Author: Adventures

Home for a Month To begin with, I am currently speechless. Since flying to Johannesburg, South Africa, staying overnight in a hostel, and then arriving at our team house in Swaziland, we all have been exposed to unimaginable experiences.      “So this is your home for the next 22 days.”, Xolani announced as our van entered the barricaded house. Dang, this home is much more modern than we were expecting. We still laugh about how training camp prepared us for living in such raw conditions; sleeping inside an unsanitary one-room hut located in a vast, rural...

Coming into this trip I had a ton of expectations. I thought that my focus would be entirely on loving all the people in Swaziland, but God had something different in mind. God changed my focus from being on others to being on myself.  God has shown me that it’s okay to be broken and to not have everything figured out. I am the type of person put smile on my face even if everything is going wrong, and pretend everything is okay. God showed me that that it is not necessary to do this and that it’s okay to be broken. God showed me that no matter how broken I am, he will still...

The LORD’s Response “Must God tailor His justice to our demands?” Easy answer: No. But really, how often do we expect God give into our needs and wants? Why do we question the Lord instead of falling to our knees in worship? I stand guilty. Swaziland is a beautiful Kingdom nestled between South Africa and Mozambique. The way light hits the rolling hills, turning purple as the sun sets is beyond compare. Every day as we drive out of the city, I picture God’s hands forming the land, intricately designing the very trees we drive by, painting every leaf. I see His...

My whole life I thought of missions as a beautiful, life-changing experience, but that’s not always the case. I came on this trip filled with hatred, regret, and sadness. I expected that God called me on this trip to fix other people’s brokenness, but instead he made mine a priority. I have unknowingly been angry with God about things I didn’t even know about for a very long time. But what he is teaching me on this trip is that it’s okay to be messy and broken. God can, and will handle your anger for as long as he needs to. He wants us as humans to know that...

The Newness of My God   The wind blows my tangled hair back as I glance out the window to a world that seems so foreign to me. I smile as our small bus (which happens to run on prayer alone) bumps along the dirt road, long past the familiar buildings and sidewalks of town. It is our first day of ministry, and my team buzzes with excitement and a willingness to serve God. I spot the brightly painted buildings of Bheveni Carepoint almost immediately as we approach. They stand in stark contrast to the pale dirt roads and gray mountains in the distance. As we park, the children swarm,...