When we crossed over the South African/ Swaziland border, we were in the mountains. I thought that surely this beautiful land would end and we would be staying in a dry, desolate place for the month. I was wrong. I was so wrong about so many things with Swaziland. This month was beautiful and was a space for God to do some awesome things. Here’s what I’m walking away from Swaziland with:
AIM Swaziland is doing ministry the right way
AIM, the organization I am doing the World Race with, has a base in Swaziland. And here, they are following Jesus the right way. Their vision statement starts with “transforming communities through discipleship.” And that is their core. Making disciples. Not getting people to go have a perfect church attendance or say the right things, but living like Jesus lived and having a faith that spreads to others. It is so inspiring to watch people want to pour into others and have a disciple to pour into. We are missing that in the states and because of it, our faith is watered down. I loved being with them this month.
Because God loves me, I am better
Much of what God was walking me through this month had to do with letting him love me (check out the blog “From Heaven, With Love”). And the core transformation he revealed to me is that I have seen his love from the wrong side. I knew God loved me, and I understand the enormity of that. He sacrificed his son, he created this world, he moves mountains, and all for me. That’s big. And for a lot of my life, I wanted to honor that love and become better for it. But what God showed me is that God’s love is what makes me better and that it is my motivation.
Community can be hard or easy
We stayed with 2 other teams this month. That’s 20 people in a 3 bedroom house. And honestly, it wasn’t awful. When people buy into community and join in on the community living, it works so well. Cleaning, cooking, communication, quiet hours all work well if everyone is considerate of others. And for the most part, everyone embraced the community living life. But for those who chose not to or fought with it, it was a struggle to find peace and joy. Shout out to my team for knocking it out of the park!
I love my team
Comparison is a hard thing to battle and when there are 7 teams in a squad that are left to figure out how to become a team, it’s easy to gauge how well or not you’re doing. But honestly, my team is incomparable and it’s because we developed naturally. We spent the first month getting to know each other and building our friendship. We laughed and just hung out. And because of that, coming into month two, we flowed really well and were able to really trust one another and go deeper in a real way. They were my highlight of the month, and I am so blessed to be with them for the first part of my race.
Swaziland looks different than I thought
I was expecting a desert wasteland. I was expecting to be living in very minimal living conditions and just loving on children with no hope. I was 100% wrong. In every way. Swaziland is beautiful. It’s mountainous and we stayed within that. There had been good rain so everything was green. The people are amazing. They are full of joy and hope and friendly. The people in the ministry I worked with are also ON FIRE for God. His love and grace pours out of their lives and speech. It was amazing and is a place I would go back to.
Looking forward to Madagascar, Swaziland is a place that I am going to miss. Our host was like a big brother to us, food was delicious, ministry was inspiring, and God poured his love out on me this month. It’s also mind-blowing to realize two months have already finished, and I’m heading into month 3. Here we go!
