Change of plans

Thuli, Portia, Joanna, Naomi, Phoebi, Faith moving to E5

Since we receive approximately 40 new babies each year, and each of our children’s homes have 40 beds, we need to build a new home every year.  Our tiny babies move from Kuthula  Place to the baby home, the babies move to the toddler home, the toddlers move to Emseni #1 and then the older kids shifts up the mountain. It’s a big deal and we had one of those moves today with 17 children moving.  The older kids are always telling me that boys will move in to Emseni #6 and then girls in Emseni #7. It’s fun to watch their excitement as they see a “right of passage” with each move.  In the photo below you will see where we were to build our next home, Emseni #6, and it indeed was to be for boys. But this week we had a change of plans.

Ian and I took Margie Brewer and Cheri Peters (a Canadian Board member) up to the Upper Campus, which has no buildings on it yet.  We wanted to show them were O2 is going to be built as we are starting construction next week. The new O2 building (short form for Oasis #2, but also a play on Oxygen) will eventually be a dining hall for the teenagers, but we are building it now so that it can be a recreation hall for playing games, doing homework, choir practice and other activities, providing oxygen for their minds and souls.  We are really excited about this building because it will have a second story which will be an open-air patio, doubling the usable space.  Both floors will have a huge fire place for those cold winter nights and the upper floor will have offices, a meeting room, all purpose room and lots of toilets.  

Architectural drawing courtesy of Tim Hens.

While we were showing Margie and Cheri the location of 02 we shared our concern about building Emseni #7 after O2 was built because there wasn’t really a lot of room to drive in front of O2 to get building materials (and it would be a big mess for many months) to the Emseni #7 site. Just then, Ian had an idea, and shared it with us. He asked, “Why don’t we build Emseni #7 first before Emseni #6, and build it at the same time as we build O2?”

Pause. Think.

The next home needs to be for boys, and it was to planned to be located in the Middle Campus, but then we would have a home for girls up at the Upper Campus in 2021 and they would be alone up there for a year. Not ideal.  BUT, if we built Emseni #7 before we build Emseni #6, and moved the older boys up there, then in 2021 when we build Emseni #6 it will be for girls and they will still be tucked in to the Middle Campus. Then in 2022 the next building on the Upper Campus is also for boys.  It wouldn’t’ be until 2023 that girls move up top, which means they would be 12-years-old.  This could work!  And, it’s always better and more cost effective to have our construction teams in one location, which means they could build these two buildings in tandem.

Upper Campus where E7, O2 and our Special Needs home will be built.

This would not have even been a possibility if we had not received $95,000 from our friends at Keller Williams to start building this next home for our children.  We still need to raise an additional $130,000 to finish the building, but we have enough to get started and I believe that the Lord will provide the rest of the funds needed. 

I LOVE how God works and I LOVE how He only gives us one page at a time and then throws in surprises like a change of plans on what we will build and when we will build it.   I LOVE that I get to do life with my best friend and that we get to see His goodness and mercy and provision every single day.

If you would like to help us build a home for 40 boys you can buy a block for only $25, or 100 for $2,500 today by clicking on one of these links:

In the US:  http://bit.ly/buyablockE6

In Canada:  https://www.heartforafrica.ca/emseni-childrens-campus/

Live from Eswatini … it’s a good thing we like change.

Janine

What a week: 37 children moved, turned away a baby, and a memorial service

This has been a week! 

It started with the race to get the Emseni building finished so that 20 of our biggest children could move up to their permanent home. The reason it was so critical was because we were full to overflowing in all our children’s housing. Kuthula Place, that should house 10 babies (age 1 day to 4-months), had 14 babies in it.  The El Roi Baby home, which now has 32 beds, had 34 children living there.  The Labakhetsiwe toddler home, which was built for 40 children, had 44 children living there.  We were bursting at the seams, but on Wednesday, April 29^th the dominos started to fall.

First, the 10 big ones moved their bags up to Emseni. Then 10 toddlers from El Roi moved to the toddler home. Then 7 babies who are 6+ months old moved from Kuthula Place to El Roi.  With the help of awesome volunteers, incredible Children’s Campus staff, and anyone else who was around to help, all the moves went off without a hitch.

Paul, Emmanuel and Ishmael were all packed and ready to move!

Hope loves her new bed!

In the midst of the planning for all of the above I was asked to go and help assess an 8-month old baby who was reported to be disabled and needing help.  We do not knowingly accept disabled children as we do not have the staff or training to help, but as it turns out, 10% of our children have some kind of long-term disability

We were told that the mother of the baby was dead, the child was living with an old Grandfather (who is the one who reported the case to Social Welfare) and the child was starving to death.  I wondered if maybe the child was just developmentally delayed or stunted due to malnutrition, so I asked Brooke and Shongwe to come with me to the homestead, with the Social Welfare officer, to assess the situation. 

After driving for an hour, over hill and dale, then through the bush, we came to a home that had many, many small children running around half naked.  As soon as we arrived we saw the child in question, but the story wasn’t at all what had been reported to the government office. The mother of the baby was alive and sitting in front of us. The Grandmother of the baby was there as well as several other women, who were mothers or Aunties for the dozens children who were sitting on the ground watching us.  The baby was not starving to death, as was reported, and in fact, she wasn’t 8-months old, she was 8 YEARS old. The only part of the story that was true was that she was severely disabled, and we found her sliding around dirt yard on her bare bum.  She is no doubt a severely “at risk” little girl, but in no way qualified to come to live at our baby home. 

We thanked the family for inviting us for the visit and left them with some food for the children.  We must all pray for the safety and protection of that little girl.

I don’t often tell those stories in this blog, but that type of “wild goose chase” happens fairly often, but it’s always worth the drive when a child’s life can be saved.  I am thankful for those who give money to my compassion purse which allows me to buy fuel and food for those trips.

We ended the week with a memorial service for our dear friend Shirley Ward.  It was a beautiful day as we gathered with Shirley’s family, friends, government officials, Doctors and Social Workers to celebrate a life will lived.  Shirley was the one who actually set up the Heart for Africa charity in Swaziland in 2004.  She was also the one who found the Project Canaan land in 2009 and navigated government relations so that the El Roi Baby home could be opened in 2012. 

In honor of Shirley Ward.

There are no words to describe the sadness we feel to say good-bye to Shirley, but her faith was strong enough to move mountains, and we saw her do that many times in the ten years we worked with her.

The El Roi choir sang.

Shirley with Cindy Van Wyk at the dedication of the Project Canaan land June 21, 2009

Many mountains were moved this week and we give thanks for the dozens of people who made the whole week a success.  Thank you Jesus for your provision, your love and your attention to detail.

Live from Swaziland… we are going to take the weekend off.

Janine 

A fun aerial photo of The Oasis reception with Emseni East to the right.

Every 12.2 days we are receiving a baby ... help!

This week Baby George arrived at the El Roi baby home brining our children count to 89.  George’s addition means that we now receive an abandoned, or child in need, every 12.2 days, which also means that at this rate we will have 265 children living at Project Canaan by the year 2020. 

Baby George born February 22, 2015.

This week we also had a team of volunteers here who are helping us finish a building called Emseni East.  It will be the home for our toddlers to move up to (since the toddler home is now full past its designed capacity) and they will live there until they are finished high school. Thank you to each and every one of you who came so far to help make this home extraordinarily beautiful for our children.

As we review our plans for the future and the rate at which children are placed with us through the Social Welfare Department, we realize that this Emseni East building will be full by the end of 2015, and we will need to have the next building, Emseni North, completed in the early part of 2016.  YIKES!!

Before you take a peak at some of the beautiful photos from the hard work the team did this week, please consider giving to the Emseni North building campaign.  We need to raise $300,000 and have $120,000 raised to date and are starting to build in faith.  Even if you can’t give today, but could pledge money by the end of the year, that would be awesome.    

The link to give is: US:  http://bit.ly/EmseniNorth  and in Canada:  http://bit.ly/EmseniNorthCA

If you want to make a pledge for 2015, please email me directly at janine@heartforafrica.org.

Now, for some fun photos of today’s unveiling!

Six foot mosaic done at the floor of The Oasis Dininghall.

Joshua and Ben are first up on the new bunk beds.

Rose, Gabriel and birthday boys Malachi and Matthew.

Girls room.

Boys room.

Live from Swaziland ... I am thankful.

Janine