Total opposites

 

This week has been a VERY busy one in Eswatini, with six teams of Project Canaan staff, volunteers from the US and our older children going out to 25 of our 30 church partners and doing “well child checks” on the 3,500 children whom we feed every week. We are trying to get a baseline on the level of malnutrition at each location so that we can improve our feeding program in 2020.  

In the weeks ahead we will be accepting applications from churches or organizations (ie Rotary International or a school) in the US and Canada to partner with one of our 30 church partners to help eradicate malnutrition in that church in 2020.  More on this initiative to come.

I am thankful for Anthony Mutua and Ncobile Dlamini who are leading the charge with these assessments and for Janice Johnson, Lori Marschall, Beth Blaisdell and Kim Kennedy who flew to Africa to help with the this project all week as Ian and I are in the US.  It was a monumental task.

Anna and Joshua at the end of a LONG day.

Each day I get photos from Eswatini and I long to be there. Seeing our children out in the rural communities learning about how Swazi’s live without running water or electricity makes me want to be with them as they learn

Today I received photos from Margie about the four toddlers (Dinah, Shalom, Simeon and Phiwa who moved from the toddler home up to the Emseni Campus.  They just look so very sweet and excited to move up with “the big kids” (our 3-year-olds).  

Dinah, Shalom, Simeon and Phiwa moving to E1.

 In complete contrast, Ian, Spencer and I are at a beautiful 5-star hotel at Sea Island, speaking at a conference and enjoying an incredibly comfortable bed, delicious food, lots of hot running water and great friends.  I had the privilege of speaking at this “Think Tank” yesterday and now get to enjoy learning from some brilliant minds for the rest of the weekend. Ironically, the internet this morning was as bad as it is in Eswatini and I couldn’t get on line to post this blog so Spencer had to set up a hotspot from his phone  😂!

Ian and I typically only visit North America once a year, in October, but we will be here four times in the next six months. We are blessed to be invited to share the situation in Eswatini and the plight of the children, while inviting people to join us in fighting hunger, caring for orphans, decreasing poverty and providing education in Eswatini. Would you like to join us in 2020 too?

Live from Sea Island … it’s Saturday morning.

Janine