Today is the last day of processing through Africa. I loved my time in Africa. I fell in love with the people, the culture, and the scenery. Eight months ago I was in Swaziland. It seriously is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. Here are the main things from Swazi!
Country: Swaziland
City: Manzini
Ministry: We worked with Adventures in Missions Swaziland during Month 3. AIM started care points all over Swaziland sponsored by churches and individuals in America. The care points provide a warm meal for the area kids and Christian discipleship. Our main ministry was helping out with Care Point Christmas Parties. We were also able to help out at the city Care Points with classes and graduation parties. Our other ministry this month was Hope House. Hope House is a faith-based home for people with serious illnesses who needed a place to recuperate. We went to spend time with the patients and pray for them. Raychel's blog has a lot more detail here.
Contact: Our main contact this month was Xolani Moyo who is on the discipleship team with AIM Swaziland.
Living Arrangements: We lived in a team house this month. It was nice to have a space to ourselves and beds!
Teams We Served With: Team Redeeming DUST served with Team Genesis in Swaziland.
Money & Exchange Rate: Emalangeni (8 Emalangeni= 1 U. S. Dollar)
Language: SiSwati (it’s crazy including lots of clicking sounds) and English
Off Day Fun: We spent most of our off days relaxing and getting Internet at the café down the road. One off day we went to Mantenga Falls, one of the touristy things in Swaziland. Thanksgiving was this month and we were able to spend it with 3 other teams from the squad at our friends Dustin and Amanda’s apartment from church.
Sayings From the Month: “Yebo” (Yes, in SiSwati which ending up becoming our next team name)
Great Things From the Month:
-I shared a room with the 4 other girls on my team in Swaziland. It was basically like a slumber party every night. We had so much fun together and laughed so much.
-There was an English speaking (for the most part) church (Living Waters Church of the Nazarene) just around the corner from our house, which was such a blessing. We met Dustin and Amanda who are missionaries in Manzini and knew our squad mate Amy Dillman. They were such a blessing and so fun to spend time with.
-It was so fun playing with the kids at the care points and helping the women cook. The little girls loved to teach me hand clap games.
-I continued to fall more and more in love with God’s children this month.
Hard Parts of the Month:
-This month had its fair share of hard parts. I felt like I spent most of the month in a funk. I was frustrated and impatient. God was slowly bringing things up to the surface that I needed to work through and it was hard to hear. But it all ended up for my good.
-The city care points were rough. These kids were mean to one another and hard to be around. I joked that I kept forgetting I was a Christian when I was there. God definitely used it to teach me patience and remind me that these kids were still his children who needed our love.
-We experienced a lot of Spiritual Warfare in Swaziland.
Lessons Learned:
-Trust Him.
-Praise God at all times.
-I grew a lot in my prayer and intimacy with God this month.
-I continued to learn more patience. This is never-ending.
-I learned to stand firm in what I believe.
-Look at the heart issue, not the symptoms.
-Giving myself grace.
-Seek Him!
-I am chosen.
Memories:
-I loved sitting on our front porch watching the beautiful sunsets and crazy lightening storms.
-We had so much fun playing spades and cards together. We didn’t have Internet at the house, which I actually enjoyed. It allowed us to spend more time together instead of being distracted
-I will never forget the kids at the care points carrying out cabbages on their heads after the Christmas parties. It was so cool.
-Our first day of ministry was bagging candy for the Christmas parties. We bagged almost 3,000 bags with candy, cookies, and chips.
-It wasn’t until the last day of ministry that I fell in love with Swaziland. The African dances that the kids did are out Christmas parties were breathtaking.
-One of the ladies at Hope House gave me the SiSwati name Sthembiso which means trusting.
Random Thought of the Month:
-This was our last month as Team Redeeming DUST. We had team changes prior to getting to China.
-The big lesson the Lord taught me in Africa is Seek Him!
Africa was so fun! I learned so much. Next stop was China and whew…do I really have to write a blog about it? Just kidding. Check back tomorrow to hear about December in China.
