Sweet ministry
I’m in Africa!
I haven’t been keeping up to date on my blogs, so let’s catch up.
My squad left Romania on March 6th and headed for Africa. We arrived at base after another ~40 hour travel day.
Our base is in the bush of Eswatini. We have minimal service and 2 places to go to nearby- a grocery store and a safari restaurant- that we have become very frequent customers of.
When we arrived, we had a day to rest and then we jumped into our new ministry! Our main ministry in Eswatini is working with care points that are located all around the country. The care points are a place for kids to go after school to be fed and just enjoy playing. Every kid gets a meal when they arrive and the rest of the time we just get to hang out with them.
The time I’ve spent with these kids has been a roller coaster. They are a wild combination of gentle and fierce. They’re full of energy followed by instantly sleepy. They’re content until jealousy is sparked.
We were told about jealous tendencies at orientation before stepping into ministry. If you give one kid something, everyone has to get it because they get upset very easily.
But as I’ve been trying to teach them to share, they’ve been teaching me much more.
On the days when the kids are screaming at each other and fighting to be in your arms, trying to prove that they’re more loved, I’m taught patience.
When the young girls start playing with my cross necklace and ask what it is, I’m taught Matthew 28:18-20’s perspective of ‘as you are going’.
Every time the kids ask to play ‘double double’ and laugh just the same as the first time, I’m taught a new depth of simplicity.
Despite the difficulties that have come with this ministry, I have been constantly growing in appreciation for these kids. They are so precious and a huge gift. Every day, I’m blessed to see them run to us, smiling as our van pulls up.
