I will be honest, for the first month I
have been struggling with why God has me in Swaziland. I have missed South
Africa/Jeffreys Bay a lot and satan has been attacking me with a lot of
different lies. After a month of doing ministry, praying, fasting, receiving
some godly insight and trusting God I can honestly say that I am excited to be
here in Swaziland! I’m excited about the
ministries God has me in! I am so blessed to be here in this country! I do not
deserve to be here at all but God has placed me here until May 13th and I will,
with His help, strive to be the hands and feet of Jesus while I’m here!
My
main ministries will be the market, the youth center, and the hospital. Gail,
Jillian and myself go to the market every Monday. The market is an open area,
on the streets in downtown Manzini, where there are a bunch of booths set up
and Swazi people sell an assortment of different things. They sell things like
vegetables, fruits, clothes, shoes, arts, and crafts. We just go and minister
to the ladies that work there. I have met a couple of ladies, Goodness and
Spongewe, that have really grabbed my heart and I am excited to get to know
them better!
On
Tuesdays and Wednesdays I will be helping out at the life skills part of the
youth center. As you now know, there are not many jobs in Swaziland. The
mission of the life skills part of the youth center in Manzini is to teach
Swazi people skills like ceramics, sewing, printing, cooking, mechanics,
carpentry and so on. This is an incredible project because it makes for more
jobs and the Swazis are actually learning skills to help them make money. On
Tuesdays Gail, Kepp and myself will do a bible study with the sewing ladies
during their lunch break and help them out in whatever ways we can.
On
Wednesday Jillian, Caroline and myself help make ceramic jewelry with some
Swazi ladies. It is so much fun! I love it and there is a really sweet Swazi
lady who works there named Bongewe and she has loved me since day one! She
doesn’t speak a lot of English but I’m excited for how God is already working
in this relationship and for how He will in the future. A couple of weeks ago
it was raining so we gave Bongewe a ride home and she invited us in to meet her
children. We went inside her small, two room house which is probably the size
of your bedroom ,if not smaller, and we met her beautiful children. She has two
daughters and a son. The little boy, 7 years old, was laying on the floor where
he sleeps every night, wrapped in a blanket. We asked Bongewe what was wrong
with him and she said he was hungry but we knew it was something more than
that. This past weekend one of my leaders, Caroline, and some of my teammates
were out in town and they saw Bongewe begging for money on the streets of
Manzini so that she could take her son the the hospital. He was with her and he
was wrapped in a blanket. They gave Bongewe a ride to the hospital and paid for
the visit. We saw the little boy yesterday at the carepoint getting food and
playing and he seemed like a different kid. He was running around laughing and
playing like little boys should! Praise God! It was definitely not an accident
that Caroline and my teammates ran into Bongewe in town on Saturday!
On
Thursdays I go to the hospital to visit patients. This is the hardest ministry
that I have ever done but I knew coming to Swazi that God wanted me to do
hospital visits. I love it because so many people don’t have someone to visit
them. To see the smiles on their faces and to be able to sit with them like
Jesus would and does is truly a blessing! It is heart breaking though to see
women who are confined to a bed or small children who have all sorts of different
illnesses who should be outside running around and playing. It is sad because
in America most of these people could receive the help and care they need.
Nevertheless, I think God calls us to visit and help and love the sick like
Jesus would! And God is the ultimate Healer! He can do immeasurably more than
we could ever ask or imagine!
On
Fridays we have team ministry. It will look different every Friday but, we will
always do ministry together as a whole team on Fridays. So far we have visited
the children at an abandon baby shelter in Mbabane, helped Mage Peggy build a
garden for her orphanage and last week we visited the hospital in Mbabane (the
capitol of Swazi).
I’m
excited to share with you all the different ministries that God has going on in
Swazi and that He is allowing me to be a part of for the next for months!
Please be in prayer for Swaziland and for all the relationships that God is
starting between myself and women of Swaziland.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives
will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come.”
– Luke 4:18-19 –
