Two things I don’t know what I’d do without: Skype and Christina Hostetter.

I finally got to hear directly from Swaziland today from Ayanda and Tenele!  I told them the day I’d be getting to Swazi this summer and their giggles and squeals lit up my heart!  “Ah, Mama…I hear your voice, now I want to see your face!” my sweet Tenele-Bell sighed. She updated me on life and said the man that was coming after her has gone away now, so she feels a little bit safer.  She also said her real mother called her and asked to see her and Lucia.  But Tenele told me, “But my heart is not good to see her right now.  If I go there I think of my life…my step-mom who beat me, my real mom who doesn’t love me.  So, I tell her no.”  She said her heart hurts when she thinks about it.  I commended her for her strength and she responded with, “I no have good life. I pray one day God give me good life.  I think my life no changed if you didn’t come, Mama.”  Then she said these following beautiful words,

“God saved my life, and then he gave me you.”

She proceeded to tell me about how thankful she is for Christina Hostetter, Hosea’s Heart’s long term volunteer living in Swazi, and how much she has helped her.  “Christina she’s good for me.  She take me like you,” Tenele said.  To translate, that means Christina has taken Tenele on like her own daughter, and Tenele can feel it.  She knows there’s something special about Christina and that she truly cares.  It took Tenele more than nine months to finally trust my love for her, and now she can see that same love reflected in Christina, because it’s a love from above.  She trusts Christina, and that says more about the character of Christina than anything else could.  I owe Christina the world for how she has taken care of my kids and so much more.

After talking with umtfwana wami, I got to hear Lucia’s precious murmurs and giggles, too!  Tenele tried getting her to say, “Hello Gogo” on the phone, but Lucia just laughed and then whined.  I sang to her a little bit and Ayanda said that’s when she started really giggling.  When Ayanda took the phone back and said goodbye to Tenele and Lucia, she told me, “They’re both still smiling and laughing.”

Talking with Ayanda is always enlightening.  She never ceases to amaze me, and God never ceases to use her to speak truth and encouragement into my life.  “It’s been too long,” Ayanda first scolded me for not calling recently.  “You’ve been too busy.”

She doesn’t know how true those words really are.  I have been too busy, too busy even for myself, and unfortunately too busy for my kids, too. We talked for a long time and I was trying to get her to share some information she was not wanting to share.  She told me I had to share something about me first.  I said, “Okay, what do you want to know?”

She laughed and said, “You know.  You know your secret.”  I was thinking, what secret? when she interrupted…
“Hey, when you first started talking I can tell something’s not
right.  Something’s on your mind you’re
trying to avoid. I see how you are talking, you catch your words…like you’re hiding something.”

Surprised at her words of truth I was silent.  I indeed had a rough week but didn’t like telling anyone about it.  I am usually so good at hiding. So, I was unaware that the way I was talking gave her an indication that something was up.

“That’s okay,” she ventured in.  “You can tell me later because I think you’re
doubting yourself.”

How can this 16 year old across the ocean possibly
know what’s going on just by hearing my voice?  She understands me more than I understand myself sometimes.  

 “Don’t ever have a doubt in yourself,” she stated kindly.  Those words could not have come at a better time from such a pure and loving heart.

She thinks I know more about life than she does, that I have answers, and she says she looks up to me.  I disagree.  “Ayanda, you know more about life than I do,” I told her.  It amazes me that my spiritual mentor is a 16 year old living in a different world. Just proof that the Holy Spirit has a voice at any age.  

Everyone needs an Ayanda in life.  What a gift, she’s such a gift.

So these two wonderful children, Ayanda and Tenele, are awaiting the opening of Hope for Life, which should open by next week! Check out Christina’s blog updates for on the field stories: http://christinahealingheart.blogspot.com/