Her name was Pollet and her faith changed me.
Have you ever met someone who you only knew for a few weeks but who made you rethink your own life and who left a lasting impression on you? I have. Her name is Pollet and she is an 11 year old girl from Swaziland, Africa.
Rewind to 2 months ago when my team and I were staying and doing ministry in the Nsoko region of Swaziland, Africa. We stayed at the AIM base there and one of our primary ministries was helping out and assisting at the 11 different feeding care points that AIM had established in the surrounding villages. We would visit these various care points 2-3 times a week over the month of November. It was at one of the first care points we visited at the beginning of the month where I met a young girl named Pollet. She was in a group of young girls who were all surrounding me each saying something or asking me in their broken English some sort of question about who I was and where I’d come from. I introduced myself to them all and asked for each of their names in return (most of which I struggled to pronounce correctly back to them). After a few minutes, the majority of them had scattered running to my different teammates to ask the same questions. But Pollet still stood there smiling at me. So I began to ask her some simple questions about her life and family. She told me that she went to a church near by with her family on Sundays and I asked her if she enjoyed singing and dancing (as this was quite popular in the Swazi churches), to which she responded by giggling and saying “yes!” I asked her what her favorite song to sing in church was and she told me her favorite was a song called Faithful Lord. I asked her if she could sing it for me and after some convincing she began to sing it to me, first in SeSwati and then in English. Her voice wasn’t beautifully pitched or elegant, but it was pure and 100% heartfelt as she sang the words, “You are faithful ohhhh Lord. You are faithful Ohhh Lord, everyday. Every day and every hour, you are faithful ohhhh Lord.” I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear as I stood next to her listening to her sing with such humility and purity. A few seconds after she finished I heard one of my teammates yelling to me that it was time to go. I gave her a hug, told her that she was beautiful and said goodbye as I expected that would be the only time I would see her.
2 days later as I was returning to the AIM base after prayer walking with my team I saw from afar that there was a young girl sitting on the front stoop of the team house building. As we approached closer we were all wondering who it was, then it hit me that it was the same little girl who I had met at the carepoint in Imbfutu a few days before. She had a huge smile on her face as I walked up to her to give her a hug and said hello. She had come by the teamhouse to say hello to me on her way back home from school (the local elementary school was down the street from us and many of children walked anywhere from 20min-2hrs to school every day). This started a regular schedule of a her stopping by after school to say hello to me and hang out with me a couple times a week.
I quickly began to look forward each time she would stop by to visit and secretly hoped each day would be one where she stopped by. I had really began to fall for her beautiful young heart and the sweetness of our conversations together about anything from life in America to learning the SaSwati language of Swaziland. We shared a lot of laughs and smiles together in every conversation we had, but none of those conversations prepared me for the one that would change my perspective completely and impact me forever.
It was about 4:30pm and I had just laid down to take a quick nap before dinner when one of my squad mates came in the room and said I had a visitor at the door. When you live in a foreign country with 14 other people, it’s not very often someone comes to the door asking for you specifically by name. When I opened the door, I saw Pollet’s smiling face looking up at me once again. I quickly put on my shoes and went with her to sit on the wooden deck right next to the house (we weren’t allowed to invite anyone inside of our small teamhouse. Swaziland tended to be a very warm weather place, but this afternoon was a little chilly as it was overcast. As we sat down and began to talk I somehow mentioned hot chocolate and she responded by asking me what that was and saying she had never heard of it. I smiled and told her to wait there for me to return and I ran inside to make her a quick cup of hot chocolate to have her try. I grabbed my rain jacket on the way back out because I noticed it had begun to sprinkle outside. As I sat back down I handed her the hot chocolate and gave her my rain jacket to wear to protect her from the rain and cold. As we talked she started asking me about my family and my parents and asked me why I didn’t bring them with me and if I missed them. I told her I do miss them a lot but that I knew they would all be there when I return.
I started asking her about her family and what her parents are like. She told me that she had 3 brothers, 2 younger and 1 older and that they all live with her GoGo (Grandmother) in a small hut. I asked her where her mom was and she told me that she got really sick and that she died 3 years ago. Her mother died of Tuberculosis. Her beautiful smile had begun to fade and transition into a look of sadness as she started talking about her mother and what it was like to see witness her go through the sickness that would eventually take her life. At this time the rain began to come down harder on us as we sat on the deck. But even with the rain beginning to pour down our faces, it didn’t hide the tears that had begun to stream down her face. I told her how sorry I am about her mother and asked if she missed her, she answered “yes…I miss her very much. I miss her every day.” Her beautiful chocolate brown eyes had tears continuing to well up inside of them as she looked out into the distance, as I looked into her eyes I could see that she was thinking about her mother and picturing her face. I asked about her father and she told me that she used to be go and visit him every 6 months, but that in June of last year she found out that he had gotten very sick (with TB) and had died.
As I sat there with my arm wrapped around her, watching as the tears streamed down her face along side of the rain that was falling, I was at a loss for words. As tears began to form in my own eyes I felt both heartbroken and angry all at once. I just kept asking God why. Why did this perfect little 11 year old girl have to endure not only watching her mother die before her eyes but then also 3 years later have to discover that her father died from the same sickness. Why did she have to be left to take care and help provide for her 2 younger siblings when she herself was still a child? I didn’t understand and I was angry that it had happened to her and even more angry that there was nothing I could do about it. As I sat there, I don’t know that I have ever felt more frustrated. I knew there was nothing I could give her, do for her or say to her that would bring back her parents or that would make it all better.
Among my sadness and frustration, I managed to give her and hug and to tell her that God loves her so very much and I believe that she will see her mother again some day in heaven. She nodded and said, “yes.” After a few moments, while I was sitting at a loss for words and still full of my own questions and doubts, she said to me clearly, “I know that God will take care of me…He will provide for me.” In the matter of seconds my entire outlook and faith was challenged as I sat filled with anger and sadness about this young African girl’s life difficulties while she was sitting there thinking about how God will always take care of her. My mind instantly went back to that first day when I had met her and asked her to sing me her favorite song. “You are faithful, Ohhh Lord. You are faithful Ohhh Lord, every day. Every day and every hour you are faithful Ohhh Lord.” Then more than ever, I realized how much she had truly sung those words to me that day from her heart…and she meant every word.
He is indeed faithful. More faithful than my trust in Him or belief in His sovereignty, more faithful than our circumstances may appear. I will never forget the faith that an 11 year old African girl from Swaziland shared with me that day because that is the kind of faith in God that impacts people and changes lives. That is the kind of faith I want to have.
*I had a video recording of Pollet singing the song for me, but unfortunately I lost that along with my pictures of us together when my phone was stolen in South Africa. But I am blessed to still have this picture of her on the first day we met.
