As previously stated, I didn’t have much expectation about the El Shaddai ministry. I knew we would be working with orphan kids and doing work projects. There were 40ish kids that are in primary school. We each got paired with one of these kids to be with them one on one for the month. That was awesome in and of itself. I got paired with Maria – more to come about her in another blog. Then there were kids that lived in what’s called the baby house. These are kids that are infants to pre-school age. My heart was filled with compassion for these “babies”. To hear their stories from Charmaine (founder and mom), Rachel (our contact, previous world racer turned resident missionary at El Shaddai), and Katie (peace core member volunteering at El Shaddai) upon arriving was enough to fall in love with these kids and want to love on them. Then you get to be around them, and it’s so fun, crazy, and sometimes heartbreaking.
Two little girls in the baby house captured me almost instantly. Hope and Faith are twins who were extremely malnourished. They are three years old and look like they are one, maybe one and a half. My niece, Luralie, is three years old, and it took a while for my head reconcile the vast difference physically between the twins and her. It’s not just their physical being that is underdeveloped. Some days it would be my ministry for the morning to go sit and play with the kids in the baby house. Hope and Faith’s stories are unique to them, but all of the children obviously have been abandoned in some form. Many have been abused and/or malnourished. At the beginning of the month Hope and Faith didn’t talk very much, but as time went on we began to see them come out of their shells. I would say something to someone, and Hope and Faith would be sitting on my lap attempting to repeat my words. Their laughter is adorable. I loved getting to spend time with not just them but all the kids in the baby house.
Another kid that I got to spend a considerable amount of time with is Joseph. He’s five years old, and his trademark mannerism is to answer most questions you ask him by raising his eyebrows – that’s all the response you’re going to get until you get under his layers. Joseph is extremely eager to learn. Almost every day he would tell me he has homework when he didn’t – he just wanted to write or draw or read a book. Fellow X squad member, Ana, says he’s going to be a preacher later in life. I believe it.
These are just a few of the kids that I was privileged to encounter in Swaziland.
