It was a beautiful, crazy last week of ministry in South Africa.
Monday, we went out to do outreach in the morning in a new settlement that I haven’t gone to yet. I was with Caitrin, Elizabeth, Logan, Scello, and Tosh. We had an interesting conversation with an older man named Silas. He had some opinions about the ancestors and God, and his heart seemed hard to hearing other opinions, but by the end of it his heart seemed very soft. We had a couple more conversations, then came home. Later we went to the mall and I met an employee in the phone store who I talked to about her job. She felt super stuck, but I was hopefully able to encourage her with my testimony of how Jesus changed my life and I believe He can do the same for her. I love experiencing the Lord all throughout the day at random moments.
This week there was an American team here from a church in Maryland, so Tuesday was our first day doing outreach with them. I went out with Montana (an intern), Tapo (national staff), then Cheryl, Brandon, Anita, and Frank. We had one good, long conversation in the morning withthis one woman and we got to come into her home eventually to read the Bible. In the afternoon we got to know a man and his sister who were both struggling with different physical issues and we prayed over them. The guy has had bad hearing for a very long time, but when the men prayed over him, he felt a dramatic shift in his hearing!
Wednesday I woke up feeling pretty bad. I had a cough and a bad headache, but knew I wanted to go out for the last day of ministry. We went out with the same group as yesterday. First we stopped by a little daycare where one of the women shared a Bible story, then Montana, Cheryl, and I talked to the teachers inside. Afterwards, Tapo was playing Footloose as we were walking down the street, then we saw a woman sweeping outside of her house and asked her to dance with us. That lead to us having a long, fruitful conversation with her. To be honest it was very hard to focus because I was exhausted and feeling sick, so I wasn’t as mentally in on this conversation as I would’ve wanted to be. Anyways, Wesley and I went home after that for our leadership call. That night we went out for dinner to an Italian place for Mae’s 20th birthday!!! I met this girl named McKayla who was 12 years old and we just chatted in the ice cream line. I was feeling pretty sick all day and I felt a fever coming, so by the end of the night I was not feeling good. My girls told me to go to bed, so I went to my room and they made me tea. I konked out.
Thursday my squad, the interns, and I were able to visit a mosque. I’ve been praying for spiritual discernment for a long time now, and this is the first time I’ve been able to feel the tangible feeling of spiritual darkness in a place. It was baddddddd. My stomach felt so sick while our guide was talking and my head was pounding the whole time. Once we actually went inside the prayer center, I was overcome by continuous chills, not Holy Spirit chills, but it felt like sick, fever chills. We read the Qur’an which was crazy. After, I got some Turkish tea and we talked to a muslim guy for a little. Once I left the mosque, my headache felt better. We drove to the pickle ball courts for the afternoon to play, and I was feeling sooo off for a while. Eventually I got to play some games which were fun, but I had to take some time with the Lord before I felt ready to go out. Finally we got home and I felt pretty much better.
Friday we had a debrief meeting with Rich, the founder of Impact Africa. He gave us some encouragement and things to think about. Saturday was our sabbath!
Sunday we went to our last African church in South Africa. Caitrin and Asher shared some of what God has done in their hearts here.
This week was rough with being sick again, but spiritually I was on the uphill from my funk last week. Saturday morning I woke up feeling like myself again!! I don’t know exactly what switched, but what I do know is God is the king of my heart, and He can do whatever He wants with it. I have a feeling that after I prayed He would take down my walls, that’s what He did was sort of harden my heart towards His presence. I felt a little distant from Him in order to lean on my squad a little bit. And that’s what happened! I had to be weak for a time, not having much to pour out in order to receive from my squad. He’s very intentional and faithful to help me remember that He is right here with me, but I for sure was feeling the refining fire pain. I’m glad He had me in that spot.
As we close out our time with Impact Africa, I’m feeling so grateful. This ministry has truly ignited a deeper fire in me for God’s people and for the gospel. We lived in a place where we had everything we needed and more. The base was stunning and we lived very, very comfortably. We were served so well by our cooks, by Kyle and Bailey who were our base hosts, by the national staff who loved us well while we ministered to people in the slums, and by the interns who lived with us. I love those girls and I’m going to miss each of them so much. It truly was a blessing to have them there with us! I’m so thankful getting to see God work in each of the people in my squad, and I’m excited to be with them even more in Eswatini. We’re going to be doing ministry in our teams, so I’m excited to get closer with them specifically.
Now going to Swazi (Eswatini), we are aware that it probably won’t be very comfortable. This will be the African missions trip bush experience. I feel my heart wanting to be passive and coast out of feeling tired, but I do NOT want that to be the case. I want to press in 10x more than I have the past couple weeks, especially into the people I’m leading. That is my #1 ministry. I’m excited to go even deeper with God, getting to know Him more and show what He’s teaching me to my people.
I’m so thankful for our time in South Africa. We’re expectant that the Lord is going to move even more in Swazi!!
WiFi will probably be in high lack (honestly a little excited to be more unplugged) so I won’t be posting blogs until the end of Swazi. Thank you all who read these. I know they’re kind of a lot sometimes, but it really does mean a lot that you read them!
One month left!! God is so good.
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