Red Dirt Roads and Simplicity

So, this is Africa! 

Welcome to Nosoko, Eswatini. The home of some of the most beautiful and grateful people I have ever met! 

What a joy it has been to finally get to experience Africa and the incredible natives here after dreaming about this moment for so long. Life here is truly simple and I love it! With minimal cellular connection and no places to get wifi, our squad has had the opportunity to really spend intentional time together. There has been an abundance of card games played and dance parties had as we have settled in here! 

A typical week here in Nosoko looks like this! 

Monday: 

We start our day with breakfast around 8 am and then we get ready for the day and get to take part in devotionals with all the Swazi ministry staff around 9 am. This is a time that we all get to dig into the Word together and prepare our hearts for the week. 

Following this we get to meet with our shepherd for the week! This is the person who oversees the care point and knows the kids well. We discuss the logistics of the week and what our role will be in that. This is followed by lunch time with PBJs, chips, and a fruit! 

Finally, the afternoon on Mondays is ours to do what we need to prepare for the week. I typically can be found journaling, exercising, or hanging out with people on the squad. We finish the day with dinner and squad worship! 

Tuesday- Friday: Ministry days!! 

Our days start a bit later around here than in other countries as the kids are at school in the morning. We have breakfast at 8am and by 9am most of the squad has jumped in a kombie (a van used for transportation!) and is headed to the various care points. Upon arriving, we are greeted by our shepherd and sometimes the cook! Some mornings we hang out around the care point helping with whatever needs to be done and others we head into the community for a few hours of house visits. Either way we get to meet incredible people and love on the community. Slowly but surely throughout the day the kids start to show up at the care point as they get out of school. We get the pleasure of serving the food which is the rice packets made by Feed My Starving Children. We spend the afternoon hanging out and loving on the kids. They love to learn dances and play on the playground. There are lots of smiles, singing, and sweating. Eventually the kombie shows back up and it is time to head back to base for dinner. After a delicious dinner, there may be some card games played or team times had, but the night winds to a close pretty early so we are rested for the next day. 

Saturday and Sundays: 

The weekend is here! We are allowed to go into town on Saturdays to grab anything we need from the store. As well as, this is our adventure day as a squad. Sunday we get the pleasure of attending a local church that is a 15 minute walk from where we live! It has been such a pleasure to get to worship here each week and get to meet our brothers and sisters in Christ here in Africa. The rest of the time on the weekends is spent sabbathing, resting, and being intentional within the squad. I get to catch up with my family on Saturdays which has been such a blessing as well! 

So there you have it! The slow pace of life here has really created space for more intentionality with one another and with the Lord. As we begin to prepare our hearts to go back home, it has been so good to have time to process all the Lord has done over the last 8 months and prepare our hearts for the end of the race. 

Continue to pray for intentionally within the squad and for endurance as we finish the last month and a half of our race. Thank you for your continued support! 

With Love, 

Kalyssa

*I apologize for not including pictures. The wifi was not strong enough to upload them! I will share photos soon! Stay tuned!*