We got here after 46 hours of traveling and Africa is more beautiful than I imagined. On our 5 hour bus ride from the Johannesburg airport to our host’s home in Manzini, Eswatini we went through forests, dry land, and are now in the mountains. We spent the first day walking through the markets and I swear I smiled and waved at every person I passed because everyone seemed so happy to see us.
On our van ride back home from the market my friends and I were discussing ways God had been speaking to us recently. One of them said that she has been learning the value of making God her daily bread. She Prays before she reads her Bible and asks for what her soul needs to receive to make it through that day. Another friend of mine, Ben, told me that he has been trying to worship by learning new songs because in Psalms 98 it says “sing to the lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” He said he’s learning that God wants us to experience him in new and different ways. It was so cool to see what God was teaching them.
My mission squad of 18 people is split into 3 teams to make it easier for us to divide up and do ministry. At the end of that day my team of five girls was told that only two of our three teams would spend the month we’re here at a care point doing kids ministry and the other would be doing administration. We found out we would be that team working in administration. We did not take the news well. We were extremely disappointed and definitely let some tears out. Our expectations had guided us before we let God, so we were definitely upset. I spent some quiet time journaling and reading that night after that upsetting news. I prayed before I read, as my friend had told me she did, that God would give me my daily bread. That he would give me what I needed to hear for that moment. I randomly flipped to a page in my Bible and it was Isaiah 25. Verse 12 really stuck out to me, “He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low; he will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust.” I read this and realized that God would humble us to serve him in any way we could, and was given a sudden sense of peace. I then remembered the Psalm I learned earlier that day. To sing Him a new song. I wrote it on me so that anytime I saw it I would remember I get to sing Him a new song, I get to worship him in a new way I never had. Whether it was children’s ministry or administration I’d humble myself to do it.
The next day, Friday, my team went to the care point and administration ended up being tied in with kids much more than originally implied. We started the day by playing with the preschoolers they taught there. Shortly after that we walked a few miles to a large family’s homes and delivered dozens of bags of food and got to pray with them. They asked us to pray for them and instead of praying over them we prayed with them. We all prayed at the same time which is pretty normal but hearing twelve of us all pray at once and in two different languages was so eye opening. Our God is so vast it is insane. It is unfathomable that he can hear, understand, and care for us all at once. We walked back to the care point and spent the rest of our afternoon their with their preschool, elementary, and high school kids. I talked to so many of the kids who knew an impressive amount of English. It was definitely humbling to be laughed at when trying to pronounce words in their language, but was also equally as funny for me. It overall was such a joy to see how happy they were just to be loved on. There is such a culture of inclusion and joy here. Such a heartwarming day of ministry and I believe we get to continue loving on the kiddos just implement some administrative things like getting kids sponsors, and teaching Bible stories.
Today, Saturday was our sabbath. I woke up around 10 am and had a super relaxing morning. I went to sit at the swings with some friends so I could sit down and write this blog, I am now adding to it at night because I had to add how God continued to speak to me today. When I was writing this blog I was trying to find the Psalm (Psalm 98) that said, “to sing Him a new song.” I knew I was going to reference it in this but didn’t know specifically where it was in Psalms. When I was searching for it I read the first line of psalm 40 and thought it was super good. I decided that that would be my psalm I read for the day (I read a random chapter of Psalms each day). I couldn’t find it so I ended up asking Ben if he could look for me. He found it, I added it in and finished my blog. I went back and started reading psalm 40, to get my daily bread Of course. I was amazed by what it had to say; In verse 3 it says “He put a new song in my mouth.” My encouragement for the past few days had been that I get to sing Him a new song and how good is God that he put a new song in my mouth and on my heart? HE IS SO GOOD.
