ESWATINI.

Sweet little faces waving down your bus. Sticky hands braiding your hair. A room full of giggly children excitedly  singing ‘Lord I lift Your name on high’ with hand motions. Preschoolers laughing & yelling ‘umlungu’ (white person) to get your attention so you can help carry them across the monkey bars. A chorus of young voices repeating ‘The Lord’s prayer’ before lining up for the daily meal of manna & rice.
These are just a few glimpses of life in Manzini, eSwatini.

My team spent 7 weeks in eSwatini (interchangeably known as Swaziland), living on a homestead with a local Swazi family. The missions organization the Race is under actually has a base in Manzini. Their primary ministry efforts involve reaching young children through various ‘care points.’ These carepoints are strategically placed in communities where children can simply come, be loved on, & fed a meal. In a country with the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world, a lot of these kiddoes come from heartbreaking backgrounds & home situations. There is a lot of power in them just having a ‘safe place’ to come to and just be kids (every carepoint has a building for teaching & a playground for playing). They also get fed a meal of ‘manna rice’ every day & for a lot of them, it might be the only meal they eat that day.

My words pale to adequately explain the beauty of the landscape- eSwatini (also referred to as Swaziland) boasts of exaggerated mountainous plains & the African bush. Driving through the land, you often find yourself even driving through a game reserve, where you just might see a giraffe eating off a tree by the road.

Life in eSwatini was a lesson in the concept of ‘daily bread.’ One of the defining characteristics of the carepoint we served at was the way the kids had the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) memorized. Every day we would play & spend intentional time with the kids, and then they would all line up and the cook would lead them in singing (if you want to be changed-try listening to an African choir of littles singing in their native tongue to Jesus), then in a chorused repetition of The Lord’s Prayer & asking God to bless their food. It was so impactful to me that these young children had this entire Scripture memorized & could recite it in unison. And it ended up being a sweet reminder for me- the Lord’s Prayer became really significant to me personally during our time in eSwatini. God was teaching me a lot about the concept of ‘daily bread.’ Every day is a gift from Him & an opportunity to trust Him to provide exactly what we need. I was reminded of the Old Testament story when God sent the Israelites manna to feed them (& how providentially ironic that the kiddoes at the carepoint got fed literal ‘manna’ every day;). He instructed them to only gather what they needed for the day- nothing more, nothing less. In the New Testament, Jesus proclaims that He is our manna. 

“for the bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven & gives life to the world.” (John 6:33)

Swaziland was a season of ‘simplicity.’ It started out with my bag getting lost in transit on the way from Albania to Swazi. Turned out it would have never been found  due to the airline having out the wrong name on my luggage, but God is a God of miracles & returned it to me 1 1/2 weeks later, teaching me a valuable lesson about how little we really need to live on. With Jesus, we never need have a ‘scarcity mentality.’  He gives us exactly what we need day by day & we need only live in the present moment. Our carepoint ministry was such a blessing; we had 7 weeks of getting to spend hours with the same children, building deep & meaningful relationships. I had the opportunity to teach preschool in the mornings & we led Bible studies in the afternoon, creating a curriculum that went over the entire Gospel story (creation- Jesus’ life/ministry & spiritual growth).

These kiddoes don’t have much of anything & some of their living conditions are grim. I realized during this time that at the end of the day, we really don’t have anything to offer people except Love Himself. I found myself often repeating the phrase ‘what would happen if I just gave away love like I was made of it?’ Spending time at the carepoint made me feel helpless in terms of how I could actually ‘better’ these kid’s lives in the short time I was there. But God reminded & showed me- His Love is what they need. If I could spend everyday just pouring out love & showing them they matter by the way I played with them, fed them a meal, taught them a Bible story, etc.- that’s the biggest thing I have to offer.

To be honest, there were so many days when I felt tired. Long days of ministry, trying to spiritually & emotionally invest in 80+ children, at the point in month 9 where I was longing for home & feeling weary~ I would wake up every morning and find The Lord renewing my strength in supernatural ways. He was being my daily bread. Giving me the exact energy & words of encouragement I needed that He would later use to speak into the lives of those kids. I got challenged in the idea of ‘loving from a river, not a reservoir.’ When you’re tapped into the life source, HE is The One who flows through you & it’s a never-ending supply of grace & love to the people in the world who need it most.

One of the coolest testimonies was with a group of young teenage girls. They would come to the carepoint to be fed, but didn’t care much for the Bible story or anytime we would try to engage them in a spiritual conversation. I had felt really burdened for these girls & wanted the opportunity to share the Gospel with them, but the door always seemed closed. Then one day, out of nowhere, a few of them came up to me & asked if we could read the ‘prodigal son’ story together (we had just shared it in our Bible study time a few days before). I had no clue they were paying attention but it was such a sweet reminder to me that He is working in ways we can’t see, planting seeds in people’s hearts. They were so excited to show me their ‘religious education’ books from school about Christianity & it turned into a whole conversation about the Gospel, which led to many other days of Bible study & ‘sword drills’ with them (they loved practicing looking up Bible verses & competing with each other).

I also loved building relationships with all the people involved with the carepoint, including the  AIM staff who are local Swazis in their 20-30’s who love sharing Jesus with their community. We shared daily devotionals together, learning traditional African dances & their native language, many good laughs, training/running together (I got to run another 1/2 marathon in Swazi!!;), &  Swazi Church services.

There were also a few faithful cooks at the carepoint who literally give up their time every day to volunteer to cook at the carepoint (without pay) just because they want to be a part of serving their community. They daily built & stoked a big fire, cooking enough manna/rice for 80+children. They were known as ‘Koko’s (Swazi for grandmother) & precious souls with the biggest smiles, always interacting with us and having us help them cook (stirring the big pot of manna with a thick wooden stick). They showed us so much love & one day, they wanted to surprise us by cooking us ‘fat cakes’ (a traditional Swazi delicacy that was one of my favorites!) they knew how much we loved them & selflessly sacrificed to make them for us one day, knowing the simple joy it brought us. This same day it was raining (which I believe stands for God’s blessing) & we had a beautiful moment where they wanted to play a game outside in the rain, laughing & running around with the biggest smile on their faces. These were the days I understood what it feels like to deeply feel the joy of The Lord and know what He meant about the ‘abundant life’ He promises (John 10:10).

On our last day at the carepoint, I wanted to treat the kiddoes to something special they had never had before – cupcakes! They’re used to their ‘manna rice’ every day & I wanted them to have a special treat to celebrate & enjoy our last day together. We ordered a bunch of cupcakes & one of my teammates had bought several sports equipment toys for them to enjoy he surprised them with that last day. We spent some time praying together & then opened the boxes of cupcakes- and their faces LIT UP. It was funny though, because they’ve never had one before so they didn’t quite know what to do with it. A lot of them stared at it for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to consume it, then decided to just shove it in their faces.
This was a special lesson to me- God daily gives us our manna (He is a God of provision) & He also loves to surprise us with good gifts like cupcakes every now & then (He is a God of abundant life). We just get to receive & enjoy His provision & goodness, celebrating all He has done.

Oh, the simple j o y s of life in Africa. Thank You Jesus for showing me You are our daily bread through the sticky manna hands of little fingers on African soil.

To be so honest, I sometimes find myself struggling to write these blogs. Not because I don’t enjoy them, I LOVE & CHERISH the opportunity to write & share all God is doing across the world. But I feel completely inadequate to express the depth of what God is up to in these places in words on a screen. It’s something that can’t be completely captured in writing. Which is why I can’t wait for the days I get to share in person and explain it all face-to-face. So here’s my official invitation to you to grab coffee & talk all about it when I’m State-side;)

and hey- speaking of, see y’all in 3 weeks🤍

keep on keeping on,

Kenz