Welcome back to the blog, this time I’m writing from SWAZI!!🇸🇿

My squad has been in Eswatini since Monday, October 6th after a long 58 hour travel day… or travel dayS. We flew from Atlanta, Georgia to Istanbul, Türkiye. After a 17 hour layover there, we flew to Johannesburg, South Africa, and had a long drive to our city of Nsoko, Eswatini!!

My squad is split up while we are in Swazi, the guy teams are staying in the city of Manzini, which is 2 and a half hours from my city of Nsoko!

The schedule is the same every week, Tuesday through Friday each of our teams have ministry. Then Saturday is an adventure day and we can sometimes go to the store, but if we don’t go then we get a rest day. Today was our adventure day, and we went on a safari as a full squad + the semesters squad that is staying with us!!

We go to church Sunday mornings, then the rest of the day is our sabbath, or day of rest. Mondays are different for me compared to the rest of the squad, me and the other hospitality member (my girl holly) go grocery shopping for the rest of my squad! There are many things the hospitality team is responsible for, one thing being grocery shopping for the week!!! To put it simply we buy a lot of food, like, just this week we bought 65 loaves of bread!!
#crazy

Our ministry days are so sweet, my team is at Ngonini care point!! We are about an hour bus ride away from the base and we get to do all sorts of things in the morning before the kids come! We do everything from weeding and watering our shepherds garden, to doing house visits, and even chopping down thorn bushes around the care point! The children come from school to the care point for food and fun!! We basically just get to hang out with them and make connections with them, encouraging them in their faith and showing them the love of the Lord! 🤍

Another part of our ministry is making connections with the neighborhood around the care point, and encouraging our Shepards. Every care point has a Sheperd who runs the ministry everyday, teaching the kids, and loving on them. They call her  “megachi” which means leader in Siswati! My Shepherd is the funniest and sweetest person I’ve met here, she is such a gem! She likes us to call her Megachi as well, but her name is Kholeiwe! WE LOVE YOU KHOLEIWE!!

I cant believe it’s been three weeks already! I have made so many new friends and gotten so much closer with my squad of girls. Spending time with the girls has been such a sweet time, and it has been so fruitful! 🍓🥭🥥

Since being here in Swazi I have learned so many things! The Lord has been teaching me a lot about the Pace of Peace recently. I’ve been learning to slow down my pace -literally and figuratively- to make space for the Lord in every moment. I’m learning to be intentional with the time I am given, the people I am with, and the places I go. Taking everything in, slowly, appreciating it as best I can. Learning the pace of peace has helped me be more present, and joyful in my everyday life!! It has also brought peace into so many different areas of my life! Swazi culture is more slow paced, and appreciates community and connections in such a beautiful way! The Lord is teaching me how to live this out in my own life!

The Lord has been refining me so much ever since I got to training camp almost 2 months ago! I have been learning to die to my flesh, die to my preferences, die to my own plans, and to be content with what the Lord has for me. The World Race is really good at teaching patience and dependency on God.

I have no idea when I will get WiFi next, or when we leave this country to go to the next. I don’t know where we stay in the next country, what it’s going to look like, or what type of ministry we will be doing, but even still God is good, and he will deliver. I am learning to depend on the Lord, 1, because I don’t have another option (lol), and 2, because he is so good and he has such good plans for my life.

My favorite representation of this is a picture of palms open, cupping the air, empty, ready to receive. Coming to God with open hands and open hearts asking, “God, what do you have for me?”🤲🏻

Everyday is full of new opportunities for us to spread the beautiful love of God, and everyday that looks a little bit different! :))

Just yesterday everyone who works for AIM in Eswatini got together in Manzini and did a prayer day! I got to go into the heart of Manzini and walk praying for people as they came into the park I was stationed at!! Some people wanted prayer, some didn’t, and some people just needed someone to listen to them. It was so fruitful, so life giving, refining, and encouraging. There are so many different ways of spreading Gods love!

Life is ministry and ministry is life!

All that to say, the Lord is working and moving and refining. He is so gracious to me, and he uses all things for good. Swazi is such a beautiful country, the people are so welcoming, and the language is AWESOME!!

Praise God for Swazi!! 🇸🇿