Who would have thought that three months in Africa could go so fast? Certainly not me. My last month on that extraordinary continent was incredible. I’m sure you will hear more about it in blogs to come, but here is a Big Picture view of what our month looked like!
WHO:
The women of K-Squad were all together this month at an AIM base run by David and Jenna Towns, who are missionaries through Adventures also. We partnered with three communities, working mainly with the children of that community alongside a young adult ‘shepherd’ and a Gogo – an older woman in the community.
Occasionally, my team had the opportunity to work with another family of American missionaries, acting as step-in art, music, and P.E. teachers.
This month, I was with Team Kuwala, which is Chichewa for ‘radiant’. These women were incredible to work with – their team name was entirely fitting.
WHAT:
Each team went to a carepoint, which is essentially a Swazi community center. At my team’s carepoint, we played with preschool age children all morning, helped feed them at lunch time,
then chatted with the primary, junior high, and high school kids, occasionally leading Bible studies or joining their songs and games. We also visited an older woman in her home, and were able to encourage her with scripture and prayer. On Sundays, our highly musical squad was able to bless an international church by leading worship there, giving the pastor a bit of a break!
WHEN:
We were in Swaziland February 3rd-26th. Ministry took place Tuesday-Friday and Sundays. On Saturdays we had a day off for adventures if we wanted them, and Mondays were devoted to Sabbath.
WHERE:
Nsoko is about 20 minutes from the eastern border of Swaziland and South Africa. It’s one of the only towns listed on the map! Our community/carepoint was Mbutfu (pronounced mm-BU-tu)
WHY:
Each carepoint is sponsored through AIM, which covers the entire carepoint, or Children’s Hope Chest, which sponsors individual children. At the survival level, carepoints are provided food, water, and basic resources, with the hope that these carepoints will build up communities to take ownership and responsibility for the issues in their community. Due to overwhelming poverty in the nation, the carepoints will always be provided these necessities, but once those have been provided, it gives the community members a chance to focus on other issues in the community. Some of these issues are ‘child-led homes’, a result of polygamy and AIDs; overcoming the drought that hit the country three short years ago; or human trafficking, especially orphans taken to South Africa or for witchcraft. The carepoints also exist to provide Living Water and the Bread of Life, empowering the local church and its believers to share the hope that’s found in Jesus.
FUN NUGS:
Some fun things that happened this month:
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Surprise gender month – an incredible gift from the Lord which meant
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doing life with my other SQLs, not the original plan, but the better one
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Celebrating ‘Galentine’s’ Secret Santa style with junk food and Rom-Coms
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Hiking to a beautiful waterfall
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making friends with Jill and Leo, an incredible missionary couple who regularly opened their home to us
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partaking in a ‘solidarity fast’, eating only what and when our kids ate, praying even more intensely for them and their situations
I hope this gives you a better understanding of what my February looked like! Thank you always for your support through prayer, and through blog comments and emails. It (literally) means the world to me. 🙂
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ML
