Learning to Fly

Sawubona! Sawubona means hello in Siswati, which is what my team and I are learning to speak. We so far only have a couple phrases down, but we are learning more and more everyday 🙂 

My team is INCREDIBLE. In the short week that we’ve known each other, we’ve become a family. We love spending time together whether that be playing games, killing bats in the team house (true story), just hanging out, or stargazing at the AMAZING stars. They are 12 daughters and sons of the most High God, whose first agenda is to seek Jesus in all that they do. My leaders are equally incredible, and are some of the most loving and caring individuals I’ve ever met. They are such a blessing, and constantly finding ways to invest in us (love you so much Em and Britt!). I’m amazed at how gracious the Lord has been in bringing us all together so perfectly, and I am SO pumped to do life with them for the next three months! 

We’ve been in Africa for about 2 weeks now, and it’s been such a whirlwind! Our journey started with a 15 hour plane right in to Johannesburg, which for most of the flight, all of us slept. Thank you Jesus 🙂 After spending the night in Joburg, we took a bus into Nsoko, Swaziland, which will be our home for the next month and a half! We’re staying at something called a carepoint, which is a school, church, and clinic all wrapped into one! Our team house, which is where we are staying, is right in the middle of all of this. It’s awesome because we have kids around us all the time, and they LOVE to play! We’ve done a couple manual labor projects around the carepoint, and we also started ministry last week! Calling this beautiful place home has been such a blessing, and we’ve loved getting acclimated to life together as a family in Africa!

Oh man, Jesus. You guys, Jesus is so good and loving, and He is SO present here. It’s in the hugs from the Swazi’s, grace from them as we struggle to learn their language, my team laughing together, little kids holding up their arms for us to swing them around, and one of them falling asleep in my lap (my heart just about burst). My joy is overflowing more than I knew possible. I’m truly learning the meaning of John 10:10, in which Jesus says “I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full”. Life to the full is what life looks like for me here. Though we have been stripped of comforts like air-conditioning, reliable electricity, and shower water that stays on, Jesus is just filling me with His perfect love, and teaching me what it looks like to walk in freedom with that love. During training camp, the image of birds and specifically, a baby bird breaking out of its shell was brought up to me. My “shell” is all of the things I try to make up my identity and self-worth with. When I decided to break my shell, God gives me the love and confidence to learn how to fly as a daughter that He calls worthy through Jesus. Learning to fly is SO liberating!

To everyone that supported me financially and through prayers, THANK YOU. I thank God for you every time I get to hold a precious little nugget, when I wake up next to my team every morning, and in all that life is here. Thank you for sending me!!

Some prayer requests that y’all could be praying for if you’re willing 🙂

1. Swaziland is experiencing a horrendous drought. It’s making animals die, people be laid off from their jobs on the fields, and the land be extremely dry. Please pray for RAIN!

2. Our team as we get acclimated to ministry!

Our theme verse for this week is 

“Therefore my dear brothers, stand firm! Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain”

-1 Corinthians 15:58

Thankful for Jesus and His love!