Make the click noise with the roof of your mouth and your tongue, now say deh-lee-way. You’ve just pronounce my SiSwati name. The heading is how I’ve been told it’s spelt, I’m sure none of us are really saying it right, but I love having the honor of a Swazi name. I had been thinking about asking for one from some of our new friends, but wondered if there may be something of a rite of passage that I must go through or even if such names were only for tribal members.
As I’m writing this I’m realizing how Amazing our Lord is, all we have to do is ASK! Ask Him into your heart as Lord and Savior with full belief. There is no survival test of the fittest, quiz of scriptures, gauging of purity, or disqualification from being a certain person. He first chose us! (Ephesians 1:11, In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.)
I eventually asked our dear friend Nicolas, he has been driving us around so patiently and graciously, if he would give me a name. Celiwe in my understanding means “to be asked upon, often by a parent”. Since I was asking Nicolas for a name and was the first to do so, this is what I was given. He said often parents think about what to name a child during the pregnancy so they have time to carefully consider each names meaning. Not unlike what Americans do when choosing a child’s name.
Nicholas and I
