Month 7 has sadly come and gone and the end of this whole chapter of life is coming uncomfortable close. So rather than look ahead to that whole thing, I will look to the past and fill you in on what we actually did last month. 🙂
Our second month in Africa was spent in Swaziland, which boarders South Africa and Mozambique. I didn’t know where it was/that it even existed before I went there a few years ago, so don’t feel too bad if you don’t either.
As you might have already guess from how unknown the country is, it is very small with a population near 1 million. Swaziland was at one time a fairly wealthy nation in Africa but AIDS/HIV has taken its toll over the years and it is now estimated that 7 of 10 adults have the virus, 30% of children are born with it, and if things continue on this path it will no longer be a country in the next 30-50 years because of the amount of people dying from the virus.
Last month we worked with an Adventures In Missions or AIM office in Manzini, the city we were based in. My team was split into 3 groups working with different aspects of what AIM is doing in Swaziland. We were working either at Carepoints, Administration at the office, or with their agricultural projects. I was working in the office doing administration, but I will give you a brief overview of all the ministry opportunities.
So Carepoints. You’re probably wondering what those are. I guess I’ll tell you. Carepoints are sponsored pre-schools where kids can come to get a head start on their education and also 2 meals a day during the week. Most Carepoints are sponsored by churches and meals are provided for kids of all ages, not just the kids attending classes. My teammates who worked at various Carepoints helped with teaching the kids.
The agricultural aspect of AIM is working to create community gardens at the Carepoints so that the carepoints can be more self-sustaining. My teammates working on that did a lot of hoeing, digging, planting, and poopsmithing aka fertilizing. 🙂
And now the most exciting of them all, office administration! This is where I come in 🙂
Our main focus was preparing banners and taking them to the Carepoints for the children to finish up so that they can be presented to sponsor teams from America that come in the summer as a gift for the church that sponsors the Carepoint. Along with that we did a lot of profiling kids and projects they had already completed for their sponsors, cleaning, and odd jobs. Although we wont be able to see the fruit of our labour, and sometimes it seemed somewhat meaningless in the grand scheme of things, I am grateful for the opportunity to experience behind the scenes missions. Not only did it open my eyes to what Missions really takes but it has also broadened my definition of missions.
Over-all my month in Swaziland was a great time of building new relationships with my temporary team, seeing old Swazi friends, and advancing the kingdom in the most underrated yet essential ways.
