I first started playing soccer with the guys who I was going to be witnessing to while in Swaziland. There are about 28 men who come to training so getting to know names and faces was tough and really awkward. But there was this one guy who stuck out to me, I started calling him “Raphael” because he reminded me of a Ninja Turtle. He was just cool (like the Ninja Turtles), he just had a cool personality. He is always smiling and laughing and dancing around and people just really like him. We ended up guarding each other a lot during practice and getting to know each other, goofing around and laughing. Mbesuma is one of my good buddies, we hang out a lot, hold hands a lot (Swazi culture) and talk about God and life and stuff and I want to know a little about his life.
This is the story of Siyabonga “Mbesuma” Mngometulu:
Mbesuma is 17 years old. He was born on October 7, 1992 in Lubulini, Swaziland. He was born with a mother and a father and was HIV/ AIDS free. His early childhood was like any other childhood is Swaziland, you play all day, you try to find food and water, and you have an excuse for not wearing pants. At 6 years old, Mbesuma’s father left to Johannesburg, South Africa to work so he could provide for his family and his mother continued to work at Nisela’s Safaris Resort in the restaurant there.
Mbesuma was lucky enough to go to preschool and continued to go to school, and at age 7 his uncle started to teach him how to play soccer. Mbesuma’s uncle noticed natural talent right away and pressed harder into his teaching of the sport for Mbesuma. Sometimes his uncle would take Mbesuma’s school uniform and throw them up on the roof of the house so Mbesuma’s mom couldn’t see them, and make him skip school and take him to the soccer field, which he still plays on today, and teach him the sport all day long. Soccer quickly became big in Mbesuma’s life. But the Lord was also big in his life. He understood teachings in Sunday school and knew that Jesus is truth and life. And at 8 years into his life, Mbesuma’s mother died.
Upon hearing the news of his wife, Mbesuma’s father came home from working in Johannesburg to take care of his children: Mbesuma, his brother who is 3 years younger, and his sister who is 4 years younger. Mbesuma became sponsored from the Swazi government for only having one parent, but it didn’t last because he has no birth certificate or ID. When his father came back he would make Mbesuma and his siblings to go to church. He told me, “If we didn’t go to church on Sunday’s, then we wouldn’t get food, and we all knew that the biggest and best meals are cooked on Sundays.” Because Mbesuma understood the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, he became very active in church and the people of the congregation were very pleased with him because he would walk out the life he was called to, and this is at 9 years old. He once told me that when he would go to church on Christmas, he would go with a wheel barrow because of the big presents he would get. At the same time, Mbesuma’s soccer career had taken off to new heights. “I was famous for my playing, people would come to my games just to watch me, and others would ask, “Who is that boy?” I was also told that he was famous from my other Swazi friends, and that many girls had broken his heart because they just liked him because he was a popular soccer player!
Mbesuma continued going to school and eventually made it to high school at age 13. During this time his father stopped making them go to church and stopped going himself, he fell into sin while staying in South Africa. But Mbesuma’s still went and so did his sister, his brother did not. His uncle started having Mbesuma take drugs when he was still 13. He would smoke “Benzin” which was a liquid drug and he would sniff glue. I asked him why he would do it with his uncle and he said, “It’d give me power.” Because the drugs he would take were “speed,” they would make him even better at soccer. “I’d never get tired,” he told me. As Mbesuma went to highschool the next few years, he joined the Scripture Union. The Scripture Union is like FCA in the States, and where Jesus loving kids in the high school would meet up and disciple each other. At age 15 he decided that he wants to be a pastor and be a missionary. “I want to tell people about truth and life.” Mbesuma told me that the leader of Scripture Union knew that he was getting bad grades in school, caused from the drugs he was taking, and he was barely passing unto the next level. The leader of the Scripture Union got him out of doing drugs. I asked him why he stopped doing the drugs, “I felt guilty.” The leader had shown Jesus to Mbesuma. “I saw life, and left drugs.” All throughout his time in high school, he noticed his father getting sick. His father would never tell them that he was sick when they would ask, but Mbesuma knew something was going on. He stopped being their dad that they knew before he left for Jo’Burg. His father stopped pursuing the Lord and was dying before his eyes. Mbesuma knew he became HIV + in South Africa and he died in 2009. At this same time, Mbesuma had flunked out of school because his grades became too bad. So now an orphan and an older brother taking care of two younger siblings at 16 years old, he had nothing he could do. So he kept pursuing soccer. Mbesuma, already famous, made into the SuperLeague division, which is one division below playing on TV in huge stadiums and one division above where he plays with me now. But the league was not good for him and then he heard about Pastor Gift and the Nsoko Project and decided to come down to a lower division and play for Pastor Gift. “I knew about the good things Pastor Gift would do for his players, and since I have to take care of my brother and sister, I knew he could help me.” Mbesuma lives far away from Nsoko, it’s about a 10 minute drive and Pastor Gift gives him money for transport when he needs to come to practice, but instead Mbesuma gives the money to his brother and sister so they can buy bread and he hikes. He hikes everywhere he says, so he can provide for them, so his sister won’t have to prostitute themselves and his brother is following in the footsteps of his father and is already an alcoholic, hanging out in the bars all day and doing drugs.
Mbesuma is now in school again. After failing out he couldn’t get back in because he couldn’t pay for the school fees and also he had no birth certificate or identification. When I asked him, “What has God done in your life?” He answered, “He changes my life every day. I pray and God answers my prayers, every day. I prayed that I will get a birth certificate and an ID so I could go back to school and God told me someone will help you get that.” The other day I (Bryan) took Mbesuma all over Swaziland to get him (a 17 year old) a birth certificate and an ID card, I had know clue that he prayed for it, I don’t even remember why I saw the need for him to get identification. But he got it and now he is back in school.
I asked Mbesuma his biggest dream and he answered to be a Pastor. I asked him his biggest regret and he answered doing drugs. I asked him the hardest thing in his life and he answered that his father put a curse on his family for them to suffer (that’s stuff is legit by the way). I asked him what has God done in your life and he answered He changes my life every day. Mbesuma is 17, an orphan, a mother and a father to his younger siblings, a professional soccer player, a high school student, he is unemployed and an ex-drug addict, he has no money, and he is a devoted follower of Jesus. Mbesuma taught me how to cook and eat fried grasshoppers!
