It always feels like you’re stealing time when you’re in Eswatini. It’s borrowed, at the very least.
I should start today with telling you that Avis. Pulled. Through. The tire is fixed, we’re back in the van, praise God!
Today was the second day of the Youth Leaders retreat, where John, Jimmy and I all gave messages, we played very wild games, we worshipped and praised, and we built relationships together. It’s really something when you watch fully grown men trying to tear each other to shreds over ping pong balls and balloon stomping. It was sweet, it was sacred, it was so Swaziland.
Today was also full of very unexpected but delightful visits from friends from all over Eswatini. While the youth leaders retreat was going on, some pastors had a meeting so we got to see some very familiar faces from other regions where we have not traveled on this trip, and spend sweet time with them today. Then later this evening, a couple of older youth leaders came by and stayed for the evening session. Sweet, sweet reunions but always too short. Always borrowed time.
From the very moment we cross the border into Eswatini, I feel like I’m silently counting backwards in my head to our final days, our final hours, our final moments. Where we’ll go back to South Africa, and then back to America, and this will all fade back into a beautiful dream. Always living on stolen time here.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
One day we won’t be on stolen time.
It will be eternal, and with Jesus. We will stand, hand in hand, side by side, drawn near to the throne or grace together. We will dance and praise and sing and lift those voices, believers together glorifying the name of the Lord.
We wait with longing.
