Love's First Light: SWAZILAND

Meet a few of the beautiful little ones that changed my life in Swaziland...

The children of ROAD to HOPE

Petros & Elizabeth are so committed to these children. They have 6 of their own and 7 orphans, all of whom are children of their late siblings. You cannot find the distinction amongst the children, who is a natural child or adopted. Petros and Elizabeth show no partiality. When asked to distinguish whether one of the children was "his", Petros responded by simply saying, "They are ALL my children." They most certainly are.

Meet Petros and Elizabeth

When asked to define "HOME", Petros replied,

“When I look to the word “HOME” I always define it as a place or base or heart where any family who has plans can develop those plans or those plans can be birthed for the future. To know where you belong. A place where you can run to and a place where you can be found."

SPHESIHLE

Early on, I formed a connection with Sphesihle, who is 11 years old and an orphan. The very first night we were there, a few of us and about 6 of the kids were sitting outside, under the stars in the wide open fields of Swaziland, and the children began to sing worship songs to the Lord. It was beautiful what came out of them. I was so moved. To be sitting there listening to these amazing little souls cry out in love to the Lord, it was one of the most profoundly moving moments in my life. Sphesihle was sitting on my right, and she was quiet for the first bit of singing, and then she began to join in. Her voice was gentle and soft, which I later learned is the same as her demeanor. She was so quiet, she would just observe and when she saw that someone needed help with something, she was always the first to get up and do it. Such a quiet servant, this one. She never said much verbally, but we had many conversations through our eyes and our touch. That first night, she snuggled up close to me (after she'd come back from getting a blanket and draping it over both of us) and that began a bond between us. Her parents died 3 years ago, and she lives at ROAD to HOPE with her two sisters Nokwanda, 15 and Setsabile, 8.

BLANKETS!

While still in South Africa, we began making blankets to give to the kids of ROAD to HOPE. The community volunteers in South Africa helped us knit the blankets before we left for Swaziland, which was such a special experience because most of them are AIDS orphans themselves.

An organization called Knit-a-Square made it all possible. They are a group of women in the States who knit squares and send them in bulk to teams who assemble them into blankets to give to those in need. It's very cold in Swaziland and they have no electricity, so you can imagine the blessing that 15 blankets was!

We had to finish making the blankets while we were there, inside our tents! We had so much fun doing it. It was such an incredible experience to present each child with a blanket of their own. They felt so special and so loved and to have something brand new is very rare for them.

Thank you ladies of Knit-a-Square!! And thank you to my teammate Marisa Groff for putting together the following video to show you all the process, the people and the joy these blankets created in the lives of orphaned children across the planet, but living deep within my heart!