End of The Month Blog – Eswatini

Before you start reading, I want you to answer a question. Have you let God love you today? If you don’t know, take the 5 seconds to ask him please. 

 

 

 

 

This month I learned what it means to be a child of God. I learned that I am responsible for my spiritual growth. My connection with the Father is my job to pursue. God loves us too much to leave us the way we are. Ever since I was born again, “I have the right the be a child of God”, John 3:3 says. With that comes the Holy Spirit which is very powerful. When listening to his whispers over the past month I have been stretched, molded, and reshaped to look more like Christ. 

In the process of listening to the Spirit I

• Brought those that weren’t children of God to become believers
• I provided a wheelchair for a man that couldn’t walk more than a few feet
• I helped a woman get medicine she wouldn’t of had access to otherwise
• I taught many kids “green-light, red-light”
• I washed dishes when it wasn’t my turn
• I gave away my last Oreo
• I consoled a grieving family with scripture that the Spirit pointed out to me to share
• I wrote down almost every persons name I came in contact with
• I shared my testimony
• I told Peter and Stephanie how blessed I am to have gotten to know them
• I played soccer when I didn’t want to
• I told Hayden that I saw Christ in him
• I shared a plate of rice, chilis, and spinach with a care point coordinator.
• I walked into homesteads and was “a lamp on a hill” because I was walking in with the Spirit
• And I listened to a sermon for the first time from a woman when the pastor was out of town and thought it was on of the best I had ever heard. 

 

The Spirit, if listened to, is very powerful. He has habitation rights, not visitation rights. He indwells in us. When eating breakfast in the morning with my team, or at the care points when I play with kids, or when I hear the whisper to pick up trash, or if I am cooking s’mores the last night here – the Spirit is always with me. Always. It is my job to partner with the Spirit and walk along and with him, step by step, as he literally tells me, nudges me, whispers to me and shows me what to do. Acts 1:8 says “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  The spirit has come upon me, and I am literally being a witness to Jesus Christ. What I am getting at is that God wants us to know him. To know his character. I have been walking side by side the spirit this month to learn how to better do that. Jesus chose me and appointed me to be here right now. He also decided before hand who would be reading this. So if you are reading this, know that without a shadow of a doubt that Christ is in you and working for your good. He wants us to go out and bear fruit. To love others the way he designed us to. Isn’t that awesome!?

2 years ago I was playing video games, and looking forward at a life that I wasn’t excited for. Today I am a child of God and I know in my heart that if I died today that I would go to heaven. I don’t think I could have said that 2 years ago. 

 

Ernest Hemingway said “There is nothing noble in being noble to your fellow man. True nobility is being superior to your former self.” 

 

With prayer, patience, and keeping my eyes and ears open, I now have a new life filled with purpose! I now have a new life where I can literally feel how much God loves me. I now have a new life knowing that it is a privilege to do what I am doing and feel what I feel. I can only give praise and honor to Jesus and the cross. I wouldn’t be writing this and y’all wouldn’t be reading it unless God came down from heaven and died an excruciating death for us. You ask why he would do that? 

 

LOVE

 

Love is what ties everything together. Even if and when we turn from what the Spirit nudges is to do, God, in his loving kindness, will always, always, have forgiving and open arms. He is waiting for us to come to him. To love him back. We are not forced into the kingdom. We have to choose it. We have to literally choose God. We have to die to our desires. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says “For we are all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free – and we are all given one Spirit.” Let us go out and show it! I ask everyone to pick up there crosses. Surrender control. Surrender to his Spirit. Surrender to his control over your life. Ask to be continuously filled with the Spirit. That it might spill over. That the Spirit change everything in you. I ask everyone reading to literally trust in his love. Trust that he will give you everything you ask for. Just ask! I encourage everyone to pray and open up the space for God to connect with you. Be willing to encounter him. Be willing to let him change you for your own good. I am a testament to that. We are all Gods investment. Let us do our best to protect his investment. 

 

Questions I answered at the end of the month below. 

 

Q: Where did I fail?

• My argumentativeness with squad mates. 
• Not holding my tongue 
• Not treating my squad mates with the love they deserve

 

Q: What did you celebrate?

• I celebrated my testimony and how I am so far from where I was. I was dead and now I am alive, and I need to remember that as often as I can because it is something worth celebrating.

 

Q: Where did you see God?

• In the little kids faces
• In scripture 
• In prayer
• In my squad leaders
• In my teammates
• In the smiles of the Swazi’s
• In church
• In myself
• In memories
• In the airport
• In Thandi
• In Sunday
• In Shine
• In the welcomes we got walking into a house
• In the sunrise/sunset
• When our squad gave each other feedback on each other
• While cooking
• Going with Thandi, her brother and Coryn to eat a pigs thigh
• At training camp

 

Q: Words that describe my month?

• Differently slow
• Smile often
• Obediently listening
• Uncomfortable comfort

 

Q: What has the Lord shown you about your identity?

• That I struggle when I don’t know plans
• That I struggle not being in control
• That I struggle holding my tongue
• That I want to be a missionary
• That I want to be a pastor
• That I want to bring more people into his Kingdom

 

Q: How will you challenge yourself to slow down and hear God’s voice?

• Praying longer
• Praying more often
• Intercession
• Opening up the space as much as I can

 

Q: What work or service did you feel most talented at?

• Cooking dinners
• Connecting with the locals

 

Goals:

• Constantly remembering the cross and how it was the most amazing thing to ever happen in the whole universe or will happen ever happen in the whole universe. 
• Seeing his signs more clearly
• Gaining wisdom
• To gain more experience and spiritual skills for the mission field and ministry

 

 

All the names I have written down are below. I ask everyone to help me pray for them and there journeys with God.

 

Melusi (Mehlucy) (Met before anyone)

 

Sibusiso (Seeboseesue) (Met in soccer)

 

Seefeeso (Met in soccer)

 

Siyamtuanda (Seeyumtooanda) (5yr old)

 

Thandi (Taandee) (Host)

 

Ntokozo (Tuhkozo) (Met when he translated for us)

 

Jabulani (Jaablonny) (Security guard)

 

Sunday (Met when we did house visits)

 

Phineas (Finyas) (Man who couldn’t walk and need the wheelchair)

 

Linda (Leenda) (Goalie in soccer)

 

Thunzi (Toonzi) (Waiter at the place we went for Wi-Fi on the weekend)

 

Pastor Thulani (Toolonny) (Pastor I met at base)

 

Precious Phumlile (Poomleele)

 

Bonginkosi Metfula (Bonegincozy Metula) (Met sitting on a tire at the playground)

 

Shine Shabangu (very good person) (has Christ in him for sure)

 

Lindokuhle Dlamini (Lindagothle)

 

Sanele (he’s interested in joining there army)

 

Emfantini (a Shepard for a carepoint)

 

Nelly (a Shepard for a carepoint)

 

Colani

 

Mzwandile (Zwandeele)

 

Kwanele (Gwanele) (our driver to care points etc.)

 

Abbylé (who I shared the rice with)

 

Cebile Cebekhulu

 

Pastor Sanele (Met at the care point where we built the fence)

 

Siphelele (other driver)

 

Irene (friend)

 

Melissa (friend)

 

Camila (friend)

 

Major (friend)

 

Sdumo (Stewmo) (carepoint coordinator)

 

Bongiwe (Bomegeewey) (helps at the carepoint)

 

Siphiwe (Seefeewey) (helps at the carepoint)

 

Sakhile (Sakeyle) (helps at the carepoint)

 

Poomleele (woman I met at a house visit)

 

Sandile (Sandyle) (driver)

 

Eric (Met on the hike)

 

Steve (missionary there)

 

Morgan (missionary there)

 

Angelo (care point Shepard)

 

I was also given a name in Siswati. It is Bhekithemba  (Beckytimba), meaning my parents trust in me and my future generations will prosper. 

 

Words and phrases I learned this month:

 

• Sanibonani “hello”
• Yea bo “yes”
• Sissy “sister”
• Babé “Father”
• Maké “Mother”
• Bhuti “Brother”
• Gogo “Grandmother”
• Mkhulu “Grandfather”
• Ninjani “how are you”
• Siyapilla “I’m fine”
• Ungunbani logama lakhok “what is your name”
• Siyabonga “thank you”
• Kakhulu “very much”
• Angifuni “I can’t”
• Cha “no”
• Wota sitodlala “come let’s play”
• Salakahle “goodbye”
• Hamba kahle “goodbye to someone leaving”

 

Verse I want to leave y’all with: Acts 20:24

 

 

Oh, and I saw a rainbow today and in Genesis 9:13 God is talking to Noah about how a rainbow in the clouds will be the sign of the covenant between God and the earth and how he will remember the covenant and that never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. I thought it was pretty amazing that in the moment I saw a rainbow, God was remembering his covenant. Ahh so cool. 

 

 

P.S. I went on a safari yesterday and this is what I saw:):)

 

Water buck

Water monitor

Egyptian goose

Baboons

Velvet monkeys

Elephant

Zebra

Rhinoceros

Leopard

Cliff springer

Kudu

Hyena

Warthog

Crocodile

Impala

Giraffe

Blue pretty bird

Zazu

Southern ground hornbill

Guinea fowl