heard one complaint come out of their mouths.
-Vizerna (we call her the mama of the orphanage), taught me how to crack open a coconut, and shave out the insides. I loved learning some of their little tricks they did.
-I fell in love with the culture. It was free, joyful, loving and welcoming. I clicked instantly with two girls; Mae (my) and Jodite (ja-deet). They were sisters and had a brother named Nerio. I would encourage you to go read my teammates, Kelly and Kaitlyn’s blogs about Nerio – they are very moving. Anyways, they absolutely captured my heart and whisked me away into a land of complete free flying love.
-As a team we were able to raise $1,300 for a motor bike that the orphanage needed to help the cost of transport go down. We also pooled our money together to purchase 30 new bibles for the church. Praise the Lord!
-We participated in a crusade, where Sarah and I spoke about healing, we danced, witnessed some crazy spiritual movement and prayed over many people.
-Danny, Kaitlyn and I all had jiggers pulled out of our feet. If you don’t know what a jigger is, it is a parasite worm that sneaks in through open wounds, buries into your skin and then stays alive by feeding off of your blood vessels. It was nasty to see some creature getting pulled out of my skin.
The past two months have been full of so much life; new cultures, food, smells, and experiences. Ive laughed until my stomach hurts, cried, and been moved closer to Jesus’ heart. I cant wait to see what the rest of the months hold inside of them!
