I just wanted to write this blog, so y’all know what my every day looks like. My heart grows each and every day for this country, and the people that dwell here. I love the slow place of life, and being cut off from the things we let take over our busy schedules. It just has been super beautiful to really be where my feet are, and dive into intimacy with the Lord.
6:00:
alarms blasting and roosters are crowing. At this time I’m crawling out of bed to either run or lift some water jugs. Surprisingly there is not a 24/7 near our base in Swaziland, so finding random things to pick up and put down is about as good as a work out gets.
7:00:
morning devotions as a squad starts. For the first two months, to keep everyone accountable we all meet in the commons room to spend time with ABBA. This has set up a good routine on making sure our days start with diving in to the Word.
7:45:
Me and my team eat breakfast together, and converse about what the Lord showed us in quiet time!!
8:15-10:30:
this weird time between eating, and ministry looks different from day to day. Most of the time it consists of continuing my quiet time, and going back in to my secret place with the Lord. I am currently reading a Romans commentary by R.C Sproul, and if you haven’t dived deep in to Romans, I highly suggest it!! Paul wrote such a powerful book. I also have been listening to Bema podcast which takes you through the whole bible looking at the Hebrew and middle eastern perspective. I also highly suggest listening to this podcast. It has shown me how perfectly written the Bible truly is. Sometimes, this time looks like doing laundry, song writing class, playing cards, or just having intentional conversations with the people around me.
11:00: MINISTRY!!!!!!!
Our ministry is kids, kids, and more kids!! My team and I were perfectly placed at Maba 1, which is one of the care points in Swaziland. A care point is a place in a community where the kids can come during the day to play, be discipled, and eat food! There are care points all around Swaziland, which feeds around 7,000 children. They all have gogo’s, which is grandma in Eswatini, that cook rice for the kids every day. These ladies are so beyond servant hearted, and love the kids like their own. My favorite part of our care point is our shepherd, Sithulele (see-tu-lay-lay)!!! He is the best!! He has such a heart for the Lord, and a passion for the kids. He is 23 years old, and we are his last team. 🙁 Shepherds normally only serve for three years, and he is going to South Africa to do schooling after we leave. I wish we could take him to Thailand with us hahaha. We normally start out our day with a house visit. In a house visit we get to sit down and talk with the kid’s parents/grandparents, and encourage them with singing, scripture, and prayer. This can be awkward at times, but so much good has come from them. It has been really cool to just hear from them what it is like to grow up in Swaziland, and raise kids there. Their outlook on living for today and being present in the moment that God has blessed them with rather than always planning for the future has been very refreshing. After the house visit, we go back to the care point, and play with our kids!! This looks like a lot of spinning, running, slides, dancing, or just simply holding them. The kids are crazy about playing uno!! Every time they see me they ask “cards?” We have started doing a washing day once a week to clean the kids clothes, and take the load off of their parents. (No pun intended) We also give a lesson once a week full of singing “father Abraham” and acting out skits. My favorite part of the day is when the bus comes to pick us up. Not because we are leaving, but because all the kids come running to give us hugs before we leave. It is the cutest thing!!! I really just want to pack all of these kids in my suite case with me. They are just full of true JOY, and are so caring with each other.
4:00:
For a little refresher on hot days, we go to the local grocery store after ministry, and get ICE BLOCKS!!! Ice blocks are one rands, which is like 20 cents in USD. They are just shaved ice put in these plastic bags with juice, and they are soooo good. Nothing is better on a 105 degree day. This time after ministry is also shower time. A good way to describe how dirty we get after ministry is “spray tanned with dirt” I can’t tell you how many times I have thought I had a chaco tan, and then I take a shower a magically my “tan” washed away. So yah we all kinda rush to the showers to attempt to be clean after a day of kids and dirt.
5:30:
we eat dinner!!!! We have a cook named Doli. She is so talented!! Let me tell you SHE CAN COOK. I am so thankful for her and team Selah, which is the team that helps her cook. With out them we would not just be eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch, but dinner as well. Haha.
after dinner:
we have team time, which looks different every day. Mondays we have worship, which we have been doing whole squad worship not just with our team. Tuesdays we have bible project, which we dive deeper in to the Bible together and ask more theological questions about life and what we study that night. Wednesdays we have storytelling, which is a time of talking about what has happened that week, and writing blogs about it. Thursdays we have feedback, which is where we point each other higher. We share a quality that we see in each person, tell an example of when we saw that quality in that person, and how they can grow in it. Fridays, we have fun time team time, which is where we get to choose what we do. This time is meant just to bond the team with laughing together, and just hanging out together. Saturdays we have debrief, which s a time to talk about what the Lord is doing, how we are feeling, what we are struggling with, or anything we need to talk through. We also answer questions in this time that gets sent back to our mentor back in the states, so they are able to pray for us and follow our journey.
So yeh that is swazi in a nut shell!!! Slow and mundane but impactful and life changing!!
