Honestly the move to eSwatini was not easy. Actually, it is still not super great for me here, however I remember my first full day in this country asking the Lord to grow my heart for this country and the people here.
My squad and I work Tuesday through Friday at a care point about two hours away from our house. Care points are placed all throughout eSwatini and act as a safe place for local children to come and play with other kids, learn about Jesus, and get a hot meal. Care points operate everyday of the week to provide those needs for the children.
Though my heart was very hard arriving to this beautiful country I was excited to jump into ministry. Ministry here looks like playing with kids for about three hours a day and sitting with them while they eat. The kids here are very curious about us visitors! They love to play with our hair, touch our skin, and examine our hands.
The Lord has blessed me with three 13 year old girls who come to hang out with me everyday. These girls don’t really like to play, but they love to talk. If you know me, you can probably guess that we get along great. One of the most common things we talk about is our different skins. The first day I met these little girls, one of them kept telling me how beautiful my hair and skin was while she played with my hair and felt my arms. I told her that I also loved her hair and skin. She jumped back with confusion about what I said and questioned that she heard me right.
“You like my skin and my hair?”
I was shocked at her response.
“Your skin is so much more beautiful than mine, and your hair” one of the girls said to me.
My heart broke in that moment. I didn’t know what to say. What I saw was three incredibly beautiful young women in front of me, but that is not what they saw. I asked the Lord to speak through me in that moment and show those girls how beautiful they are, especially in the eyes of the one who made them.
“You know, my skin is beautiful, you are right, but your skin is also so so beautiful. Your skin is so beautiful because that is how God made your skin. God made your skin perfect and I know that because God doesn’t make mistakes.”
They sat there for a minute thinking before they said anything else. It was like they heard for the first time that God made their skin like that on purpose; and their skin is the right color for them because God does not make mistakes when He creates things.
In the moment my heart was like the Grinch’s heart. It felt like my heart grew three times the size for eSwatini and it’s people when those girls heard for the first time that God didn’t make a mistake when He made them the way they were. The Lord, being so good, revealed to me the purpose of me being here in this country was to show these girls that He does not make mistakes in the things He creates.
It is easy for me to recognize why the Lord chose these three girls for me. I know how they feel. I know how it feels to think that God made a mistake in the way He made you. I have always struggled with the way I look, even to the point of questioning if God really even loves me. For a long time I thought, if God loved me I would look different. I would look more like the other girls around me. I would be shorter, slimmer, and have straight hair like other girls. However, the Lord, has taught me that He has made me exactly how He wants me. He has taught me that if He wanted me to look different I would look different. He has shown me how beautiful I am. He has shown me His most favorite things about me. He has made me believe that He has shaped and molded me exactly how He wants me for the purposes He has made me.
The Lord picked me to minister to these three girls for the next five weeks because I know what it is like to not like yourself. Because the Lord is so kind in the ways He has taught me how He loves the things I used to not like about myself, I know how to minister to these girls in a way that will show them that God made them exactly how He wants them. So for now, ministry for the next five weeks looks like teaching these girls what it means to be a creation made by the creator of the universe.
Would you join me in praying for these girls to understand that God made them beautifully and wonderfully?
These girls are so blessed to have you poor into them! You are so beautiful inside and out in every way imaginable!
I will be praying for you and your new friends! These young ladies are so blessed to have you pour into them. You are so beautiful inside and out in every way, you can imagine! You are amazingly brave and beautiful! Thank you for your amazing stories about the journey that God has laid for you! You are always on my mind and in my heart.
Wonderful updates on your mission adventures! Praying that you will be able to Share Gods love to these young ladies.You are beautiful in every way!
Girl, you are exceedingly beautiful exactly the way you are. He loves you deeply, and so do I. I’m praying for your ministry. Just remember to preach those precious lessons to yourself as well. ❤️🙏✝️
You are so beautiful and I am so happy to see your growth and teaching me as well as those lovely girls to love ourselves as God has made us. We may have abused what we were given because we didn’t like our self image, but you are being the light that is attracting those that feel the exact same way and not
Knowing their despair you are pouring into them (and me) like a moth to the flame. You are the light that we need.
Wow, this sentence really hit home for me: “For a long time I thought, if God loved me I would look different.” for almost 40 years i believed I was very ugly. I hated how I looked and hated my nose. But as my view of how God loves me and created me uniquely has changed, I’ve been able to love and accept myself as I am. This blog speaks to many who have listened to the lies (unknowingly) of Satan who tells them they are not enough – pretty enough, smart enough, rich enough, not the right color, or shape. Thank you!