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...

Sierra Elizabeth Bell July 17, 2016 More Beautiful I was sitting on the slide with a little girl and boy who could both speak English. After chatting for a little while the boy put his arm and my arm next to each other. He said, “Look at the difference!” Before I had time to respond the girl touched both of our arms and asked, “Which one is more beautiful?” The look on her face was clear – What I was going to say, she would believe it. I went on to tell her how both of us were beautiful no matter what skin color we had. Then we told each other the things we...

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...

Daddy-Daughter The idea of spending a month away from the people I love most didn’t quite hit me until I sat down on my bed in a hostel in South Africa. You can’t quite change your mind at that point, but God didn’t intend for me to. I realized I wouldn’t be able to be in constant contact with my friends, wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone I please at any time I desire, and wouldn’t be able to hug my mum every 5 minutes of the day. Thinking about this scared me out of my mind! What if I didn’t like the girls on my team? What if my leaders were cruel...

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...

Spoke with Swazi team leaders this morning.  The team is doing great!  They have been doing work projects (for example painting) on Mondays and Wednesdays.  On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday they have been doing ministry at the care points with children.  They said the days are long and very full.   The team will try and post some bolgs however internet is very limited.  They will have wifi today the hope is to have communication back home.