Ministry in Swaziland

Here’s a little break down of our ministries:

 

We arrived to Swaziland, in an area called Manzini, which is the city, with our 11 participants on a Friday.  We were blessed with a great house. It had electricity and water most of the time.  I stayed in a room with bunk beds with the girls.  (Mine is the top one on the right)

 

   

 

As leaders we were busy trying to set things up. The leaders were me, Doyle and Tonya. Doyle and Tonya brought their 4 kids(8,10,13 and 15) with them and they were part of the team. It ended up being a good dynamic. They jumped into ministry just like the rest of the team. It was great to see! Upon settling into Manzini we were finally able to meet up with AIM staff and had 3 specific ministries laid out for us. We split the team into three groups, with a leader in each group and began the rotation.

 

The three ministires were:
Hope house- This was a Hospice. We could go and visit with the sick or dying and pray with them and just bring love to them. It was cool because it was like visiting these people at their house. We would knock and almost all of them would let us in and we would begin to spend time with them for however long. (usually 12-2pm)

 

Hospital- This was a hospital like no other. It was nothing like our hospitals here in the states. You walk in and there are just beds all over the place.  Where our team spent time in was the children’s ward. We would approach people to ask them if they would like prayer or just talk with them. Some of our team would go over to the malnutrition unit and spend time with the moms and babies there.  It was unreal, these premature babies that weighed 2 and 3 lbs that were not in incubators. (this was also a 12-2pm time period)

 

Carepoint- This is a center kind of. It is a place where kids in the community can come to and get a meal and education.  There are Gogos(grandmothers) who make the meal for the day and a teacher to teach the kids. We go and just love on them. Play with the kids, help the gogos with the meal, or help them clean or help teach a bible lesson. This carepoint was about a block from the house so we usually would walk there. One team would go there and spend the whole day and the other teams would meet up and finish out the day at the carepoint til around 4 or 4:30.

 

So much happened in each of these areas of ministry. I will attempt to tell you what I can and as much as I can. I admitt that it is taking a lot to share. It’s the weirdest feeling. I want to share  but at the same time I don’t. I need to share though, these stories need to be told and Swaziland needs to be kept alive. It’s hard though beacuse I can feel really detached and just like no one will ever get it. But I want you to get it, and how will people get it if they don’t know and aren’t told? So this is what I got and it’s me processing as I write it so thanks for your grace with me as I stumble through words, thoughts and experiences!