Hey everyone! I’ve had very limited wifi access of late cause I’m basically in the bush of Africa! To get any sort of wifi I have to travel by bus to a mini resort called Nisela Safaris. Even when we get here it takes a long time to connect and we might not even be able to connect so you might not hear much of me for the next 3 months.
So anyways I made it! I’m in Swaziland! To get here we had 4 days of travel that included 23 hours of layovers and 20 hours of flights and I don’t even know how many hours of driving. Driving in we passed through brown grassy plains with your most typical looking African trees spotted here and there. It’s pretty typical to see cows and goats and chickens just roaming around and if you want to pet a zebra or spot a giraffe you can go down the road to Nisela Safaris! It is dry and hot and dusty here which means showering is a sacred treasure and its surprisingly more accessible that I thought! We are the first squad to stay at a new compound and It is pretty posh to what I was expecting. We have showers with very low water pressure but a huge upgrade from a bucket shower. WE HAVE BUNK BEDS! Like legit beds! Praise Jesus what a blessing! For breakfast we have oatmeal and eggs and for lunch we have PB&J and dinner is whatever the Swaziland Gogo’s (cooks) make us. I can tell you I’m on CARB OVERLOAD right now haha!
My team and I walk an hour to and from ministry (care point) Tuesday through Friday which ends up equaling 6 miles a day! At least our carbs are going somewhere! At ministry we love on the kids and visit local homes to read people the Bible and encourage and pray for them. Most of the people live in tin shacks the size of a bathroom and others live in houses made from stacked sticks with clay and a thatched roof. They don’t have much to eat at all and the kids usually come to the care point to get there only meal for the day. Even so these are a JOYOUS people. They sing and dance and laugh with there whole hearts. The little kids cling to our skirts and love to play with us. And they are so independent! There’s one little girl we call GB (grimy baby) that gets to the care point by herself and she’s only 2! I went to Swazi church this past Sunday and it was awesome! I got to lead some worship with a few teammates which was a blast! Church goes for about 3 hours and the worship alone took about 2 of those hours which I did not have a problem with! This place makes me feel so alive and without any social media or phone or literally anything that needs electricity distracting me I’ve been able to focus on people and the Lord and I’ve experienced the Lord more deeply than ever before.
The Lord has been revealing his abundance to me in the past week. He has given me everything I have and I’ve never fully comprehend the extent of this love but as it sinks in I’m completely overwhelmed by it. I’m living in a mindset of thankfulness and praise and it’s the most peaceful and joyful feeling I’ve ever experienced. I’m reminded by Colossians 3:12-17
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Don’t just act in compassion, Kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. CLOTHE yourself with these things putting them on your heart every morning and displaying them to everyone you come in contact with. The Lord is teaching me how to become selfless in these things and it’s certainly been hard to give grace and love when I’m frustrated and hurt but how could I not when God’s given me so much grace.
Another thing I’m learning to live by is confidence in the voice he gave me. Both singing and speaking wisdom over others. I’ve let the lies of “I’m to young”, “I don’t know enough”, “what difference could I make”, and “I’m not good enough” rule in my heart. The Lord quickly put all that to death and showed me how to have confidence in him. He says to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom”. For he can use anyone to build up the church! I used to think that my singing ability was meant just for myself but God told me he gave me the talents and traits I have to bring him glory. Being able to sing for him is the way I connect with him and I’ve experienced some amazing things already just letting go of those previous lies and giving everything I have to him. Hallul is the Hebrew root for the word praise and it means to be clear, to praise, to shine, to boast, show, to rave, celebrate, to be clamorously foolish. One night I was praising him and this word just came out of my mouth as I started singing in the spirit. 3 days later I found out what It meant. How cool that I had been praising God in Hebrew and I didn’t even know it! Hallul is something that I want live by. I want my life to be constantly praising and glorifying him. I don’t want to hold back from fear but to live freely celebrating all that God is and what he’s done for me. I want to dance out of the joy he’s given me even if it looks foolish. And I want to shine like Moses did when he came down from being in the presence of the Lord. And now that the veil is torn and the spirit lives inside me I don’t have to cover my face. I get to show the world the brilliance of the Lord living inside me.
