Care points! Kids! Rice! Maba 1!
A few words that sum up ministry in Swazi. Everyday our squad splits up into our teams and go to our care point. A care point is a central place in a community that supports the kids, giving them one meal a day and a place to be loved and just hang out. With all the care points combined they are feeding 7,000 kids daily. For most of these kids the rice they get is their one meal they will eat for that entire day and they won’t eat on the weekends until they come back on Monday again. That being said, the care points are an amazing place that are raising up kids in these communities who really don’t have any other options or people supporting them to finish school by helping pay their school fees and discipling and loving them well everyday.
My teams care point is called Maba 1 and we absolutely love it there! The kids range from age 1-18, the little ones are there in the morning and later in the afternoon the kids from primary and high school come too. We also go on plenty of house visits which normally look like walking around and just going up to somebody’s house yelling “sglegi lei kah” which is pretty much a swazi doorbell letting the people know we’re there! We visit people in the community hearing their testimonies and sharing words from the Lord, mutually encouraging each other most of the time. They love when we sing so we normally break into some worship song too! We get to pray for them and their families and help with anything around the house if needed. These house visits have been a real blessing because we’ve met some really inspiring people and I know I’ve seen the Lords provision and protection over these families we’ve visited.
Each care point also has gogo’s. This means grandmother in English and they come everyday to cook for the kids. Even though they are considered “grandmothers” most of them are pretty young and have little kids themselves. They all love the Lord and have the sweetest relationship with the kids. They are insanely strong and I admire how they volunteer their time for these kids.
Care points also have a Shepard who is in charge of all the kids. Our Shepard’s name is Sithulele (see-tu-lay-lay) and he is 23 years old. He is so amazing and loves the kids and what he does so much. He has given his time to care and love on these kids, teaching them about Jesus and giving them a place to dream. He also takes us on the house visits I mentioned earlier and is our translator! He is well respected in the community and by the kids. They look up to him a lot and is setting a really good example for all of them to follow. I was hanging out with him and the gogo the other day asking him his biggest dreams in life and he told me his dream to open an orphanage in Swaziland. He passionate about giving kids a home and a place to be loved. Hopefully some of these words are able to capture his heart and how anointed he is to be a Shepard at Maba 1!
This is what ministry is! Everyday 10:30-4 we are there hanging out with the kids doing whatever the day holds. Today we washed all of the kids clothes and it was such a cool way to serve them! That is what our life has looked like here! Loving on the amazing kids and just enjoying whatever new the Lord has for us each day!
