Name Dropping

One of my responsibilities with the Red Hill Children’s Club is to record attendance every day. Sounds easy enough, right? It’s something I do in my home church’s Promiseland kids ministry. And as a grad student, I had to take roll for an Advertising 101 class of 250 freshmen.

But they didn’t have names like Aviwe, Aphiwe and Athembe; Basanda, Bayanda, Bhongo, Buhle and Bonisile; or Sinethemba, Siyathemba, Sikholise, Siphokule and Sikelelwa. (Try saying that just one time fast.) I’ve been here for nearly three months and my head still spins when trying to figure out who’s present and who’s not among 80-plus children.

Complicating matters even more is that many of them go by more than one name. There’s Magusha, who’s also called Nkosikona. There’s Brian, which is easy enough, except that I just found out most of the kids know him as Boetie. And there’s Denzel, who’s known as Pinky to his friends. (I asked him why one day. “Because I was pink when I was a baby,” he said.)

As challenging as the job is, it helps me get to know the kids better each week. And I don't worry too much, because God knows every one of their names. And He loves them all.