After seven years of anticipation I am finally living life in eSwatini! And it may just be my favourite month yet.
Even in our twelve days here so far, the Lord has revealed so much to me, grown me, and shown me His redemption on such a beautiful level – but you’ll hear about all of that in another blog. Here, I’d love to simply set the scene of what this month looks like.
First, eSwatini (literally “land of the Swazi”, previously called “Swaziland”) is beautiful. Similar to Lesotho, eSwatini is incredibly mountainous. But rather than the subtle brown that coats the country due to the drought, eSwatini is green, luscious, and filled with all the flora and fauna my ecology-wired brain loves (it’s GREAT). We’re located about 30 minutes outside of Manzini, so we get a great mix of civilization and chill countryside. The evenings here are chilly and the days are nice and warm (and incredibly humid relative to Lesotho). It thunders and lightnings often, which leads me into my next point.
I’m tenting all month! It’s an interesting change sleeping by yourself after sharing a room with 3+ people for the last four months. But it’s especially interesting when it’s lighting storming all evening (don’t worry, mom, my tent is doing great!). Even more than that, it’s hilarious because the property we’re staying on is the most beautiful property we’ve stayed on on the race so far! We have mango trees, flower bushes, the NICEST bathrooms with RUNNING WATER. Guys, we even have a TV that our whole squad (it’s all-squad month and all 40 of us are here together!!) get to watch movies in the evenings! Life is great and I’m loving this living situation.
Even more, I love my ministry and my daily life. Every morning our squad has breakfast at 6:45am before most of them head out to their ministries at 7:45am. Some people are teaching preschoolers, some are working in agriculture, and some are even working at the Adventures in Missions office (it’s like a real 9-5 job!). My ministry doesn’t start until 10, meaning I get a solid three hours of sweet time with Jesus. It’s the best way to start my day and it’s been so life giving. At 10:00, me and seven of my friends get picked up by our ministry hosts, Siabonga, Situmo, and Nati. The three of them work for AIM here and lead us in our ministry – housevisits and carepoints!
The eight of us will break into two groups before heading out to different homes for house visits. So far, most of the houses that we’ve visited have been about an hour walk from where we’re staying. We get to share a Word, encourage the individuals we visit, and pray for them! We’ve already seen God do some insane healings and bring such life. One of my very favourite moments of home visits so far, though, was when we got to give a gentleman a pair of shoes. The 40ish year old man started jumping up and down with the BIGGEST smile on his face – I promise it was even better than a kid on Christmas morning.
After house visits our group walks another 45 minutes or so to our carepoint! Essentially we serve the kids at an afterschool program. We play with them, feed them, and we get to share a story from the Bible with them before playing some games. It’s exhausting in the best ways and our walks home are filled with tired smiles and full hearts.
Our evenings look like making dinner (one team cooks once a week), team time (WITH MY NEW TEAM ‘STEVE’), and hanging out with my sweet friends.
Life here is sweet, nicely structured, and filled with beautiful people, friends, and Jesus. I’m loving life. Eswatini has been all the things I could have hoped it to be so far. God’s doing something, and I’m so thankful.
