Her Story
Kentucky Fried Chicken entered South Africa in 1971 and is now the largest fast-food business in the country. KFC in Southern Africa is busy. Lines are long. Colonel Sanders would be proud. They're efficient; you're in and out in a jiffy. It helps that half the people are just there for an ice cream cone. Their ice cream is incredible — strange, I know.
In February I was at our local KFC, getting a taste of America, waiting in line, when someone stopped me. She had the biggest smile.
"Nate!"
I recognized her immediately though it had probably been seven years since I had seen that face. She made my day. Her excitement was contagious. Her name is Amahle.
A while later I was going through videos from 2017 and 2018, our first couple of years in Eswatini. Our house was always full, and still is, of kids who had grown up in the Bulembu orphanage. Karaoke parties. Soccer games on a projector. Fruit Ninja tournaments. I was sitting there watching these videos, and there she was.
Same smile.
And again, it made me smile.
Fast forward to May. We accepted our first assignment building a home for a family of six orphaned children. They had lost both of her parents to violence when they were very young. For this family, three of the children are still young and in Bulembu, and three have already graduated high school. That was the only information I had about the family, no names or ages. We set up a meeting to visit the homestead and meet them.
Our team showed up that day and I walked through the gate of the homestead, and guess who I saw.
Same smile.
It made me smile.
Jesus said: "Love one another as I have loved you." This work is not just a program to us, it is our calling to love people personally.
When I see Amahle, I don't just see a house we need to finish by the end of June to stay on track with our impact goals. I see a girl who sat in our living room. I see karaoke nights, soccer games on a projector, Fruit Ninja tournaments, dinners around our table, and high school graduation. A foundation built long before the concrete under that home was poured.
What people remember, more than what you give them, is how you’ve made them feel. So sit down in a crowded KFC and have an ice cream cone. Make dinner. Open your home. Make them smile. What those smiles are really saying is, "You mattered to me then, and you still matter to me now."
If you want to follow along as we build this home and walk alongside these kids, find us on Instagram and Facebook — we share updates as things happen on the ground. And if you want to be part of making this possible, every dollar given goes directly to work like this. There is a photo of Amahle’s home below!
You can give at abidewell.org.
Stay Well & Go Well
— Nate & Tia
P.S. For those who don't know, we are partnering with Bulembu Ministries to transition children out of the orphanage and back to their family. Sometimes there is still a homestead to return to, and when there isn't a livable structure, we have committed to building one. This is our building focus for 2026 and beyond.
