I sit here on the playground of the care point surrounded by children chattering away in a language I haven’t even begun to understand. Each one is braiding a strand of my hair pulling it in a thousand different directions at once. This happens at least once every day, five days out of the week as they try crazy new hairstyles always laughing at how silly I look.
I take a moment to look around me and realize just how much each one of these children mean to me. I’m amazed at the difference I see both in the children and me and my teammates since the first week we spent here in the beginning of March.
We came and weren’t given any direction other than to play with the children and serve them rice at noon. To say the least we felt very overwhelmed, having nearly a hundred children who all wanted undivided attention and only five of us.
I’ve been amazed at how the Father just continues to pour His strength into us everyday as we just continue to love on His children here in Eswatini. The children are starved for attention and love and I’m going to be honest sometimes it takes everything inside of me to go back the next day knowing that it’s going to be another day of giving all my energy playing soccer with the older boys in the hot sun, holding four or five of the little ones,breaking up fights on the playground or giving piggybacks to a kid almost as heavy as me. But the joy on their faces when we spend even a little time with them makes it all worth it.
Being here for over a month I can see the changes in some of the children both physically and mentally. Something me and my team have been faithfully praying over from the very beginning has been the infected sores that cover so many of the children’s bodies, probably caused by a lack of proper hygiene or lack of medicine. This week I’ve been noticing that a lot of them are scabbing over, drying up or completely gone! Praise God!
It’s also been so sweet seeing some of the children who seemed the hardest to reach or the most shy now becoming our little best friends always wanting to play or just sit and cuddle with us!
I look around again and I see Jesus everywhere, He’s in the laughter of the children dancing with my teammates, He’s kneeling beside Chiara as she wipes the tears of the little boy crying beside the slide, He’s with the Gogo as she stirs the pot of rice we’ll be feeding the children today. The Father is here. He is ministering to every heart, He is faithful. He is omnipresent and omnipotent, He is chasing down the one and at the same time leading the ninety-nine. That’s the kind of God we serve!
This is the Father we’ve spent the last three months telling everyone about. And it’s been the sweetest three months of my life. It’s been hard missing the comforts of home and my family but the joy of knowing this is where the Father has called me to be for this time has made it so worth it.
It’s definitely been a season of learning for me in our time here. Learning how to serve those around us out of an overflow of the Father’s love and also out of a heart of worship, because on my own strength I have found I tend to burn out very quickly and become frustrated with the cycle of poverty that’s so evident in these children’s lives.
It’s been heartbreaking seeing them line up for the rice we serve each one holding their little containers just so excited and ready to eat, when honestly it’s been hard for me to be content with just the standard missionary meals me and my team have been eating!
The children of Eswatini have humbled and inspired me so many times with the childlike faith they have. Here they don’t know if they’ll have something to eat tomorrow but they still have the biggest smiles and the most trusting hearts I’ve ever seen.
It’s this kind of faith that I’m holding to as I prepare to go back to the states. I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I do know whatever it is my Heavenly Father is already there and He’s rejoicing in it!
I’m so excited to see the plans He has for me and also so excited to see everyone back home again!
Thank you all for the love and prayers and I’ll see you all in only a little more than a week:)
Love always – Anna
Anna you are amazing!! I love you!!
Thanks for the update Anna God bless you and your team keep loving the little children and planting seeds of love it will make a difference in their life I love you
Anna, I’m so happy for the empathy you show for others, and the kindness you have in your heart, it goes a long way. If more of us in the world felt like you it would be a better place. God bless you and I love you more, Melanie!!