Here we are in Swaziland and I am in absolute AMAZEMENT at how beautiful it is. We’re here ministering at an orphanage called El Shaddai (www.elshaddaiswaziland.org) located right on top of a mountain where you can see for miles. Every morning we wake up to the beautiful view of a winding river through the mountains with a waterfall gushing off in the distance. How amazing!!!
While here we have many different opportunities for outreach. Some of these include working with the children in the baby house and preschool, tutoring and leading chapel for the older children, and scraping paint off the walls for new renovations to be made. No matter what ministry I’m scheduled for each day I find myself connected to this place.
When it comes to working with the children in the baby house and preschool I instantly connect it to my year working at the daycare back home. One of the things we enforced within our facility was PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports). For our center we focused our teachings on how to be responsible, respectful, and safe. Mainly, for the toddlers, this was teaching them manners, sharing, and how to physically interact appropriately with the other kids. One of the things my friend Tara, the other toddler teacher, and I tried to enforce was “nice hands” when any hitting, kicking, or physical aggression took place.
Here at El Shaddai, or maybe Swaziland as a whole, we quickly learned that children are extremely aggressive with each other and those around them. I began teaching them how to use nice hands, along with teaching the others on my squad about what I learned at the daycare. Soon enough, we began to see improvement!
God told me last year that he would use my experiences teaching at the daycare for His glory. Never would I have thought that Swaziland would be the place he fulfilled His promise.
