It has been a long time since I’ve updated!! The wifi in Eswatini is pretty slow. Thank you for all of you who have continued to pray for me and my squad even though you haven’t heard from me!
I only have two weeks left in Africa, and would love to share some of my experiences since being here!
For ministry we go to an AIM (adventures in missions) care point three days a week and do ATL two days a week.
The care points are a place where the kids who live in the area will come to get fed. For many kids this is the only meal they will get each day. Many of them are orphans and don’t receive the affection and love that children need. We get to go spend the day with these kids, ranging from the ages of about 4-16, and play with them, talk with them, and love on them, sing with them and share Bible stories with them! These children how the most sweet and beautiful singing voices ever!
We have also had the opportunity to feed them a special meal of rice, beans, and eggs, instead of what they usually eat. God was gracious to provide money for that through people back home. We also hope to do it again before we leave Eswatini.
At the care points there are about five women who cook for the kids everyday. Some of them said they have been doing this for like thirty years! Please pray for them to continue to have strength and endurance. Also please pray for the leader of the care point. He is a wonderful man of God. Please pray for him to continue in the good work the Lord has called him to and to continue discipling the kids the Lord has put in his life.
ATL is the other ministry we do. ATL stands for ask the Lord. On these days we are dropped off in town and we get to evangelize on the streets and follow wherever the Lord is leading us that day!
I have had the chance to have conversations with a Muslim man, a skeptic, and even Christians. I have seen God working in so many ways on these days. It is so encouraging to meet fellow believers and get to encourage each other!
One day when I was spending time with the Lord in the morning before an ATL day I felt the Lord place it on my heart to go to a certain spot of town and read Romans 8 out loud. I decided to go do it, as I was reading no one was coming up to listen, but right as we finished a man came up to us asking for food. We were able to bless him with food, but even better we got to share the gospel with him, lead him to Christ and buy a Bible for him! The way God works is so crazy!!
Another time me and my group had asked the Lord to bring people to us in the beginning of the day. We were at the grocery store and a man came up to us and asked us how to become prosperous. We told him that we weren’t rich and didn’t really know, but that we were missionaries and that Jesus was enough for us. He asked to meet with us again. The following week we got lunch with him and got to share the gospel with him. He is so close to believing in Jesus. He is eagerly searching. He said he was so affected by what we were saying and so in awe of our passion that he wasn’t sure he would be able to stand up after talking to us. Please keep him in your prayers. That he feels worthy of the Lord and fully believes. The Lord is working in the situation! Also pray we have another chance to meet up with him.
These are just a couple of many stories! The cool thing about ATL is that it is a thing that can be done anywhere. In Africa, in Central America, and even back home in the States. God is moving everywhere!
Since being in Africa I was able to see my parents for five days! It was such a sweet time to reconnect, get to do ministry with them, worship with them, and enjoy quality time with them. Hearing their testimonies of what the Lord had done in their trip to Africa and life back home was so encouraging!
Another World Race squad is in Africa with right now as well working in another part of the country. We got to see them for a few days and worship and revive with them. God was moving! The worship was powerful, the lessons were so encouraging! I was praising God for a refreshing weekend to spend on His presence. We also stayed on a game reserve that weekend and got to explore the area. It was so beautiful.
I have had the privilege of being head of the cooking team during our time in Africa. My squad is in charge of grocery shopping and cooking all our meals while we are in Africa. It has been so fun, I’ve missed cooking back home and the Lord blessed me with the opportunity to do it here in Africa! He is so good! The Lord knows the desires of our hearts, and for Him to allow me to cook these last two months has shown me how much he loves me.
We also got to celebrate Easter here! To start off the weekend our squad got to go to a Good Friday service and experience an African church service for the first time. We also attempted to do a traditional Passover meal that evening. It was a beautiful way to remember the way the Lord set His people free and the symbolism it has in the way Jesus Christ has now set us free also! The same way the Israelites spread the blood of the lamb over their door posts to be protected from the angel of death, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, shed his blood to protect us from eternal death in our sins! Praise God! We were able to do worship as a squad and then end the night by watching the Passion of Christ. watching that movie gave me a new understanding of what our Lord went through for us.
Easter Day we got to have a sunrise service at 5am! It was the one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen! Later our ministry host made us a traditional American Easter meal and we got to worship together again. It was a wonderful Easter and a beautiful day to celebrate our Lord and Savior!
My mentor was able to join us in Africa for most of our time here and even brought his brother and sister. It was such a blessing to be discipled and loved by all three of them.
Eswatini is full of so much joy, peace, and beauty! I never expected to love this country so much! The Lord has been teaching me about the simplicity yet extremely large importance of the Gospel. If the God of the universe is real and what He says is true, it is so worth sharing and should be our number one priority in life. The biggest miracle is when someone accepts the gospel as truth. Though I still struggle to share the gospel sometimes the Lord has been growing my boldness and I have begun to have less and less fear in sharing the Word of God.
In just two weeks my squad leaves Africa and we will go to Fort Myers Florida to help with hurricane relief for about two weeks. Then we will go back to Georgia to do a final debrief. May 25th my family will pick me up from the Atlanta airport. These nine months have flown by, I am beyond blessed to look back at them and have so many reasons to praise the Lord!
