I had a very encouraging first week of ministry. Just to give y’all an idea of what my weeks are like:
Monday’s are ask the Lord days at the markets. We have to get groceries for the week to feed all 18 of us, as well as discern the voice of the Lord and follow where He is leading us and be obedient to possible conversations.
Tuesday-Friday we have kid’s ministry which has been such a blessing. It has been so humbling to help people who are so happy with so little. We start our days by getting there around 10 in the morning. We have taught the coordinators and shepherd (leader for the kids) games like Go fish and SkipBo. They taught us Crazy 8 and we get to spend some intentional time with them. After that we can help cook the rice and porridge or we do home visits which are a super special way of making effort to form relationships with families. The kids then come around 1-2 and we get to hangout with kids ages 4-20. I have really enjoyed learning their language despite being laughed at quite a bit while trying to pronounce certain words. We end our days at the care point at about 3:30 then all meet up at home and spend time together as a squad. We cook dinner and play card games most nights.
Saturday is our sabbath and we get to enjoy physical and spiritual rest. Sundays are our adventure days which we will hopefully be doing some cool things soon like hikes, cultural dances, and safaris!
This week was a little different because it has been pouring rain most days. When it rains like this school is often cancelled because kids who have to walk to school can’t cross ditches and places they would need to. Despite the torrential down pour kids still managed to make their way to the care point for food and good conversations. There was a change of plans Thursday because of the weather and we got to evangelize at the market instead. I had a wonderful interaction with a mother who was struggling financially. I got to pray for her, her finances, and her daughter who will be heading to university in a few months. After that we went to eat lunch and happened to meet a women who was originally from Ohio. I asked if she would sit and join us for lunch. We sat and listened to her story for two hours. We found out that twelve years ago she came to Eswatini on mission, and that God made it very clear that one of the men she met would be her husband and that she would move here permanently. It was so encouraging to both her and us to hear one another’s stories and the way that we both continue to be the the hands and feet of Jesus in Eswatini. Such a sweet encouraging interaction.
After a day of evangelizing we got to go home with the long term intern. She wanted to serve us by cooking us a dinner that made us feel at home, so she baked us some chicken pot pies. We picked many mangoes off the trees, and got to discuss a lot about we all ended up here.
I have overall had a very fruitful week where I continue to learn a lot. My prayer requests would be that the time we get to spend with kids would be intentional and full of Jesus. I pray that even if the kids don’t learn about Jesus they can learn about his love through our service.
