At the beginning of March, we wrapped up our month in eSwatini (formally known as Swaziland.)
My ministry last month looked a lot different from other months. I have been given the honor to be the Squad financial coordinator, and in short, that means I made sure everyone on my squad got fed breakfast, lunch and dinner every day last month. This came along with budgeting, meal planning and a lot of grocery shopping. I wrote a blog all about that.
Another ministry I was involved in looked like being a preschool teacher for 4-6-year old’s at Manganui Preschool. Tuesday – Friday I would head out to the city of Manzini by public transportation and then Amanda G, and I would walk 20 minutes to our care point. We were put in a classroom with our Teacher Cindy. When we began our month, we noticed how pregnant our teacher was and walking home the first day I mentioned how I didn’t think she’d be there the whole month. Well, sure enough, we spent most of the days in that classroom without her. With no official training, Amanda and I did our best to teach our kiddos with what they were learning last month. We worked a lot on writing, counting, learning shapes, and spent a lot of time coloring.
I believe our presence at the preschool was appreciated & I’d say we did pretty good for not having any professional training as teachers.
Last month was our 2nd all squad month, and it was different from Thailand for many reasons including our living situation, dynamics of our squad, and our surroundings to name a few. Last month we lived on a homestead with a local family that has spent the past years developing a beautiful piece of land to host teams on. Half of our squad spent the month tenting, and the other half of us were inside sleeping on bunk beds. I was one of the lucky ones inside 🙂 Squad dynamics were different in the sense that as time goes on we feel more and more comfortable with each other. We experience a lot together and therefore grow a lot together. I love our O squad community. We were also located outside of the city so wherever we went included taking public transportation. It was nice to spend another month in an area outside of a big town.
February was my first month with my team 7th Heaven. Although we didn’t do ministry together, we had good times of connection through nightly team time and eating meals together. This month (March) is “Manistry” month which means all the men on my squad are doing ministry together and the women of the two co-ed teams are together.
We wrapped up the month with a two full day mini debrief in Lobamba, Swaziland. We had team debriefs and an opportunity to learn from our raised-up squad leaders. We left the country of Swaziland early March 2nd and took a bus 5 hours to Johannesburg where we caught our ride to Heidelberg. This place is quickly becoming one of my favorite months on the race, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it in my next recap!!!
Thank you all for reading another blog and continuing to keep this incredible adventure in your prayers! Love and miss you all!
Praise Reports!
– My squad leaders recognized how stressed I was with my work as squad financial coordinator and arranged for me to have a day all to myself!!
– I got to spend a lot of quality time with people on my squad this month and enjoyed making more connections.
Prayer Requests!
– Parent Vision Trip is coming up!!! Please keep the travel of our parents in your prayers, and pray that God would use that week to change the parents of the people on my squad in radical ways!!
– We have a loooooong travel day at the end of the month when we head to Nicaragua; please keep our safety and health in your prayers.
– At the end of this month, Alex, one of the alumni squad leaders, will be going home (Alex had a 6-month commitment to stay for “manistry” month) please pray for his transition back.
Love, Ashley
