Sitting outside of the kitchen at El Shaddai Children's home on a mountaintop in Swaziland:
“I like to play car and ball.”
“Ok, what’s your favorite thing to eat?”
“CAKE!”
“Mmmm me too.”
“And carrots! And bananas!”
“Yum! I like those too. What else?”
“Ice cream!!”
“Excellent!”
“I want to write you. Pencil!”
“Ok, what are you going to write?”
He looks at me and smiles. He starts writing the alphabet. I am shocked and so excited.
“Keep going… what letter is after i?”
This child has stolen my heart. From the moment he came tearing around the corner and fell into my lap, I knew we were meant to together. His name is Madida and he is 7 years old. His laugh fills up my heart. His smile makes my day brighter than I could have ever imagined. He is precious. He sings all of the words to the worship songs that we sing, usually. His attention span is about 5 minutes. He loves piggy back rides- his favorite thing to do is tell me to jump off of things while he’s on my back (which I generally don’t do…) He is so full of life and has so much personality. He loves to draw. He especailly likes to draw pictures of me and pictures of my house and his house right beside each other. He shows off. He dances. His favorite animal is a lion and his favorite color is blue. He loves soccer. He has boom boxes on his shoes. He gets in trouble a lot. He holds my hand. He just wants love. He does not like school. He hates homework time. He won’t sit in chapel unless he is on my lap.
This month, each racer was partnered with one child at El Shaddai to be their buddy for the month. At the begining of the month, I had no idea how the kids would respond to this or how much it would affect my heart, but it has been amazing. Spending time with Madida has filled my heart so much and has made the thought of leaving this mountain so so hard. Last night at worship, my heart was so heavy because leaving seems so sad, but God showed me that it is ok to be sad. He showed me that leaving these places is going to break my heart every single month and that's what He wants. He wants us to keep praying for these kids and our ministry contacts. He wants us to get other people involved in helping these places that He is sending us. He is sending us to these places for a reason and He knows that leaving these places is not going to be easy, but it's part of the journey and it will be ok.
I have completely fallen in love with Madida and many of the other children here at El Shaddai. There is something special here. The people here are incredible and the mountain is a blessing for these children. El Shaddai has changed all of our hearts and I know that I will leave a part of my heart here on this mountain.
Our vision is to see all of the kids here at El Shaddai sponsored and I am confident that God put us on this mountain to make that happen. (I will post another blog with more details about sponsorship as well.) Please watch the video below put together by my incredible team leader, Joe De Leon and stay tuned for more. 🙂
