What is the point?

Dying eggs as they learn about the Easter story

We now have more than 300 people working on Project Canaan.  We have 226 children who call Project Canaan “home” and 150+ children who attend our Project Canaan Academy.  Our agriculture program is now getting started (again) since we have water security and by the end of 2019 we should be growing all of the vegetables that we cook and eat at the Children’s Campus.  The income generating portions of the project (Khutsala Artisans, Kufundza woodcraft, milk, vegetables, eggs and hospitality) will generate 40% of our total operating costs in 2019, and that number will continue to increase as we continue to focus on other opportunities.  We want to be able to be self-sustainable from an operating cost perspective, and we are working diligently towards that goal.  You can see a short aerial video of the project by clicking here.

We are getting there.

Project Canaan is 10-years-old this year and in 2029 we will have our first high school graduating class. That means we are halfway there, but the really hard work has been done. The infrastructure of water, electricity, roads and fields are complete.  We are a city on a hill.  We need to build one children’s home each year and add a classroom on each year for the next ten years and then the children will be heading off to University, trade school or work. And the circle continues.

Land plan up to 2028

All of this is great, and all of it is miraculous, but if that is all we did, we would be missing the point.  Easter weekend is the highlight (and lowlight)of the Christian faith, and without the death and resurrection of Christ our faith would not exist.  Without teaching our children about Jesus, and without walking alongside our Swazi friends and disciplining them in the ways of Jesus, this would just be another humanitarian project that is doing a “good work”.  But that is not why we are here.

We welcome people of all faiths to come and serve alongside us and we respect people who do not believe what we believe. But it is very important to Ian and me that we know WHY we are doing what we are doing.  It is singularly because of our faith in Jesus Christ, and through that faith we have seen mountains move, we have seen the deaf hear, the blind see and the lame walk. 

Sometimes I am hard to love. Sometimes the people around me are hard to love.  But Jesus calls us to love each other even when it is hard to do, and that is what we are trying to do. This year’s anniversary theme is “Rooted in LOVE”.   As we all celebrate this Easter weekend with friends and family, let all of our words be spoken in love and let us all remember the greatest act of love that was shown 2,000 years ago.

If you would like to make a special gift this Easter to bless the children at Project Canaan, please consider helping us build a home for our big girls. We are only $70,000 short of our $225,000 goal.

Click here to make a donation in the US.  

Click here to make a donation in Canada.  

Happy Easter from our family to yours. I hope you will be blessed by this short video from our Thursday night communion service.

Live from eSwatini … He is risen indeed!

Janine

Meanwhile, in Boston, Nokuphiwa is riding camels and elephants at the circus(!)