Over the past month, my ministry team and I got to spend every Tuesday-Friday hanging out at a carepoint in Ntaba, eSwatini!
Essentially, it was an after-school program for kids aged 4-15ish not too different from ones in Canada. We would play games with them, serve them lunch, laugh a lot, and share a Bible story (or the whole Gospel – that was my favourite day)!
The NGO that organizes all of this is called Children’s Hope Chest. In addition to organizing the carepoints, feeding a couple thousand kids everyday, and all the other cool things they do, they have something called a “special friend”. Basically, it’s similar to sponsoring a child, but you get to be incredibly intentional about actually being their friend too!
One day at the carepoint as I was recovering from the dizziness of swinging around kids, I heard one girl say in passing “my special friend never writes to me”.
It felt like a slap in the face.
How many people do I know, myself included, that have simply chosen to sponsor a child because they know it’s the right thing to do. We give our Visa card number, and let them take our “dollar a day” without giving our kid another thought.
But these kids are kids.
They long for love and relationship, even if it’s found in the form of a letter from someone across the ocean.
So often we think that our money is enough, and it is so so good, but relationships like these are meant to be just that too – relationships. A back and forth conversation of learning about one another.
So my encouragement to you, and to myself, is to see that kid as a kid. See them as someone who would jump up and down excitingly having found out that someone across the Atlantic has thought of them and intentionally written them a letter! Think of the sweet smiles and laughs that come even when you receive a letter in the mail. Now multiply that times a thousand.
My friends, we have such an opportunity to make these kids feel loved and known. Let’s be intentional about taking it.
These, these were just a couple of our precious little kids for the month:
They were filled with love and joy and Jesus! And they made me smile a whole bunch. If you’re wanting to make a special friend and get to know them, you can click here and check it out.
Be intentional, my friends. They’ve got the sweetest hearts.
