So this month we were at El Shaddai orphanage in Swaziland. You may think that since I was at an orphanage my ministry would be geared towards strictly children…well you thought wrong. Not only did I have the privilege of ministering to the amazing children (future of Swaziland), but a lot of my morning ministry consisted of literally getting dirty for Jesus. What did I do? I’m glad you asked. I did some gardening, some painting, some weed pulling, and some digging but the majority of my mornings consisted of cleaning out the pig pens. What did that look like…Step 1-Shovel the poop to the hole. Step 2-Get the poop stick and stick the poop through the hole. Step 3-Clean out the water trough. Step 4-Scrub the floor with the brush. Step 5-Fill up the water trough. To be honest I only gagged the first day. I guess you could say I got used to the smell. There were about 15 pens that were cleaned everyday by 4-5 of us, but when we are not here 1 lady cleans them all by herself. So my morning ministry was geared towards Auntie Doris and to the pigs. And if I’m honest with myself, I really did enjoy it.
The first day I went to work in the pig pen I prayed and asked the Lord to teach me something. What I came out learning was that our sin is like the poop. We would take the time to clean out the pigs pens and they would just poop right after we got out, sometimes even while we were in the middle of cleaning. Jesus is constantly cleaning up our daily messes. Sometimes we will ask for forgiveness and then turn around to do the same thing 5 minutes later, but Jesus will always be there to clean up for us. I’m truly thankful for my time in the pig pens. I really learned what it meant to get dirty for Jesus and to do it with the right attitude.
