Our first few weeks in Jeffery’s bay

It’s been such a busy past few weeks!!!

Our first week in our new ministry has been incredible!

So my girls team neercsnus was placed at a school to help the kids and the teachers with anything from showing kids how to color/cut/write/or count to 10… also telling them and reminding them of Gods love in everything we do.

I will say my first day was a pretty hard one… we definitely are not in eSwatini anymore… and definitely not in America.. the kids get their hands smacked if they are disobeying… the first time I saw it I didn’t realize that I saw it because I’m definitely not used to anything like that… but that’s the culture here and how they operate so we just kind of have to let it be!

My teacher Belinda and I didn’t speak a whole lot the first few days I started to think this is going to be a hard long two months here… it was also hard for some of me and my team because we struggled with not being able to fully see what our purpose was there considering a lot of the kids don’t speak or understand English at all… so being able to communicate and share about Jesus and different things was pretty hard… but by the end of the second week we really could see all the different ways God was using us and that was really special. My teacher Belinda and I had such a beautiful heart to heart one day and she shared her testimony with me and just about her life and different things and it was so special and beautiful and I was able to share some of my Testimony with her just the goodness of God… it definitely was a day I won’t ever forget..

I have been trying to learn all the kids names in my classroom.. I have 20 kids… and they don’t have American names they have names like konwabakwethu and chulumanco(this one has clicks in the name) so it’s a bit harder to memorize than names like sally and jack… but I am slowly but surely starting to memorize them! The first day we all went to recess and the 200+ kids all ran after us and took us down like a pack of hyenas taking down a little lamb.. all I could see was a little piece of light through the kids and I saw Suzy coming to try and rip kids off of me while she has kids hanging from her as well..I thought for one small moment… this is how I die.. under a pack of kids in South Africa… from the outside view I’m sure it was the funniest thing ever… from my view it was hilarious and also very real and scary.. lots of emotions for sure… they definitely are a lot more intense and aggressive and do not listen (mostly because they don’t speak or understand English) than the kids in eSwatini… as the week went on they did calm down a bit and we learned over the next few weeks we couldn’t really play with them like we did our kids in eSwatini.. so just finding a way to communicate and play with them but not let them take us over took a little while.

Our new ministry here for my team has been very hard and we have super long days but it also has been very rewarding and it’s so nice to see the ways the Lord is working through us and how having a servants heart and just showing kindness and love sometimes is really all the lord is asking for in a season..

So just to run you through our week/days here.. Our ministry work is Monday-Friday 7am-3pm(my team neercsnus) the other girls team is 1pm-5pm .. the guys team is 8am-1pm…then when we get home we have to have team time and feedback for the day.. then we have dinner around 5:30 and then two nights out of the week two people share their testimony with the squad and then some nights we have other things going on or prayer nights or worship nights.. we also help some nights with the church here and babysit kids while they have meetings etc. then on Saturday we have our sabbath which is our rest day/personal day… and we can adventure and use our own personal money to go out and do fun stuff! Then Sundays we go to church and then sometimes have adventure days as a squad and that’s also with our own personal money…that’s just a rough draft of what our weeks/days kind of look like here..

I know a lot of us have been struggling with trying to find our routine of things here because we had such a routine in eSwatini and here everything is so different and there’s a lot more freedom here and a lot more distractions and a lot more business!! But we keep trying to dig into the Lord and just see what he has for us in everyday and every moment.. even if it’s just small simple little things! I know it’s so easy to get caught up into the business of life and everything around you and with friends and family and work and just life… I’ve been trying to remind myself of the importance of being in the present moment and remembering why I am here and what I am doing and to not get distracted and caught up in things even tho that’s easier said than done… I’ve definitely been praying for strength to get me through this difficult time with all the changes and distractions around me! It’s been extremely hard to find time for everything… we are a lot busier here and don’t have as much free time to write our blogs and different things so I apologize for just how long my blogs are taking!

We are in a battle here and it’s more hidden like how things can be/get  in America than it was in eSwatini… the distractions from the devil are real… we have been struggling feeling weak so definitely keep us in your prayers and thoughts as we continue our time here! I will say one thing about Jeffrey’s bay…. It’s so incredibly beautiful… it reminds me of America a bit in certain ways…. It is the windiest place I’ve ever been tho… we live in a log house and it’s not built the best and when the wind is blowing it’s so loud and sounds like the house at any moment will just fly away! We have been woken up many nights from the crazy wind here… so that’s something I will not miss about Jeffery’s bay! But the sunsets here are unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before… they are truly breathtaking… so beautiful! I will miss those a lot! I guess the last thing I want to say and leave you with is that time is so precious… we aren’t promised tomorrow or next week or next month so if this was your last day here on earth how would you spend it? Who would you spend it with? What would you say to your friends and loved ones? What would you eat? What would you do for the Lords kingdom? Would you be ready to stand before the Lord?