Another Week in Swazi is coming to a close?! Time here is wild, the days are so very long but i cannot believe we got here almost two weeks ago now. We still have over a month here for our time in Swazi and I have a feeling it will be a very “Swazi time” type of month!
For this blog i just wanted to share a few testimonies as well as what Jesus has been teaching me from our time in Swazi so far!
T E S T I M O N I E S:
One consistent thing that I have been learning so far since being on the Race is how simple it is to minister to those around us. Time and time again I’ve seen the simplicity of what listening to someone can do. On our first flight to Istanbul me and a friend were standing up and talking when a lady walked up to us with a South Carolina shirt on. So we asked if that’s where she was from and she said yes. So I chatted with her for a while and just connected over South Carolina, since I’m from there as well which was sweet. As we talked she just began opening up about how her parents are from turkey but her mom has dementia and so its her last time taking her back to visit home. We ended up hearing all about her life, marriage, faith and more. She told us her mom had been having a really hard time on this flight with her dementia. Just very anxious and unable to calm down. We asked if we could possibly pray for her mom and she said yes, so we walked over and ended up chatting with her mom for at least 45 minuets! Her mom was overjoyed to see us, she shared all about her life, Turkey, and the Lord. It was such a sweet time. We ended up all taking pictures, exchanging numbers, and praying together. Later on type flight the Lady came up to us and found me and told me how peaceful, and calm her mom was after our prayer. She had even fallen asleep. WOW!! Look at the Lord making such sweet connections and answering prayers on a plane, come on!!
Another sweet testimony occurred on our first day of house visits/prayer walks we went to this one women’s house and immediately her face lit up when she saw us. She was radiant, she didn’t have to say a word, it was evident that she knew Jesus for herself. We talked to her and Liv a girl from my team shared a scripture that the Lord had showed her earlier that day. The women we were talking to was so excited. Right before we walked up she said that she had been reading that very verse and praying for the Lord to bring confirmation! We were all so excited and in awe of the way the Holy Spirit wad already moving! Praising Jesus for who He is.
Here is testimony of the Lords kindness: at our carepoint one day a little boy had gotten hurt and was cryin. I went and scooped him up and he laid on me for a long time and ended up falling asleep. As he slept on me and I held him I just began praying over him. Praying identity, praying peace, and I looked down and saw his dried tears and noticed how long he was just lingering in my arms for. But I didn’t mind this at all, I actually loved holding this sweet baby, I had been praying for encouragement that day. Then the Lord reminded me of how He delights in his children, He loves nothing more than to hold us in our brokenness for as long as we need. He wants to simply embrace us and sit with us. I was so encouraged by the tender arms of the Father.
Those are just a few of the many moments the Lord has made Himself so known. I have many more moments of sweet conversation with the Lord in the slower moments of ministry. I’ll be praying for encouragement and He brings it, or testimonies of just learning what it looks like to simply dream with the Lord.
In other news I’ve been learning what it means to become dependent on the Lord in a new way since being in Swazi. The Lord has created us to be dependent upon Him, many of us know this. However, I often find myself allowing myself to be only partially dependent upon Him, but this is not what He has asked for. He says that we in our flesh cannot please Him. What pleases Him is us walking with Him in the spirit, and we do this when we become fully dependent on Him. Mentally, physically, spiritually depending upon Jesus. This topic has all come up here in a new way in Swazi as distractions are removed I realize how often I depended on myself or those around me. And while there is beauty in dependency on others this must come after we become dependent upon Jesus. Specifically, since I have no service in realized how often I depend upon my friends and family emotionally. However, here I’m learning what it means to actually become dependent on Jesus for even my emotions. is a beautiful yet extremely hard thing for Jesus to be everything. It is the most wonderful thing that my soul so longs for – however it is also a time of dying to my old ways wants and needs.
Swazi has been difficult in many ways but the Lord is bringing refinement out of this place. And from refinement we get to look less like ourselves and more like Jesus. We get to know Jesus better because of it, and at the end of it all that is everything because He is everything. He is it. He is the prize and the reward so what a gift it is that even now we get to know Him better and become more like Jesus. May we all become people who joyfully welcome refinement because it yields the fruit of knowing Him better.
May we all become people who are more dependdant upon Jesus today than we were yesterday, He is so worthy and what a joy it is to give Him everything! 
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