It has been a crazy past couple months! Leaving the Philippines was really tough…tougher than I thought it would be. Saying goodbye to people who quickly became family sucked (for lack of a better word). God showed me more of what love looks like, how fortunate I am and just a whole lot about His character and people throughout the world. I don’t really have something super inspirational to say or conclude…so I’m just going to tell ya about what’s been happening!
When we got to Swaziland, I was overwhelmed in the best way possible. I’m convinced this place is the most beautiful place on earth. For the past month we have been serving at an orphanage called El Shaddai. It houses roughly 50 kids ranging from 8-18 years old. El shaddai is located on top of a mountain about an hour and a half from any type of “civilization”. If it rains, you are stuck because vehicles can’t make it up and down the dirt roads (we have had some pretty scary/hilarious experiences with this…let’s grab coffee when I get home, I’ve got a few stories to share). The view here is breathtaking. Half of the time we are stuck in a cloud, and when that cloud drifts over all you can see are hills and mountains stretching as far as the horizon. There is nothing up here. No wifi, no restaurants, no shops, no distractions. I couldn’t imagine a better place to learn what “being still” means.
At the beginning of the month we were all assigned “buddy’s”. This would, in a sense, be our focus person for our time here. I got assigned a beautiful 17 year old girl named Phumla. She’s awesome! We hit it off great from the get go. Phumla’s mom died years ago and her dad got very sick and could no longer take care of the kids. Before she was brought to the orphanage, phumla (14 at the time) was taking care of her 3 younger siblings all by herself. She is so cool. We play cards a lot, read through Proverbs, paint each other’s nails, and talk about all the girly stuff you could ever imagine.
It is absolutely heartbreaking hearing these stories. The woman that started the orphanage took a few of us into town to get groceries for the squad the other day. In the car I began asking more about the kids and their lives prior to El Shaddai. She shared with me a story of one of the young boys here, Sakilai. Sakilai and his younger brother were found after being raped and sodomized by their father. They were both found naked hanging by their ankles in a tree. As if that wasn’t sick enough, there were human bite marks all over their bodies. They were left there to die, but were found and brought the orphanage. This is just one of the 50 devastating stories of what these poor innocent children have experienced. Some days I just stare at them while they are singing or swinging from the monkey bars and tears fill my eyes. How could anyone give them up? Why do they not have two parents to love them the way they deserve? I don’t know the answers to these questions and maybe I never will. But I do know one thing, God loves the crap out of them and has brought me here to show them that love.
With Christmas brought a wave of emotion. Homesickness hit it’s peak early in the week. This Christmas was one I will never forget. The whole day was great. Our whole squad got to celebrate together exchanging secret Santa gifts (95% of them consisted of Oreos and peanut butter), gathering for a yummy Christmas feast, bonfire worship, late night snacks and stargazing. All of these things were great, but the most special part of Christmas was celebrating with the children. We all gathered in the chapel around 10 o’clock in the morning and waited for them all to come in. They each had about 4 presents waiting for them up front along with the present each one of us picked out for our buddy. When their names were called they would walk up, get their presents and head outside with their racer and open their gifts. They had the biggest smiles on their faces. My buddy went and grabbed her presents and the gift basket I made her. We sat under the tree and I watched as she opened each gift with an excited squeal following each present. While I have been here I have been making notes of her favorite things so that her gift was personal. She shrieked with joy as she saw her 3 bags of chips she asked for and the other small goodies in the basket. She was so happy and so grateful. For the first Christmas in my life I experienced the true joy of giving instead of receiving. This was to Christmas I will never forget.
We have one more week here at El Shaddai and I am not looking forward to this goodbye at all. My team will be heading to a different city, Manzini, to work at different care points. I am going through some mixed emotions because the thought of leaving this place breaks my heart, but I trust God and am looking forward to this next season.
I miss you all very much! Thank you for the prayers and support.
With so much love,
K
