A Typical day in Swaziland!
Hello friends and family! I’m currently in Kumakwane, Botswana. I apologize for not blogging lately. I know that I need to write about the Philippines and also about Swaziland.
I haven’t been able to write any blogs lately because of the lack of internet, so hopefully I’ll be able to post a couple this time that I have some internet.
Let me tell you a little about my previous month in Swaziland! My month 9 was truly one of the best months on my race by far! On this month 4 of our teams were assigned to work with the Adventures In Missions base in Swaziland.
Let me give you a little run down of how our typical day of ministry in Swazi looked like:
Wake up around 6 AM if we were part of the early breakfast teams and be ready to go to ministry around 8 AM. And of course, make sure that you made that special time with Jesus on our quiet times.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we were assigned to care points. And just to get there we had to walk around 3 miles to get there, and 3 miles to come back. It was a good hour of walk to get to ministry, each way of course! At first it seemed like a lot, especially on these HOT days that Swaziland has! However, God was always so good to us because sometimes trucks would pass by us, and decide to give us a ride! And yes… you can hitch hike in Swaziland! This is common in this country, and people are very friendly and are glad to give you a ride! (I know… Ironic, because is something I would never do in America!).
A Typical day in our care points, would consist of helping out the local gogos with the cooking, play with all the beautiful children, help out in the local preschool, and build as many relationships as we could.
Let me tell you what a gogo is. A gogo is like a mother to many in the community, especially those children who do not have parents because many have died from AIDS. The gogos would step up and become moms to those who needed one, and the children would live with them, and be raised by the gogos. Part of the gogos jobs is to cook a meal each day, and feed them usually after school, and they don’t only cook for their children, but for all the children in the community, which are around 50-60 children! And this is the one meal that they get to eat each day! And part of our ministry that month, was helping in the cooking.
Being in the care points was one of my most beautiful times in Swaziland! I truly enjoyed being around the children, and the gogos. The children are just so full of life, and they need so much love. Most of the kids do not have clothes, shoes, or if they do have clothes, most of it its ripped. It was a tough reality to see and experience it for myself. And yet in the middle of their poverty and need, they are still so joyful and loving. On this month I feel that I felt the most love from a child, that I think that I have ever felt! And this is truly a love that only God can give these amazing children!!
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, our teams were split into different ministries that AIM has. My ministry was to do house visits and help out people in the community with whatever they needed. It was a really awesome experience to go into different houses and do house visits and bring people food, and be able to pray for them.
Usually we would get back home around 4 PM and get ready to start cooking dinner, or shower off because we were totally dirty from all the dirt from everywhere, and with our long walks, you can imagine how beautifully sweaty and dusty we ended up each day! After showers and dinners, we would usually find time to do what we call team time, and do check ins with our teams mates to see how we were doing and taking time to pray for each other.
Our days in Swazi were long, tired, sweaty, and actually very cold at times!! We got to experience being really, really cold for the first time in 9 months, and we didn’t know how to keep warm at times!! Anyway… yes long and busy days, but I would’t change anything for the world! I truly loved that month, and everything that came with it!
I thank God for Swaziland and the amazing people that He allowed me to meet, and if God ever wanted to have me back in this country, I would be happy too!!
Thank you for praying for me and for keeping up with my blogs even if its taking me a while to write new blogs now days!!
I love you all!
