Ministry of the month
This month was womanistry (and manistry) month. The men were in one location and the women were split between two different locations and all of the teams were shuffled around. Team Smack (Sarah, Meredith, Abby, Chelsea, Katrina), along with two other teams, stayed at a homestead in N’taba’s (the shortened version of our community’s name, right outside of Manzini, Swaziland). We worked at a care point, leading songs, Bible stories and games for the kids in the community. They came to eat lunch (sometimes the only meal that they got each day was here) and to play with us.
Church situation
This month, we worshiped at a small church in our community. We helped lead all of the Sunday school classes. We sang a lot of songs that appeared like they should be lead in a preschool class, but the entire church sang and participated in the motions for all of the songs. Church services lasted about 3 hours.
Favorite memory
Chelsea Ellis and I went and got dreads at the end of this month. They are already gone as the humidity in Thailand caused them to stay moist and continue to untwist/remain unknotted. (My hair is now in a bunch of tiny braids, so maybe they will stay that way for a while, who knows!)
Biggest challenge
My biggest challenge was maintaining discipline in my life and remembering the reason behind doing the things I was doing to become more disciplined.
Food
We cooked for ourselves over a gas burner this month. We had themes for each day, including Soupy Sunday, Marinara Monday, Taco Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Throw back Thursday, Fiesta Friday, and Saucy Saturday. The teams switched off cooking and we ate very well all month! We also had some form of dessert most nights.
Random WR moment
We had a big red conversion van that picked us up and brought us to our care point. It came complete with a sunroof in the back and secret ways to make sure it started. While we were driving to our care point one day, our driver, (pee-lee-swa), asked if I knew how to drive a manual car. My response “well, I have driven one once before and it was backwards to the cars here in Africa…so yeah!” followed by him asking me if I wanted to drive (which of course I answered yes to!). I drove us home twice from our care point with just a few gentle reminders about what side of the road to be on and to be careful to stay on the road (the location of your car while driving is way off when the steering wheel is on the right!).
Funniest moment
We constantly had chickens in and out of our kitchen. We would all end up walking in on them, telling them in a calm voice why they were not allowed in our house, and then they would leave.
What I will miss
I will miss living with such a great community of women!
I will miss the rides to the care point, chatting and joking with pee-lee-swa and Musa.
I will miss singing Siyahamba with the children at the care point.
I will miss playing random games (of which I am still not sure of the rules) with the kids.
Spiritual lesson/revelation
This month I learned to dream again and how much our dreams have God’s dreams hidden next to them. To read all about it, check out the blog titled Dream. Floss. Live.
I also worked to become more disciplined in my walk with the Lord this month. Some of that involved fasting once a week, getting up early to pray every morning and spending time in the word and prayer each day.
Prayer requests
Pray for the children in Swaziland, that they will continue to get the love, attention and care from the care points.
Pray that the children will continue to seek after and learn more about Jesus.
Pray for the AIM staff located in Swaziland and all that they are doing to help the children.
Pray for our month in Thailand and the people we will meet and work with here.
Pray for our squad, as most of the teams are new. Pray for a willingness to be open and honest quickly and that we will continue to push each other and build each other up each day.
Pray for focus and presence as we start on our final leg of the race.
