This blog will speak of one of my most favorite days in Swaziland! Back in September when we had first started our ministry it was very very dry here. Swaziland has been in a drought for a long time. When we arrived it looked very brown and desolate. Now don’t get me wrong, hot days here are a blessing because it often means more kids come to the care points, yay! But we have been praying for rain here for a while to help the drought and all that follows suite in that. It has been raining more and more here!! Swaziland is more and more green with each day!! But again, when it rains, it means little to no kids come to the care point that day. We have had ministry canceled due to rain, and that’s not what we want either! But the day I will speak of was unique.
On this day, it had rained so much the night before. And when I say rain, I mean the kitchen flooded more than usual, pools of water around the team house, loud downpours in the middle of the night. Because when it rains in Swazi, IT RAINS.
For some reason, I have no other explanation except for God, we went to the care point this next day. It was still raining a tiny bit in the morning. We went to our care points anyways! There were few kids when we initially arrived. My team and our shepherd headed out for a house visit. So we set off walking down the dirt road. On the way to our shepherds pastor’s home, I stopped at our shepherds homestead to deliver Rice Krispie treats that I had promised her mage (MAH-GAY), mom, earlier that week! The look on her face to be greeted at her front door with a sweet treat, a smile and a hug was one of the sweetest sights. It filled me with joy just to see the joy that came from a small act that cost me nothing but meant everything to her.
We continued down the road to the church where our shepherds pastor lives! When we arrived, they quickly welcomed us into their home to get us out of the rain by making enough seats in their living room for all nine of us. They proceeded to bring out sweet treats of bananas, apples, tea and biscuits (cookies)! Their hospitality was so welcoming to us! Usually we’re the ones bringing gifts and food to the house visits but they quickly made us family. This time of fellowship was so sweet. We got to see a look into the life of a female pastor in Swaziland and what her faith journey has looked like and getting to know her daughters as well! They also gave us Siswati names :
KC – Pagamile – Bold
Cece – Sphesihle – beautiful gift
Hannah – Nothando – Love
Taylor – Buhle – beauty
Elena – Nokthula – peaceful
Eva – Thandiwe – you are loved
Sydney – Nomsa- grace
Sadie – Mbali – rose
After our time of fellowship with Pastor Nomsa(Grace) and her family we headed back to the care point. As we were approaching the care point, I was expecting to see little to no children. When it rains the firewood gets wet and they can’t cook food. For some reason today, God, the firewood wasn’t wet and the kids were able to have food on this day. When we returned to the care point there were many children running around and playing in the mud!
Side note: the goats that live literally everywhere are hiding in the bathroom to get shelter out of the rain so we had to shoo the goats out of the bathroom. Due to me getting distracted by goats in another little building, one walked in on Sydney this causing her to pee… not in the toilet… ANYWAYS moving on!
The kids found so much joy in slipping and sliding in the mud! I couldn’t help but join them! Running and splashing in the puddles and mud! I felt like a little kid again… it was so sweet to see the kids rejoice in the rain and have so much fun with a creation from the Lord that He allowed us to have fun with! Thank you Jesus for the rain and all the good times and fruit it has brought to Swaziland!
Below is the scripture I shared at our house visit with Pastor Nomsa:
I have place my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and all the earth. Genesis 9:13
