Wow where do I even begin to describe my time in Swaziland so far. It has been amazing to say the least. So many wonderful things have happened and God has already shown us so much. There have been many things that have touched my heart but the Nkambule Family definitely has touched me the most.
This is a family of ten kids and a mother and father. We met this family because a few of my teammates had found them when some of the girls of the Nkambule family were fetching water from the creek. And when I say fetching water I mean taking 5 or 6 huge buckets and filling them to the brim with water and then walking back about a mile while carrying the buckets on their head! These girls do this every single afternoon! I tried lifting a bucket up and couldn’t even do it with two hands much less on my neck.
But anyways, we found out that this family goes to the same church that we will be attending during our stay in Swaziland. (The EWC church) and so we met up with them after church and they invited us to their homestead. And honestly I was not expecting the complete generosity that was about to happen. We got to their homestead and they asked if we would like something cool to drink. We knew that they had very little and we didn’t want to put them out but we finally agreed after they insisted that we have something. We thought that they had already had the drinks in their homestead but all of a sudden three giggling kids ran down the hill with empty soda bottles towards the street market. They were going to go buy us a liter of soda when they couldn’t even afford to buy themselves clean water, and they were completely honored and happy to do that for us. When they got back with the soda they invited us inside and took out the nicest china that they had and served us the soda in the china! This is a family that has 15 mouths to feed and makes a living off of selling chickens and here I am sitting in their living room as they are happily serving me! It should be the other way around!
I thought I was coming to Swaziland to serve the people but here I am being served by people who have much less than me. They were happy to give what they had and they didn’t think about themselves. They only wanted to serve and love on their guests as Jesus would do. And that’s something that totally rocked my world. We are called by God to love on people like Jesus loved. God didn’t call us to serve people only when we feel like it or when it benefits us. He called us to love people all the time, and any way we can. And that’s exactly what this family did for us. I can’t wait to get to hangout with the Nkambule more this summer and get to know each and every one of them better. I ask that everyone keeps them in their prayers!
