Another Week of Ministry!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my fourth week into my mission life! We started off the week on Sunday by going to church. Church lasted two hours with one hour of worship and one hour of a sermon. Some of the songs were sung in English and some were sung in Siswati. The pastor gave the sermon in English, but would sometimes say lines in Siswati. They had a translator that was doing an incredible job. The pastor would say one line or five words and wait for the translator, but sometimes he’d speak in Siswati and sometimes English and the translator would translate to the other language without skipping a beat. I have always said and it still stands true that I think the people in this world that switch between their language and English the easiest and most fluid are Africans from the southern portion of the continent. They do it without skipping a beat or stuttering and it’s truly amazing to listen to. Then on Monday we went and did street evangelism in Manzini, Eswatini. My group consisted of Addisyn, Emma, and Kendall. Kendall was very good at going up to people, asking how they’re doing, and asking if there was anything we could pray for them for. So as a group we were able to pray for a lot of people and tell a couple people who weren’t Christians about why we are Christian and what the Gospel was. It was really cool to be able to do that and pray for so many people. We then dropped our laundry off at the laundromat and grocery shopped for the week. Jaya, Kendall, Tyler, and I ran around the store grabbing all kinds of food for our meals for the week and the lanes at the grocery store were quite small and we would go through with five carts full of lots of food and water jugs. Tuesday through Friday we were back at the daycare hanging out with the kids. We got a chance to tell them the story about raising Lazarus from the dead. In the picture where I am wearing sunglasses, the little girl put the sunglasses on my face upside down! I thought that was quite funny. I also got a chance to hold a baby girl for about 3 hours, she fell asleep and when she woke up, she went back to her mom and started crying and reaching for me. It was quite precious. There is also a mango tree there that you can’t tell is a mango tree because it never has any mangoes on it. Our Shepard explained the reasoning being because “the mangoes grow legs and walk away” (Meaning that all the kids pick them as soon as possible). But all of the kids love climbing it, so I’ve learned to love climbing the mango tree myself. I also found out that these kids love my hair (and everyone else’s too). I have had multiple kids style my hair as best they can, they especially love being up on my shoulders and doing it too! I have had a great time getting to know these kids and be a loving light to them. Kids just want to be loved on and we’re doing that really well. Also the picture of me and my teammate, Ella, eating something pink and orange is a picture of us eating what they call ice blocks. They are similar to popsicles, but frozen in a little bag and they are delicious after spending 7 hours in the sun with the kids! Stay tuned for more adventures and ministry next week!