Swazi

Another country in the books. Swazi land was a sweet month for a lot of different reasons. For starters we were all together as a squad after being apart during the asian months, and it was so good to have that community of people back living together with a new love having experienced life apart and having grown so much since the beginning. Swazi really solidified us as a family of believers and made the impending goodbye all the more realistic as we enter the last month on the field. We were located in the african bush, far from pretty much everything, leaving us nothing to do but hang out with one another, loiter around the base, play cards, eat our food which was surprisingly good, and sleep. During the day we would go to carepoint ministry which is a location in various impoverished communities where the ministry has set up a place for children in the community to gather and get fed, play games, and get gospeled. Christianity is actually very well established in Swaziland and it is pretty awesome to see just how many people know of jesus as you go about talking to people. Due to a lack of jobs and other factors many children in these communities dont get fed at home so the carepoints are very important pictures of the lords provision. I was very filled up by spending time with the kids in swazi, they were all so joyful, ready to hug anybody and everybody, and pretty good at soccer which once again acted as a key relationship builder for me. I love the slow paced simple life style of swazi, it was a very peaceful month, except when me and the hospitality team were scrambling to get groceries for everyone so no one would starve. How we ended up with this responsibility I do not know, but we survived and I have a whole new appreciation for Zina, Nick and Anna. Also our parents came for Parent vision trip during one of the weeks and most of the squad packed up to hit the city of manzini to stay in a hostel and do ministry with the folks for those few days. We were fed very well there, both physically and spiritually. Many parents and children had radical encounters with the lord during that time including my family, praise the lord. On Easter weekend we had a 48 hour worship and prayer weekend, where I got very little sleep but experienced a fresh fire from the lord as we prepared for South Africa. It was a really cool time as a squad where many were given revelations and visions from the lord about their life. We ended on a communion and feast Easter night which was a really memorable time for us to bread bread together. Later that week we were at the last night before everyone would leave to their respective ministry locations. After worshipping together and uniting in prayer one last time, me and some of my fellow w squad members decided we were going to undertake the first worldrace all nighter of the year. It a glorious time of lively conversation and playing cards until the eventual departure at 3 am, 5am, and 7am depending on where you were going. We had the last van out so we watched as everyone left until it was just us. The next time we see them will be in the airport before heading back home.

We are currently in Johannesburg working with Impact Africa. So far we have been doing evangelism in the slums and it has been awesome. Weve seen so many people come to christ already in this first week and I know we will see many more.