Orphan...Let It Sink In

I don't think I have ever cried when singing "Happy Birthday"...until today.  When I talk to people about the population of Swaziland being made up of close to 15% orphans, many times it is easy to overlook individuals & just see a statistic.  But most days, if I let the reality of what orphan really means sink in, it breaks me.  Some are orphans because they have been abandoned by their parents, some are orphaned because one or both of their parents have died. 

Birthday treats - Swazi style
(papaya & rice krispie treats)

   This morning started out like any other - walking around to check on things at the center when I hear someone yelling to me.  As I look over to my side & slow down my pace, almost 3 year old Tembelihle runs to me & stops directly in front of me, saying "mtat" - carry me.  I swing her up on my hip & continue on my way, saying hello to a woman with a baby on her back.  Nearly 30 minutes later, I find out that the woman has come to the center to talk to me.  She has come, bringing with her a young girl from the nearby carepoint she cooks at, asking for help with school costs.  As we talk, I ask her a few questions about the girl & her situation, which she answers & casually throws in that the girl was abandoned by her parents who have both left the country & have gone to South Africa.  The girl (no more than 8 or 9 years old) is now staying with relatives & trying to continue on with her life. 

   A little while later, as I was driving to run an errand, I was praying for this girl & the situation, and let the reality of the sentence "her parents abandoned her" sink in a little deeper.  It brought a sinking feeling to my stomach & tears to my eyes.  I have had friends lose their parents to death, friends lose their babies to death, and have heard their stories of grief, but cannot imagine the grief & feelings that this young girl is feeling.  I imagined my own niece and how she would react if her parents decided to leave her one day & it stings.  Yet this is reality for this young girl here in Swaziland & so many others.

   As I came back from running my errands, I had brought treats to celebrate one of our ministry partner's birthday.  He turned 24 this weekend & when we pray, he is often the first to be thankful for his life.  Which sounds glib until you realize that he is the only living family member left from his nuclear family.  He has out lived parents and siblings and now stays with extended relatives.  We wanted to celebrate his life & his birth today, to let him know that he is loved by his Christian family.  I pulled up to the team house, and he was walking with a rubber storage bin & gloves.  He told me that Tembelihle needed a bath, so he would bathe her.  She had obviously not been bathed in days & had the stains & smells on her clothes & body to confirm this.  Her father has died & her mother is sporadically around, leaving her in a situation comparable to many other children who aren't officially orphaned but who are left to care for themselves or be cared for by other siblings. 

   Again, the tears came as I watched this orphan taking care of another orphan.  Pouring love & life into one who was missing it, just as he had been poured into.  A while later, as we finished up our lunch and sang Happy Birthday, I continued to be thankful for the lives of these orphans who have been through so much, continued to be overcome by the reality of the fatherless & orphans that I live life with daily...and overwhelmed by the promise that God is the Father to the fatherless, who cares for orphans and adopts them as His own.  Who has taken us & grafted us into His family so that we will have brothers and sisters around us to care for us & point us to Him.