For the last 2 1/2 months we have been living in Nsoko, Swaziland. For most passerbys the only things that would stand out would be the giraffes and zebra at a game reserve called Nisela, which technically isn’t even in Nsoko. Nsoko is a town hidden by tall sugarcane. The town is know solely for this fact: “the sun is hotter there.”
Behind the intense heat, the cool giraffes, and the fields of sugar cane, there is a 5 year old girl named Thembelihle. Sassy, fiery, dramatic, demanding, determined, and sneaky are just a few words that can define this diva of a girl. She is the queen of the pre-school and she knows it. From not letting other kids jump on us because she owns us to dancing around the room while the teacher is teaching, she knows her powers as queen and she uses and abuses them.
She had our teams heart from the first time we saw her in Katherine’s arms asleep with a snotty nose. Our team has adopted her in a way. We all think of her almost as our own daughter and make sure she is doing alright at all times. At 7 in the morning we can hear her shove the door open and scream out with her shrill voice one of our names. It is a struggle the rest of the day to get her out of the team house.
Although she is one the happiest and most loving kids, she has experienced a lot of difficulty in her short life. Her mother had a child with another man so she left her other children and moved in with the man. Her father is not only an alcoholic, but an absent figure in her life. When she went to go live with her uncle for a short time, he sexually abused her. The only rational solution was for her to move out. So now she lives with her brothers and sisters. But even that situation is broken and flawed. One of her sisters is a severe alcoholic and the other has a new-born baby. The only father type figure is her half-brother Sanele or the AIM teams when we are here. Sanele has his own struggles and burdens as he has to provide not only for all his brothers and sisters but also his grandmother and great grandmother. He has struggled to get a job for a while now so providing for these people has become even more of a difficult responsibility. Some days the food from the care point is all they have to eat.
Thembelihle is special in my heart like few others in this world are. Every time I see her two front teeth missing as she smiles my love for her grows deeper. When God told me he wanted to come on this trip I was not sure as to why, because I could have excelled on the other Passport trips with their ministries. But I believe one of the biggest reasons God wants me here is to show Thembelihle the unconditional love of God. Love that does not fail. Love that won’t abandon or abuse her. Pure love. It won’t matter to me when I leave that I didn’t bring 30 people to Christ or helped men grow in their relationship with Christ to a great extent like I hoped to accomplish when I signed up for this trip. God has sent and will send others to do that. But there aren’t many people whose hearts are touched to love Thembelihle. I know for certain that God has called me to do this. I will be able to go home knowing I accomplished what I was called to do if Thembelihle knows these things: what a man of God looks like and that she is loved unconditionally.
