I’ve been struggling to decide what to blog about my month in Swaziland. It was an all squad month, meaning all 60 members of my squad stayed on the same site. I still did ministry separately with my team, but I spent a lot of time with a whole lot of people! It was a month when our leadership team poured into us ats we received a lot of teaching and one on one sessions with them. Consequently the month for me was more focused on my own spiritual growth rather than a heavy ministry focus. I’m not ready to blog about all that yet, but watch this space because God has started a great story!
So life in Swaziland with 60 other people. Well let me tell you, finding a quiet spot was a challenge. My team and I tented right next to our main living area so noise travelled, thank goodness for earplugs so I could get a peaceful nights sleep! Others stayed either in a church building on the floor, or in a dormitory. Staying in a tent for a month presents its own challenges when dust storms blow dirt in and you’re a little freaked out that a snake or scorpion might become your bed companion! But asides from that, I actually quite enjoyed having my “own space” and made it as homey as I could.
There were many great things about being with my entire squad. I enjoyed being able to invest in people on different teams and spend time getting to know them better. It was great to hear how their first month had been and how God has been using them. I enjoyed worshipping together with them. When our squad worships, it’s a beautiful thing.
I also loved having our leadership team with us. We have been so blessed with the leaders God selected for us. They have been so generous in giving their time to us, caring about us, encouraging us and most importantly challenging us. I know I myself have benefited greatly from time spent with each of them and I’m sure my squad members would say the same.
As I said, the month had a slightly less heavy ministry focus, but that’s not to say we didn’t serve. My team and I were based first at the centre where we stayed. The centre, called the “Anchor Centre” is an Adventures in Missions care point which provides discipleship and care for local children. We helped by spending time playing with the children, singing songs with them, serving them their meals, and teaching them Bible lessons. We also did a little maintenance around the care point, spending a day shovelling dirt! We were then moved to a second care point for our final week where we did similar things like serving the children their meals and singing and playing with them.
So that’s a short summary of what the past month was like. It’s hard to sum it up, the time flew by and yet so much happened! If you’d like to know more though then do comment here or get in touch, I’d love to share more stories!
