Update on ministry
The team and I have been in Swaziland for about two weeks now. We are working with the AIM office here, and our ministry is to work with the care points throughout Manzini. My teammate Courtney and I have been paired up for ministry in the office in the mornings, and a care point in the afternoons. We get to help the office with some care point reports and paperwork as well as get to hang out with the children at the care points.
Care points are like after-school programs for the children in Swaziland. Some of the care points have a Kindergarten program where the kids actually get to go to school, and the other care points have discipleships programs and after school help. Courtney and I get to work at a care point that teaches older children about sharing their faith and how to encourage others in their faith. We have also gotten to serve them food each day at the care point, its awesome knowing that the kids get a full meal that day. Many of the children in Swaziland considerer themselves lucky to eat at least one time in a day, and the people that run the care point make sure that this meal is packed with the nutrients that the children need.
The work they are doing is wonderful and it really is awesome to be a part of it.
***Update on the race (Honesty Hour)***
Its month 10 and I’m pretty much exhausted. I absolutely love the race and am so thankful that I’ve gotten to have these amazing experiences, but I’m definitely feeling like a month 10 racer. Recently, I have gotten clarity on my future, and the steps that I want to take when I get back to the states, and that has made it so hard to focus on now and staying present. This month in particular is dragging, and I really think the Lord is trying to get me to slow down and dwell in the now before it’s over…because, it’s over so soon. 38 days is going to fly by, and some fiber in me knows that, but more fibers in me think that I’m ready to be home and onto the next phase of my life.
I would really appreciate some prayers that I would just be able to stay focused on what the Lord is teaching me, on my ministry here in Swaziland, and pouring into the incredible friendships that I’ve made on the race. The World Race is fantastic, and I don’t want to be wishing it away just because I’m ready for what’s next. God’s timing is the best timing.
Choosing joy in seasons of life that aren’t your favorite is hard, but so necessary. There are things in our lives that give us joy easily, like hanging out with our friends, brunch, puppies, or the perfect flat white. Okay, those are mine, but those things give me joy easily, but this kind of joy is situational. We are joyful in the times that its easy, but when hard situations arise, or the future doesn’t look like you want it to, the joy vanishes.
I’m learning to choose joy even in the times that I am not experiencing God the way I want to or the situation is bleak or, like this month, dragging.
The Lord has allowed me to experience some of the most incredible things this month on the Race. Every season has its mountain tops and its valleys. Im currently in a valley, and trying not to wish it away just because its hard. If we live for the mountain tops, we never get to the place where we meet the end of ourselves and are forced to cling onto the Lord for the sole source of joy and strength.
Without the bitter, the sweet isn’t really that sweet. Without the valleys, we cant grasp just how high the mountain is when we reach the peak.
Praising Him in the valleys and on the mountains. In the bitter and the sweet.
Peace & Love, sweet friends.
