Mbabane,Swaziland: Month 2 El Shaddai Children’s Home
My first thought when we crossed the border into Swaziland was, “wow!” This rural area was so different from that of South Africa. Instead of being surrounded by city, stores, cars, and civilization, we were surrounded by mountains among mountains among mountains. On top of one of the highest mountains was a place called El Shaddai; my home for the next month. When I first arrived at El Shaddai Children’s home in Mbabane, Swaziland, I had no idea what this month was going to bring. What I did know, is that I was a nervous wreck. I was nervous about the whole squad being together. I was nervous about the ministry we would be doing. I was nervous about not having any internet to contact back home. I was just nervous. However, it didn’t take long for the Lord to show up, as usual.
After we arrived (a few hours later than expected), settled in, and got some much needed sleep from another long travel day, we all gathered in the common area for a meeting about what we would be doing. This was the moment of truth. One of the people of contacts name was Rachel, who had actually been to here on her race and came back a couple years after. She started to tell us that there was a number of different hands on projects that our squad would be helping with, for example; painting the roofs of the buildings, painting murals in the baby house, painting walls that need repainted, moving dirt that would soon be used to make plaster, and cleaning up the premises. We were also informed that we would be partnered with one child for the whole month, to connect with, help with homework, play with, and really just teach them the love of Christ. That is the part I was most excited about.
After the first week went by I was starting to feel more and more secure about the fact that the whole squad was together. I was getting to know a lot of the people who I hadn’t got a chance to know. I was also opening up to a lot more people, which if you know me you know is a big deal. After a few days I started to feel less like an outsider and more like an insider. I hadn’t gotten to know many people, but the ones I did were making me feel great about myself, especially my wonderful team. Team Xuberant Joy is always there for me, and I couldn’t be more blessed to have them as part of my family for 9 more months of my life.
Even though things seemed to be looking brighter for me, there were other happenings going on around me. Parts of Swaziland can be very dark and evil places filled with witch doctors and other religions, even types of “Christianity” that are so bizarre. There seemed to be a weight on people shoulders that was just getting heavier and heavier. Many of my squad mates were experiencing spiritual warfare. Some in ways from the past, and some in new ways that was making everyone very uncomfortable and for lack of better words; fearful. We rallied the squad together and prayed over those who were experiencing this, and some of the squad even did prayer walks around the property and around certain buildings on the premises where these type of things were occurring. It was scary, but we knew that wherever God was, the enemy could not be. And wherever the enemy was, there God was also, we just had to allow him to cast out the spirits and the evil that the enemy was trying to push into us. After praying and praying, a lot of what was happening seemed to have gotten better and people were starting to feel themselves again. But this just goes to show that evil is real, and that stuff like that does happen and the only way to stop it is by allowing God into your life take control.
All in all, the first couple weeks of being in Swazi have been nothing like I expected. Sure I’ve had my ups and downs, but nothing could stop me from loving my Jesus and doing His work. I am so excited to see how He works in the second half of the month, and what type of revelation He will bring to these people and my squad.
