Litsemba Lemphilo — Hope for Life

Plans for the girls home are up and running! Though adjusting to life back home has been a longer process than I had hoped, working on the girls home has been exciting and healing for me, knowing there are still things we can be doing here to help.

Litsemba Lemphilo home is projected to open this coming January 2012! We have big plans, goals, and hope for this home, and what a fitting name to match our dreams. Litsemba Lemphilo literally means hope for life. We want to focus on brining hope to the girls of Swaziland, that they may dream of a better future.

We already have a house that needs complete renovation, but at least we have a house and yard! The total cost of fundraising to renovate, refurbish, employ, and run (feed, support, accommodate, etc.) for ONE YEAR is $30,000. Not bad at all! But we want to raise more than just one year’s worth. We aim to raise enough for a minimum five year plan of running the home.

The home will accommodate up to 16 girls, with a target age of 8-14 years old. Sr. Judith, who is the committee director living in Swaziland, will be “interviewing” house mothers to help run the home. Once selected, the two Swazi house mothers will run the home as if it were their own, ensuring the youth of Swaziland are brought up in their own culture.

After starting to feel settled here at home, with a teaching job lined up for next year (yebo Jesu!), I was completely thrown off guard by a recent email from Fr. John, the director of MYC. He officially asked if I would come back next year to help run the girls home from a director stand-point. He said though he is MYC director, as a male (and since he has so much to try to run without the girls’ home) he is not equipped to run such a project, though he will “oversee” it. I definitely did not see this coming. I of course am hoping to go back to Swazi someday to help with the home or the girls, etc. but I am not sure I am ready to take on such a responsibility. That means moving there for a solid few years, and quite frankly that scares me. There are pluses and minuses to both. For example, if I took the job and moved there next summer, I could be there for Tenele and help her raise her baby. How splendid that would be since my heart has wanted to adopt that baby the day I found out she was pregnant! Of course that means leaving my family and friends and comfort behind once again…which is too hard. So my answer? I told Fr. John I of course would love the opporunity but cannot say for sure if I can or cannot take the job. It’s nice because there’s no rush, and the only pressure is what I put on myself. So in the meantime, I will be praying about where God leads me in that direction.