I just can't make this stuff up.

Last week I wrote about our little girl named Dinah who needed heart surgery, urgently.  (You can read about it at http://janinemaxwell.blogspot.com/2018/07/urgent-heart-surgery-needed.html). Within 48 hours of my blog being posted, we had the entire $21,000 US that was needed, and I was absolutely in awe of God’s provision. Twenty-two different people responded and wanted to be a part of Dinah’s journey.

I quickly contacted the surgeon in Johannesburg and Dinah was booked for further assessment two days later (Wednesday), with surgery planned for Thursday.

In last week’s blog I also wrote about Camp Canaan and how the theme for the week was Jeremiah 29:11. The entire scripture reads, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Wait for it!

As we started the laborious paperwork required to take a child out of the country, I sent a text to Margie to ask what Dinah’s full name is as it is shown on her travel document as the surgeon needed it for his paperwork.  When Margie messaged me back, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Dinah’s middle name, given to her by her own mother, is PROSPER!

God’s plans are to PROSPER Dinah, and not to harm Dinah. He has plans to give her hope and a future, and that is just what happened.

Thursday morning Dinah went in for heart surgery and it was successful. 

Several hours after the surgery Margie (who was at the hospital with Welile) told me that the anesthesiologist told them that she would wave her $700 fee and asked that we use it for another child in need.  WHAT? Who does that? I sent an email to the surgeon whom I had been communicating with, and he responded saying that the surgeons were also waving their fees (another $3,000+) to support our work and our children. 

I sobbed as I read his email. These are TOP pediatric cardiac surgeons, and they are not charging us for doing Dinah’s surgery. Of course, there are still hospital costs, surgical costs etc, but we have funding for that.  What a huge God-kiss (and financial gift) that is to us. 

Dinah was to be in ICU for three days and in hospital for an estimated ten days (due to her weakened and malnourished little body), but on Friday she was moved to the ward and was doing well.  We are told that Dinah may even come home on Monday or Tuesday!!  

God is good, all the time, and I LOVE seeing how HE is touching people’s hearts and inviting them in to His story.

There are only two more days in our 2018 Diaper Drive and I am asking you to buy diapers and wipes for Dinah and her many many brothers and sisters.  Will you join the story today? It’s as easy as clicking on this link- the UPS container will ship from Georgia next week. 

Thank you on behalf of Dinah, and all the children who will benefit from your generosity.

Live from Swaziland … it is time for some rest.

Janine

URGENT heart surgery needed

This week we hosted our 3^rd Annual “Camp Canaan” with 115 of our big kids (ages 3-7) and the theme was “Created by God.  Built for a purpose” The supporting bible verse is “For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord.”  Jeremiah 29:11

The children had a blast learning about all the how God created us all differently and that was underscored by each station, the favorite being face painting. 

I sat beside my friend and co-worker, Lisa Borders, and pointed to one child and said, “Do you remember his story? The Doctors in SA told us he wouldn’t live and just to make him comfortable in hospice.”  That child was at the front leading the choir.

Then I pointed at a sweet girl in the back and reminded reminisced that we didn’t think she would ever sit, walk or see, but there she was singing and dancing to one of her favorite songs.

Then there was the little one found as a newborn in a plastic bag under a tree – burned from the hot plastic against her bare skin. She knew all the hand movements, dance moves and sang about how God created her.

Last week I shared with you that we have a little girl named Dinah and my heart has been very heavy this week because Dinah need heart surgery urgently.  Dinah is 22-months old and cannot stand, doesn’t crawl, doesn’t smile, doesn’t talk. Her favorite place is sitting with her head on someone’s chest, and honestly that’s about all the energy she has because of her heart problem.

God made Dinah, and He made her heart, and it needs to be fixed.  It seems to me that the creator of the Universe, the one who created the heart in the first place could/should just fix it?  So why isn’t He?  That left me perplexed as I watched our children on stage jumping, singing, clapping and dancing.

Without heart surgery (or divine healing), Dinah will never be on that stage dancing and singing.

As you may recall, Dinah arrived when she was 18-months old and only weighed 15 pounds. She was in and out of hospital for much of her short life, being treated for malnutrition, but sadly, no one noticed that she had an enlarged heart and a significant heart murmur.  Last week we took Dinah to South Africa to see a pediatric cardiologist and were told that she needs to have surgery as soon as possible.  For the medical people reading this wanting to know the details she has a large PDA (8mm), enlargement of LV and LA, no VSD or ASD, left to right PDA shunt gradient of 45mmHg (suggests moderate elevation of PA pressures).  I don’t completely understand it all, but I know some of you want to know that details.

The cost for the heart surgery, including a 10-day hospital stay (due to her body condition from malnutrition) is $21,000 USD, but the good news is that it can be done at an excellent Pediatric Cardiology hospital in Johannesburg.  This surgery should have been done days or weeks after her birth, but it was undetected until now, so now is the time.

Maybe you have been reading this blog for a long time and watching from a distance. Maybe you have cried with us, laughed with us, prayed with us and celebrated with us, but have never gotten involved.  Maybe you have been very involved from the beginning, but now it’s time to step in again.

I am inviting the thousands of people who will read this blog to PLEASE consider helping us save Dinah’s life, by providing the funding for her life-saving surgery.

Will you help us today?

In the US please click here.

In Canada please click here.

Live from Swaziland … I am thankful that God created Dinah for a purpose.

Janine

It's all fun and games, until it isn't.

When Ian and I sit outside on our patio in the evening we hear a wave of children’s voices coming over the mountain – children at play, children laughing, children singing. It is magical and emotional.  There are 115 children living at the Emseni Campus now and keeping them all active and organized is a monumental task, done with excellence by our Emseni team. 

Part of what helps keeping them active is having bicycles to share, wagons to pull each other around in and balls to kick. Our toddlers enjoy playing outside and learn balance on tricycles, and teeter totters, and our littlest ones learn to climb up small ladders and slide down small slides.

This video shows Hosea playing ball with his sister Princess because she cannot walk. I LOVE this.

Today I am asking you for YOUR help.  I am asking that you go to our http://bit.ly/hfadiaperdrive link and do some shopping for our 194 children. There are bikes, tricycles, educational material, Little Tikes toys, dump trucks and pencil sharpeners. These are all things that we cannot buy here in Swaziland, and would really help us out. We still need diapers and wipes too, and the container ships from Atlanta in two weeks. 

Our children love to play, they are learning to share toys, and we want them to be physically active as part of being well rounded.

Juxtaposed, we have a little girl named Dinah who doesn’t play at all. She doesn’t walk, doesn’t move and is completely inactive.  Dinah arrived when she was 18-months old and only weighed 15 pounds. She was in and out of hospital for much of her short life, being treated for malnutrition, but sadly, no one noticed that she had an enlarged heart and a significant heart murmur.  This week we took Dinah to South Africa to see a pediatric cardiologist and were told that she needs to have surgery as soon as possible, and that damage done to her lungs is irreversible.  We have sought council from a specialist in the US and are working on understanding the costs of pediatric heart surgery. 

Some of you are likely wondering how I could be asking for toys and bikes, when Dinah needs heart surgery, and it’s a good question. But each of us needs to do what we are called to do. There are many people reading this blog that love to shop, and love children at play, so we offer the http://bit.ly/hfadiaperdrive link to allow them to do that.  There will be others who want to help directly with Dinah’s surgery, and I know that they will contact me directly at janine@heartforafrica.org. 

“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.”  We have all sang that song, and I believe it to be true.

Please join us in loving our children by providing for them today.

Thank you.

Live from Swaziland … I am going shopping on http://bit.ly/hfadiaperdrive today.

Janine

PS - this photo shows the second floor of Emseni #4 going up quickly!  Thank you to those who gave so generously to build a home for 40 children.

 

18-month-old baby girl is the size of a 5-month-old

 

This week we welcomed a baby we are calling Dinah.  She is 18-months-old, weighs 7KG (15 pounds) and that is her weight after spending two full months in the hospital being treated for malnutrition. The dietician at the hospital literally brought her back from the brink of death and now it’s our turn to help her begin to grow and develop.

I have learned a LOT about malnutrition over the years, and it’s a complicated condition with long-term effects including physical stunting, direct structural development of the brain, impairment of infant motor development and often results in death, even after being on “food treatment” for weeks or months.

If you look at the chart below, you will see that her length and weight don’t come close to hitting the low end of the child growth chart.  Her length is that of an average 9-month-old, and her weight is that of an average 5-month-old child.  

 

Malnutrition also weakens the immune system resulting in complicated skin conditions that often leave permanent scaring (see photo below).

Malnutrition often results in anemia (low iron in the blood), and where this little one should have a Hemoglobin count of 12+, yesterday it was a mere 6.4.  In the western world she would be given a transfusion with an HB level as low as 7-8, but here we give iron daily, along with a high iron diet filled with spinach and liver if we can get it. 

If her malnutrition wasn’t enough, she also has arrived with severe pneumonia, with labored breathing and has a fever of 103F as I type this blog.  She is hungry and sick and scared and miserable.

Two weeks ago we got another little girl whom we call Cynthia. She is also malnourished and is the same age as Dinah (18-months), but in the photo below you can see the significant difference in the length of their legs and size of their feet and heads. Dinah is clearly much smaller and more underdeveloped.

We have amazing, trained staff who are caring for Dinah, Cynthia and all of our other malnourished children, and we are forever thankful for our nurses Hannah and Anthony. But it takes money, medicine, good food, a lot of tender loving care and a lot of prayer to love these children back to life. Thank you to each and every one of you who supports us on a monthly basis – you are truly ANGELS to us.

If you are not currently supporting our children, but feel moved to do so today, please click on the link below and get started. EVERY dollar helps and we need help today.

In the US click here.

In Canada click here.

Live from Swaziland … please pray for Dinah.

Janine