Ministry in Eswatini has been very sweet. We serve at a Care-point that feeds around eighty kids one meal each weekdays—and an additional breakfast meal for the little preschoolers. My team’s days at the Care-point look like teaching preschool, helping wash little hands, scooping out food, singing some praise songs, preaching a short Bible message, and playing hard. Sometimes, we have the honor of going on house visits to help hand out food packs to the families in the community who are in most need. The most important thing we can do at these care points is play and love these kids. A lot of them come from single or double parent orphan families due to the prevalence of HIV/Aids in the country. Many households are led by a grandparent or the oldest of the siblings, so the parents are worried about making money and providing food for their kids so giving one-on-one love and attention is sometimes greatly lacking. It’s an honor and a beautiful thing to love on these kids for six hours a day four days a week. We often play net ball, football (soccer), handclap games, playground games, or just cuddles.
We are also blessed in our housing. We leave with a very kind family on their homestead. Steven and Faith have invited us in and ask us to call them mom and dad, and said that their property is a gift from God and they glorify God with everything they do. They have built this place little by little over time, and even things like they put in a pool so that after ministry days when it’s very hot, racers and people from the community can cool off. They are a very kind couple, and I look up to them greatly. Steven even did some training with Steven and they did a race (a 10k for him and 21k for her) a couple days ago!
While we have been in Eswatini, we also had the opportunity to have our parents come and physically join us in ministry here for a week-long Parent Vision Trip (PVT). During this time, our parents got to see our carepoint, homestead, and a farm that empowers community members to learn permaculture and teach what they learn to help their communities become more sustainable. We worshipped together, laughed together, and ended the week with a fun safari adventure!
After PVT, one of our leaders—Cami—came with us back to the homestead for a few days as we debriefed our time so far in Eswatini and began to look to the future of where God is calling us after the race. It’s an exciting time, but a very unknown time as we pray about next steps and figuring out what we are most passionate about and what God may be calling us to partner with Him in. Please be praying for us to trust God in the process and be courageous for what God calls us into next!
Before we head back stateside, though, we will be in Eswatini for one and a half weeks, and then South Africa will be our last world race country! We are in the home stretch! Please pray for us to have endurance, be present, love people well, and keep our eyes locked on Jesus.
Love reading the updates. Africa has always been near and dear to my heart, as 3 of our grandsons are adopted from there. My daughter and African son-in-law took me with them to various African countries for both of their adoption trips. I have very fond memories of the hospitality extended to us and of the hurting yet loving children everywhere. God bless you for loving on the children.