Sunshine in my soul, rain in manzini

It has basically rained all week here in manzini. There’s something so beautiful about a constant peaceful rainfall all day and night! Everyday I am trying to look for and find new ways to see things through Gods eyes and see the beauty in everything all around me.. the people around me… the kids we work with at the care point.. We did have some slower days at our care point this week because a lot of the kids didn’t come due to walking in the rain but we did have a very full day on Friday. The rain let up for a few hours so it was nice to spend some time with everyone and end the week on a super full precious day!

I know a couple of us did have a few hard days this week.. feeling a bit tired and certain emotions over certain things.. so the constant rain all day everyday for a few days has been a lot. Trying to do our laundry has been fun.. we tied a bunch of ropes all across our living room to try and hang our clothes and dry them. So all week we have had clothes hanging in our living room.. I’m not sure if I said in my first blog but I am living with 17 other people! So try to imagine a small living room with ropes all across it with a couple peoples laundry hanging on it… I’m laughing now thinking about it.. honestly this week has had some hard moments but we’ve also had so many really sweet moments!

We had one of the coolest worship nights in our squad this week… when you are genuine and intentional and fully present with your time and the people around you and your relationship with God…WOW… Nikki and Matt lead worship and really expressed to us how worship is so much more than just singing songs and playing music.. worshiping God can be reading your Bible and digging into the truth and just getting on your hands and knees and praying and talking with God and thanking him.. we all drew names out of a hat and then took time to just pray and listen and see what the Holy Spirit was saying and if we had any words or any verses or maybe a picture or a prayer or maybe a song or whatever it was for the name we drew to write it down and then give it to that person.. It was something so special for all of us! I won’t ever forget it!

All that being said I tell you what.. God is SO good… he never fails me… he shows up exactly when I need him… it can be so hard sometimes when you want something so bad and you feel so defeated and sad when things don’t happen when we want them to or the way we want them to… I am learning so much and one thing I have learned and that I was reminded of over the past few days is that God knows exactly what he’s doing…. He doesn’t always give us what we want or when we want it..but he gives us what we need… he gives us our hearts deepest desires…. He knows our deepest thoughts and dreams… he knows us better than we know ourselves… he created us… we are a work of art… his art… he took his time on us and we are so beautiful and so deeply loved… he has a purpose and a plan for every single one of us!  You guys I prayed so hard all day yesterday and throughout the night for sunshine today on Saturday for our day of rest.. even though the forecast said 90% chance of rain all day every day for the next week… and sure enough the sun is SHINING!! I am sitting in the sun writing this blog soaking up every last bit of it!!

God is always blessing us!! Sometimes in something so simple as 30 minutes of sunshine… sometimes it’s in things so simple we don’t even notice and don’t even really think of him and forget to be thankful! I know I talked a lot about thankfulness in my last blog but I’m realizing it really is so simple to just take a moment in our day and Thank God… we spend hours at work.. hours on our phones hours watching movies or shows.. hours talking to loved ones… taking 5 minutes everyday to just be thankful really isn’t hard! I want to encourage you guys to try to add “Thanking God” to your daily routine and see the joy and beauty in everything and everyone around you! I started to read my Bible this morning and had a WOW… that’s soooo good moment.. I read in Colossians 3:15-17 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Listen I’m no expert on the Bible and have a longgg way to go with learning and understanding but when I read that.. it hit me so hard…I had a WOW moment for sure.. Maybe my blog will inspire you to try and just start reading your bible and thanking God and maybe you will have a mind blowing WOW moment… maybe you won’t… what’s that saying.. “All good things take time.” Whatever it is.. I’m so excited for all the amazing things to come and to just keep diving deeper and deeper in my relationship with God and reading his word and helping others and showing his love and just serving others and being thankful!

I wanted to share about our outreach day we had in town this week, I was so excited to get out and about and spread Gods love! Our squad has 3 different teams and my team consists of me and 4 other girls our team name is the dandelions.. we chose this because dandelions represent the return of life, the rebirth of growth and green after a harsh winter, and a display of abundant strength and power. So we go to town as a squad and then split up into our 3 teams and then go out into the town and just try to outreach to the community… Outreach days can sometimes be hard.. I have to remind myself that even if I personally didn’t help someone in whatever way.. whether that’s praying for them.. buying them food… talking to them and just giving them some company or telling them about my life or whatever it may be… I have to remember there’s 17 of us here and even if only one of us is able to accomplish something whatever it may be.. that’s a win for ALL of us… and so that’s a win for me!!! It’s easy to get discouraged sometimes when you feel like you didn’t do all that much but We are ALL a part of Gods kingdom and we ALL have a role and part to play so no matter how big or small that part is… YOU matter… YOU are loved.. YOU are unique no one else in this WHOLE UNIVERSE is like you.. We are ALL Gods children.. we are ALL brothers and sisters in Christ! We are ALL fighting for the same things and guess what.. with God as our champion we CAN NOT LOSE! So trust me when I say…I had to check myself and remind myself of these things because playing that tape of “wellll I didn’t really do anything today or have much success personally” can sometimes be easy to just play in our minds.. So just remember it’s not about us… the glory isn’t for us… we give all the glory to God and whether it’s me or someone on my squad a win for Gods kingdom is a win for Gods kingdom!!!!!

Here’s some fun things I’ve been learning how to say in Swazi

Yebo -means YES

Sanibonani!! (Sah-nee-boh-nah-nee)  -means Hello! (Addressing two or more)

Unjani (onn-jah-nee) – means how are you?

Ngiyabonga (ng-ee-yah-boh-ngah) – means Thank you!!

Jesu uyakutsandza- means Jesus loves you!!