Hi Friends and Family! Sorry it’s been so long since my last update, but things have been a little crazy over here in Africa. As you may know, this is our month 5 and therefore I should be finishing up my time Swaziland. Funny thing about that is we never left South Africa, and we will instead be heading to Swaziland on the 29th to stay until the 19th of December. We got to enjoy South Africa for an extra month because we were waiting for our India visas to come through (which they have!) and couldn’t leave the country without our passports.
So what have I been doing this month instead of being in Swaziland? Well we partnered with a mega church one of my squad-mates found online and have been staying at their campground, in our tents, together as a squad. Every morning Manna Church starts the day off in prayer with us before sending us to our respective tasks. During the day, my team has had the opportunity to weed flower beds and a huge onion patch at Manna. Being in a garden for 4+ hours everyday has allowed us to have conversations we would never have had in a ministry that had actual people to minister to instead of ants, dirt and weeds. It has been thoroughly entertaining to see what kind of topics come up each day- lots of girl talk since the men are doing separate “manly” tasks. Even though our Month 5 has not been anything like I expected it to look like, it has been a huge blessing. Our squad has been blessed in a way that few squads get to experience by spending an entire month together in a place that is basically a magical wonderland. There are beautiful mountains surrounding us which allow for gorgeous sunsets, we work together to fix meals for the entire squad three times a day, there is a salt water pool, there’s space for us to safely work out together or by ourselves, we have showers and Western bathrooms, and we have a whole new family with the opportunity to love each other. Yes, we have occasional storms that lightening, thunder and rain so much that I honestly cannot imagine how my little tent is going to withstand the forces of nature, sometimes my fingers get blisters from pulling weeds and I can’t ever seem to get the dirt out from under my nails, and I have some truly terrible tan lines. But I am so thankful that even though I had no idea what our Month 5 was going to look like, God knew even before the race started that this was going to happen. He provided for us this haven when we truly had no where else to go.
“This is the day that The Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
I cannot tell you what after December 19th will hold or where we will be for Christmas, but we will be in India starting in January! I will try my best to keep you updated as things change and more information is given, but wifi is limited. Thank you again and again for all your support, love and prayers!
