Swaziland: My Heart was Overwhelmed with Love

Meeting My Sponsored Child
By Hannah Nikirk

I had decided to sponsor a child just one month before I left on my trip to Swaziland. The emotional child sponsorship videos shown at our church tugged at my heart and I couldn’t wait any longer to sponsor one. I received her packet containing her picture and a bio about her. However, the true impact did not settle in my heart until I arrived on the Care Point in Njojane.

I walked onto the dusty grounds of the Care Point the first morning, and I anxiously looked for the little cutie in the photo with two big dimples and two piggie tails. My eyes found hers and my heart was overwhelmed with love. When I saw her face to face, she became “real”, not just a little girl in a photo. One of the amazing Bomake came over to explain to my sponsored child, Zenande, that I was her “Auntie” in Siswati. Immediately Zenande ran over and started patting my back and just looking at me with her dark brown eyes. She said “I love you” in Siswati and my heart emptied all of the tears it could possibly hold.

This 4-year-old girl is able to be fed, educated, and receive medical care because I decided that her life was valued more to me than any possession, accumulation of over priced coffees, or adventure I could go on. But what matters more to Zenande is that she has an “Auntie.” She has family. She now knows that someone sees her as Jesus does: as priceless and that no thing is valued more than her life. I truly did not know the impact of sponsoring a child until I met her face to face. The relationship between the sponsor and child is something that the child will cherish each and every day. But what Zenande doesn’t know is that she is so much more of a blessing to me. Pushing her on a swing and hearing her sweet giggle is the sweetest sound to my ears.