I
almost feel like a broken record saying that we have got to love, but we’ve got
to. That’s what we’ve got to be about. We have got to love God above anyone
else and then we must love others. Good, bad, ugly, pretty, old, middle aged
(that’s for you Dad), young (and you Mom) brown, black, white, yellow we have
got to love!!! Let me tell you a story…
We’ve been here in Swaziland
for almost 2 months now. If I couldn’t peel dirt off me like you do with a bad
sun burn I wouldn’t believe that we’ve been here that long but I can… ha
gross, I know. So anyways, we have a lot of great people around us: we have Zanele
(whom I once called “my best friend” to which she quickly replied
“not a chance!”) and Titi who translates for us daily. Then we have
Lelo whose homestead we live on. Marius who supports us from a distance, but
it’s great. We’ve got Mousa who has the best laugh ever and I swear he is
always smiling. Even in his sleep the man smiles! Oh yeah, then we’ve got Bheki
(pronounced beggy) or as we affectionately call him “Begs” or
“my Begs”.
Bheki
is apart of the “D team” here in Swazi and his main role is to teach
and check up on many of the care points around Manzini. Care points are run by
Makis (moms) and Gogos
(grandmas) that voluntarily look after 40-100 kids and feed them Mon-Sat. Can
you imagine cooking that much food? These women give a lot of themselves. So
then people like Bheki are in charge of teaching the kiddies about Jesus and life lessons that
children need to know. Many of the children really fend for themselves. They
take care of themselves and then take care if each other. We are talking babies
up through age 14. If they have one parent they are very fortunate but a lot of
these kids, well, life is not easy. Or at least not in our eyes… Oh yeah, so
back to Bheki…
He
lives the typically Swazi life. Goes to bed early and wakes up around half four
(4:30am) almost daily. Why they get up that early I don’t know nor will I ever
find out. Swazis live by the motto “there is no rush in Swaziland,” and it’s very
true. If they are coming at 6pm they’ll be there around 6:30
if you’re lucky. Everything is sloooowww mooootiooonn but you don’t miss as
much when you go at that pace. You get a chance to enjoy your day more. Oh
yeah… so Bheki.
He is
just a really kind hearted guy. The Swazis are very friendly and welcoming
people. Everywhere we go we hear “hellos” and “how are
yous?” to which we respond “I am fine!” They have learned
specific greetings in English so many of them say the same thing. Everyone is
doing “fine.” Sometimes we spice it up and throw a “yeah!”
and fist pump in there. The kids always laugh at the crazy umblungos (white
people). Yeah, so about Bheki…
No,
I’m not experiencing some extreme ADD nor has the African sun completely
fried my brain…just partially. I wanted
to share some of the Swazi culture with you. But about this “Bheki”
is what I truly want to share.
Over
my two months here in Swazi I have gotten to know Begs pretty well. At first he
was just this very kind, shy guy that was always with Mousa and always smiling.
But now he has become my good friend. He is soo genuine. When he speaks it’s
very soft but the words he says are very powerful and of God. This man knows
his bible and is very good at bringing out truths and also living them. He
inspires me to live a better life.
So
a few weeks back after we had been worshipping at night, Bheki spoke up and
when Bheki speaks up, wow, you listen cause its always packed full of good
stuff. He proceeded to tell us how he was never loved as a child. His parents were
never around and they did not care how he was doing. He just took care if
himself and became “fine” all the time. No emotions, just fine. Bheki is 25. He
said “I have never known what it is to be loved and be accepted. I don’t know
what I have done to make you love me and I don’t know if I owe you something
but this is the first time I’ve felt loved in my life. I’m not apart of your
group but you always invite me and you include me. You love me. I can’t tell
you how much that means to me.”
Last Monday was Bheki’s 26th birthday so we planned a little party.
We made his favorite food and of course we got a cake. Almost everyone made him
a card and wrote him letters about how great he is and how much we love him.
When he got to our homestead we made him wear a random Burger King crown all
night. Unbeknownst to us this was his very first birthday party.
He had always wanted to have a party and celebrate his birthday but his parents
were too busy and so it wasn’t important. Begs went 25 years without ever
having celebrated his birthday. How does that happen..? Can you imagine growing
up and on your birthday no one cared to even say “happy birthday” or make you
feel special. It was just another ordinary day. He held those cards so close to
his chest and he keep telling me, “I am so blessed. This is so
great.” Bheki told us that he had been learning for a long time to always
be joyful because it’s not conditional, like happiness is, but he was even
greater than joyful on Monday!
ministering to the people we are doing ministry with. Do you ever take time to
realize what a great impact we can have on the people’s lives around us? We’ve
got to be people that love. We do. Take time to look around today. Every person
you see is a person that needs to be loved. We have such a great opportunity to
show Christ love to sooo many people. It’s so easy. We can be a part of
bringing heaven down to earth… We’ve got to follow the example of the Ultimate Example..
Ryan (themba)
We
can’t always do great things, but we can do little things with great love!
