Hi y’all wanted to pop in and give you all another update quickly about ministry and our time here in eSwatini. Ministry with the kids has been going great and we are starting to build trust with them and hear more about their personal stories as well as share with them about Jesus desire to have a personal relationship with them. Showing them how they can walk with Him everyday and look to His life for guidance and comfort as the continue to grow up and face new challenges in the ever changing world around them. I will give more of an update on all of that as the weeks go by and we dive deeper into those conversations with them. This week I wanted to do a fun lighted hearted post and share with you all a breakdown of what everyday life looks like here in eSwatini at the moment. Our time here is fairly structured and settling into a rhythm has been nice, but on the flip side I have just gotten used to living an impromptu life style so it is a bit of a shake up. Anyways, here is a basic break down of what my day typically looks like at the moment.
7:00: Wake up for breakfast. We do community breakfast/meals through out the week which are served at 8:00 so if I have to cook I get up a bit earlier but usually I push this as close to breakfast time as I can get away with. I typically make myself a cup of instant coffee to go with breakfast, the most popular brand here is “Jacobs” so obviously it has to be my favorite cup coffee I have ever had. Honestly I am missing my Keurig a bit, instant coffee is definitely not my cup of…. well, coffee.
8:30: This is one of the only times through out the day that we have free to do what we would like as we wait for our transportation to ministry to arrive. During this time I take advantage of the alone time and spend a bit of it in prayer and reading my Bible. Also I have been learning to play the guitar so I like to use this time to practice and worship the Lord. I have a few songs down alright and luckily He loves hearing whatever joyful noise I can muster wether it sounds like it should or not. One can always appreciate a gracious audience. After that I get my bag together for the day with our packed lunch, frisbee, soccer balls, water, and whatever else I think is required for a missionary survival pack. It has been hot hot hot lately so bringing plenty of water is a must if you are going to keep up with the kiddos all day.
10:00 (ish) – 11:45: We take a ride to our ministry, along the way we also get what has affectionately been dubbed an African massage in the form of the many potholes along the road. Our driver could have been an ace pilot in World War 2 with the way he dodges those bad boys nonetheless we get a healthy lower back adjustment on our way to the care point. The ride to ministry looks different everyday. Sometimes we listen to worship music and all sing along together. Other days this is a great space to have a conversation with whichever team mate you are sitting next to for the day and check in with how they are doing and processing all of what is going on. If I need a little more alone time I will throw in my ear buds and listen to the Bible Project podcast. Because we don’t have internet I am limited to what content I have available but lately I have been listening to them walk through the book of Numbers. It has been very insightful and enlightening, I really enjoy John and Tim the hosts of the podcast. So if you are looking to gain biblical literature knowledge I strongly recommend you check them out! By simply searching “the Bible Project” on any podcast platform.
12:00: Arrive to the care point and say hello to all of the volunteers and the Shepard or leader of the care point. We gather all of the volunteers together in the church building and someone from our team leads us in a short devotional. We pray together and talk about any important info that we need to cover before the kids arrive and the chaos ensues. After the devotional is finished we quickly eat our packed lunches and help start the fire for cooking the food for the kids that will be served later on. We clean the dishes and gather all of the supplies for cooking and get that set in motion.
12:30: After everything is prepared for serving the food we get together in our two teams and head out into the surrounding countryside to intercede and pray for the community. If we happen to pass by someone along the road we take the time to stop and chat with them and see if there is anything that they are needing prayer for and just try to strike up a conversation with them and let them know that they are loved. Occasionally we get invited into home steads that we walk by and typically when this happens we get the chance to pray for the family that lives there, this can be prayers for protection, provision, comfort, and healing. This is one of my favorite times and it is always a wonderful experience when someone is open to hearing about God and joyfully wants to receive prayer.
1:15: Once we have done our prayer walk it is a race back to the care point to hopefully beat the kids there who are starting to arrive from the surrounding schools in the area. The check point we are at sees anywhere from 200-300 kids per day. As they show up we play games like frisbee and soccer with them or whatever else they like to do. Singing and dancing is a huge part of the culture here so there is always a dancing circle you can join if you like where we try to teach them some timeless American dances such as the Cupid Shuffle. Usually it just incurs a gaggle of laughter but hey to me that is a successful dance routine. It is during this time that we get to do most of our communicating with the kids and lately it has been incredibly encouraging as the older boys have started to let their guard down and ask us questions. They were scared of me at first because of my tattoos but since they are mostly God focused tattoos and they are all very intrigued by them it has been a great Segway to talking to them about Jesus. They are taught the old testament very well here and I have even had some OT scripture quoted at me by teenagers about said tattoos. It is honestly impressive their knowledge of the Old Testament law and they are eager to hear the message of grace, mercy and forgiveness that takes place in the New Testament under the new covenant. Hopefully they will take this message and commit it to memory as they take on a new identity in Christ free of guilt or shame that affects us all when we don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus.
2:30: After the kids have gotten all wound up we try to settle them into the church and teach them a lesson from the curriculum that was put in place by the organization that runs the check point ministry. This is taught year round and us a required part of attending the care point and we get the honor of stepping in and doing the teaching while we are here. Most of the kids speak very good English but we have the help the Shepard on staff to translate as well so nothing is missed. This has been a fruitful time as we get to share scripture and stories from our own lives about how Jesus has called us all to live. Last week we covered the topic of grace and how we are called to love others the way that Jesus loved us regardless of how they are treating us. It seemed to resonate well with them and I am looking forward to seeing the some fruits from the Spirit interacting with these kids hearts through the messages that are shared.
3:00: Finally at around 3:00 the meal is ready to be served to all the kids. We hangout with them and swap stories or answer questions that they might have. This is another great time to minister to them as they usually are a bit more focused while they are eating. Some of us help to serve the food everyday. Once all the food has been dished out and the kids are fed they usually start to head home for the day and we make our way back to the bust to start the journey home.
5:15: When we return home from ministry we get one more window of free time. For me this is shower time, and by shower time I mean jump in the pool for a bit time. So far since we have been in eSwatini I have taken just 1 bucket shower (for the record I only bucket showered because the pool had chemicals in it that I was made aware of after I was already in the pool) and other than that I have chosen the pool route everyday. Gross right?! I am pretty proud of this fact and aim to go until we leave on May 20th with as few showers as possible and as many pool baths as possible. I am really trying to go for the John the Baptist vibes and haven’t cut my hair or beard since I left for training camp in January either. I have yet to find a camel to make clothes out of but I am always on the look out, I may resort to a donkey if I don’t find one soon. After I get squeaky clean I either help to make dinner if it is my turn or go sit with the team and unwind from the day or read more of my Bible, sometimes a quick nap is needed.
6:30: Eat dinner with the team. Pretty self explanatory part of the day. Eat, and then eat everyones left overs.
7:30: Every night we end the day with team time where we break out into our two separate teams and engage in a few different activities. This can look many different ways but typically it consists of Bible Study, worship, intercessory prayer and digesting what happened during the day and how everyone is feeling physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It is a great time to decompress and grow closer to our team mates while also carving out extra time to be intentional about glorifying the Lord. During this time we also do feedback where we can point out times through out the day where we saw our team mates excel and areas in which we feel our teammates can be called higher to be more like Christ. Receiving feedback about areas in which I may have fallen short of being Christ like has been very encouraging and refreshing as it helps point out blind spots in my life and encourages a mindset of repentance and desiring to be more like Christ. It is awesome to be living in a community where everyone wants to be more like Jesus and is open to having areas of fleshly behavior called out so that we can shine light on the darkness and walk alongside each other as we grow and process the cause of our actions.
9:30: Bedtime. Wind down for sleeping and brush my teeth before bed. I felt it necessary to include that step as it may have come into question with my bathing routine. Brushing twice a day at least mom, no need to worry! Usually I end the night with one last chat with Noah my room mate and the only other guy on our team. I’ve become great friends with him and it is always refreshing to pick his brain about the days activities and what he heard from the Lord through out the day, I am very grateful for his friendship.
This turned out to be a longer post than I anticipated, hope I didn’t bore you all to death. I miss you all very much and while I am having a blast I also can’t wait to get back and give you all a hug and tell you in person about all that the Lord has been doing in and through my life. I hope you all have been able to take time to go to your quiet place with Jesus and just revel in His glory. We truly serve an incredible God and I am so grateful for all of you helping to give me this once in a life time opportunity where I get to see Him moving in my life everyday. Until next time, be peaceful! I will talk to you all again soon!
