Zwakele

Kristi here.  

Today was a ‘top 10 in life’ kind of day.  It was one of those days you dream about over and over and try to imagine, but don’t truly have the context to live out the dream.  We all went to bed last night anxiously anticipating today, the day we meet Zwakele.  A little background here….we began to Sponsor Zwakele through World Vision in 2003.  She was about the age of Lucy and had a birthday similar to Clara.  That is how we chose her from a table of hundreds available and we only had the two of our kids at that point. We began to write to her on World Vision Sundays at church, make her bracelets and frames, etc.  We began to pray for her and her little family of 3 struggling to make it in a country I had honestly never heard of…, Zwakele and her Mom and  little brother. 

FF to today, we have prayed for her and her family for the past 11 years.  She has had 3 additional little brothers, Jeff has been there to meet her 3 times, Lucy has met her once.  We have worked extra hard to make the additional money needed to keep her in High School and all its fees.  We have a picture of her on our portrait wall right along with our other 4 girls.  She is part of our family and we feel like she is ours.

So, how does one even begin to describe that love running into my arms for the first time?  The only word I can think of is Spiritual.  Like nothing I have ever known or seen.    It literally was a moment in life that took the very breath right out of me.  I took hold of her and couldn’t imagine feeling any more JOY in life that I did in that moment.  Saying I was moved to tears is a terrible understatement.  I was moved.  The earth moved.  I was standing in the middle of Swaziland, a place I never thought I would be honored to see, and my sweet Zwakele was in my arms. 

We picked her up at her school, met her friends, got to take her in our van to her house.  We drove her out to her home, met her Mom and two of her brothers, age 2 and 5.  We gave her all the food and gifts we brought, saw her chickens, toured the 2 room concrete home World Vision has helped them build, and then we reveled in her presence.  This beauty-filled mystery I held in a photo and a zillion letters.  Dayle brought bracelet kit to make with her and she and Clara sat as old friends would, making memories of a new craft.  Lucy, bright and in her element sat alongside, violet working the crowd of neighbors and world vision staff, as only she could., and playing cars with the littlest boys.   I stood by and cried tears of pure joy.  The purest joy. It was surreal.  

Her mom was different this time around.  All the pictures of past visits and Jeff’s accounts revealed a less animated Mom.  Today, she was bright and happy, overwhelmed with thankfulness for our love for them.  Come to find out she has a new Chicken Project.   She asked for an enterprise for her family and she has a successful World Vision Project with raising Chickens for sale. No eggs, just chickens.  They bought the first round, she multiplied them, she used the funds from sales to pay them back and now has a fully functioning chicken business from her home.  They sell for $5 a piece!  She is supporting her family.  She is a proud provider.  The last time Jeff was here,  she had just given birth to her 5^th baby, an overwhelming feeling a lot of us mothers could relate to.  She was reserved and seemed distant.  Today, she was bright and joy-filled. Such a miracle for her family of 6.

We said teary goodbyes, some of us “ugly cried”.  It was a beautiful day.  It was a perfectly joy-filled day. A day I can only imagine widens the Kingdom of God.  Brings it into closer perspective.  We have each other.  We learn from each other and grow in good ways together. At dinner tonight, we all shared what we saw, felt and heard from our day. It was a priceless conversation.

After this encounter, we moved onto meeting a Parent-less home with two teenagers who have lived alone without parents since they were 6 and 8 years old.  On their own.  Parents dead.  I will let one of the girls unpack that.