mahangeni

The ministry we have for these next three months is working at a care point. A care point for those that don’t know is where we serve food packets to the kids and are a part of lessons that our shepherd, Bongiwe, teaches. My teams specific care point is bout an hour walk from the base where we live. We leave around 10-10:30 in the morning to begin the 3 mile walk on a long gravel road to see our kiddos at Mahangeni!! Ministry looks a lot like playing with kids and just being Jesus for them. We have kids at our care point for about 5 out of the 5-6 hours we are there every Tuesday – Friday. The best part is when the kids see you walking down the road and jump into your arms – a heart breaker for sure!! One of my girls, Busiswa always jumps into my arms the moment I see here! She loves that i’m her human jungle gym & that I carry her around on my shoulders. It’s so fun to start developing relationships with the kiddos!! Certain days of the week we get to go on home visits to share Jesus to the locals when there aren’t any kids at the care point!! We usually have a verse or two prepared for our home visits depending on how the Lord leads us beforehand. We also get to go on a prayer walk once a week! That looks a lot like playing music on a bluetooth speaker as we (my team & our shepherd) walk down the main road through the village just praying for peace, the fire of Jesus, and against violence. Prayer walks are by far my favorite ministry we do because On Wednesday’s and Friday’s at the care point there is choir practice! The first day they were having practice while we were there, I accidentally interrupted as I walked in to grab my water. Bongiwe saw me and asked if I would give the kids some pointers on their singing. It was so funny to me because she has absolutely no idea that I’ve been involved with choir for as long as I can remember, and she just happened to ask me to do that! Of course, I had no idea what the song was supposed to sound like or say, as it was in another language, so I just said to smile more. AND THEN she asked me to join them!! Now whenever they practice, I get to sing with them and learn their language!! It’s been really fun to develop friendships with some of the girls in the choir and also with my shepherd as she now knows about my chorus background and asks for more pointers now(: The Lord really knew what He was doing as He placed me on this team and at this care point(: Prayer Requests!! – my bunions have really been hurting due to walking anywhere from 3-8 miles every day on uneven ground. (I will have a blog in the future about this!) – sickness has been spreading around my squad due to close living quarters and being with the kids so often. – discernment as I’m still learning what the Lords voice sounds like(: Thank you as always for all of your support! all my love, Kate