THIS IS FUTURE ALLEAH WRITING FROM HOME. I have to talk about the last week of Swazi, because it was really sweet.
Monday was my last squad day soooo LAUNDRY + RECEIPTS!
Tuesday, Wesley and I decided to stay home so we could have some quality time together most likely for the last time, so we stayed back from ministry. Then we had our last leadership call that night.
Wednesday since we only had three more days, it made the lack time with the kids feel much more real. I was trying my best to soak up each moment with them and our shepherd Last Born. I knew at this point that I personally could check out as a leader, but that would not be good because I want to continue to lead by example. For me to check out of ministry would mean my squad would see that and potentially miss out on anything else the Lord wanted to do in their hearts the last week.
The boys had been doing hikes before ministry and couple of the girls were wanting to go with them, so they opened it up to the rest of the squad. I was originally like “Absolutely not. I do not want to be tired before our second last day of ministry.” We were going to have to leave at 2:00am in order to get back before breakfast at 8:00am because it was a 12 mile hike. Something awesome about my time in Swazi was I had not set an alarm the entire time. Every night before going to sleep, I would ask God to wake me up at a certain time. Every day He did. So when I was trying to decide whether or not to go on this hike, since it was a last hurrah activity to do in Africa, I just asked the Lord if He would sustain me during ministry that he would wake me up at 2:00am to go on this hike. 1:59am on Thursday I awake. So I go on the hike. But PRAISE GOD I’m so thankful I did because it was so beautiful and I got some quality time with my people. We had a great day at ministry that day, and even though I was tired, God was still giving me so much energy.
12 mile hike @ 2:00am
2nd to last day of ministry
Friday was our last day at ministry. We packed all the stuff that we had bought the week before and the day before into the van (it was a lot). We get to the care point and a group of boys that we love all greeted us, waving their hands and cheering as we drove in. We prayed for the day like normal, and other AIM staff came to deliver food to cook for a big meal that day. For the first part of the day, we just helped chop veggies and prepare the meal. We then went into a time where the boys washed the cooks’ feet while we prayed for them. Once they were done, the girls painted their fingernails and toenails. It was a very sweet and joyful time with those women. We had other things like an egg hunt where we had a hard boiled eggs that we made the morning of, and we hit them around the playground, then the kids came running out to retrieve them. We had a big relay race with prizes for the teams that won. We did one last Bible story about Feeding the 5000. At the end of the skit, a few of us came running out with loaves of bread like the bread actually multiplied! We gave one slice of bread and one egg to each child who is there. Other than that, we got to take pictures with the kids and hand out chips with Bible verses on them. Us and the children ate the incredible meal made by the cooks. It was the perfect last day at the care point. We were so blessed by everyone who supported us in order to make this last day the best day. If that was you, thank you so much! These kids are absolutely wonderful and I miss each of them a lot. Friday night I brought out this cake that I had in the freezer from a couple days before… so cold cake to celebrate our last day of ministry overseas together! By that point, everyone was very tired, but it was still sweet to be altogether.
Saturday morning we packed up the rest of our things, said our goodbyes to D Squad, and left Swazi to drive back to Johannesburg. We went to McDonald’s then got to the place we were staying for the night. It was so nice there, and it was a blessing to be able to stay in a comfy bed before our actual flights.
Sunday, we began our long travel day. We flew out from Johannesburg back to Ethiopia. We knew that our layover in Ethiopia was very short— only an hour and 10 minutes, and our flight to Ethiopia was delayed already by 45 minutes. We had a hunch that we wouldn’t make it. Turns out we were right and we missed our flight back to Atlanta. As we were rushing around the airport for a couple minutes trying to figure out what to do this one man comes up to us and asks, “Are you the group of 11 going to Atlanta?” We say yes and he tells us to come with him because he had a flight for us. He brought us our boarding passes and we headed to our gate. This time we had a five hour layover in Germany. We flew seven hours to Germany, almost made it to our next gate, and realized that Kara left her passport in the plane. I went with her to try to find it and they told us that it would take a long time. Thankfully we knew we had 5 hours. Everyone we asked was very helpful and nice!! An hour and a half later we got the news that it was found! Kara and I were super excited and went to go pick up her passport. Finally, we takeoff from Germany to Atlanta and fly 10 more hours. We arrive in Atlanta pretty tired, but happy to be back in the states. At the baggage claim, we find out that all of our bags are still in Germany. Everything that could’ve gone wrong logistically went wrong, but the Lord still worked everything out and got us back safely! His hand of peace was over us. Sadly, from there at the Atlanta airport we had a few people wanting to go home. We ended the night on Monday arriving back at the base with three less people on our squad.
It was a blessing having such a great last week of ministry. There were things the Lord was wanting me to do. There was one specific thing I felt like we should do as a squad, we did it, and it didn’t go away I expected it to. That’s all I knew was I felt the Lord prompting me too, so I trust that He used what He wanted to do with that space. In general, The Lord helped me be so present this week, and I was thankful for that. As we went into debrief, I was excited for what the Lord was going to do!
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