It hurt my heart to have to leave their beautiful ebony faces. As I said goodbye to Nokuphila, Noxolo, Bongiwe, Kolilie, and Vuyisile, and they say stuffed goodbye notes in my jacket pockets, there was a wave of knowing that I probably won’t see them again.
Four weeks. It took four weeks in Swaziland at El Shaddai to give a piece of my heart to these five girls, a deposit freely given with no expectation of return. That’s what month to month is teaching me, you give a part of yourself to each person you meet with no expectations of them returning that piece to you at the end of the month, but rather they keep it and you become another American they enjoyed for a time and then left.
Truthfully it sucked to get into the van and drive out of the gates and off the mountain, away from their beautiful ebony faces.
There were times in the month that were disheartening, especially at the beginning when our buddies didn’t want to hangout with us, and there were times that we questioned why we were there. Love, it all came down to love. I learned pretty early on by my interactions with Nokuphila and by other racers with their buddies that asking about their pasts was a topic better not brought up for a multitude of reasons, but it was better to simply love on them how ever we could and however they would let us. For Nokuphila, at first it was simply playing card games in my hammock, and then she got more comfortable with me and I could begin to tickle and hug her. For sweet Noxolo it was to be a ear for her as we talked under the stars; Bongwie it was to simply joke and listen to music on her “secret boulder”. Kolilie loved to bake with us and was so gracious each time the guys would burn her sugar cookies, and Vuyisile simply wanted to know that you cared about her, even if that meant just sitting and not talking.
The first morning we were there, I was sitting on a rock looking at the view from the top of the mountain and I was taken back by the beauty that was in front of me. That’s when God interrupted my gazing and asked me if I heard His people. He asked me if I heard my teammates behind me making breakfast and working out, he asked me if I could hear the children laughing by the kitchen, he asked me if I could hear the people on the mountain below, He asked me if I could hear his people for they were a reflection of his true beauty for they were his finest work.
It was the end of the second week there when I read Deuteronomy 7:6-8 and in this passage it talks about how each of us are chosen by the Father to be his most treasured possession simply because he loves us and it delighted him to do so. That out of everyone on earth, he chose us simply because he wanted to; it wasn’t because we were the greatest or the passage actually says it wasn’t because we were the most in number, we were actually the least in number, but only because he wanted to. It hurt my heart to leave them, all the children, but especially these five beautiful young ladies. They live in a children’s home and many are parent less. They have world racers come in throughout the year and have them leave when it is time. It was hard to leave them, but I did not leave them as orphans because they aren’t to begin with. I left them knowing that each one of them is the Fathers most treasured possession and that he chose them because he loves them desperately and nothing can take them from his arms.
