This Swazi man gave all that he had to give

His name is Phillip.

He is a neighbor to our Kufundza Carpentry Center manager and he had a big, bloodwood tree on his property – bigger than any bloodwood tree that we have found on Project Canaan. We use bloodwood trees to make the beautiful charcuterie boards that we started selling in the fall of 2020 through www.khutsala.com  (we sold 500 of them in 2020!). The tree gets its name from the red sticky sap the pours like blood when the bark is cut.

 

In order to make charcuterie boards we must first find the exotic (not protected) bloodwood tree, which are usually up the mountains and through the bush – not accessibly for a vehicle. Below is a photo of some of Denis' guys who had to build a steel frame to carry an estimated 800-pound tree down the mountain. If you go to the end of this blog you can watch the video of the same. It’s grueling work.

 

I have also been looking for larger trees to make table tops and coffee tables to see locally and through Khutsala, but hadn’t been able to find large enough trees here. One day our carpentry Manager Sanele told me that he had found a BIG bloodwood tree on his neighbor’s property and he had asked the neighbor about the tree. Sanele said that it was the tree that the family used to sit under during the heat of the day when they used to work on the farm, but those days and most of that family were long gone.

When Sanele approached the man, Phillip, about the tree, here is what he said, “You may have that tree. I would like to give you that tree as a gift and to support the Swazi children that you are caring for. One day that tree will die and fall down, just like this one I am leaning on, and then it will not be useful to anyone. But if I give you this live tree, you can use it to make beautiful wooden items to sell, and while the tree will die, the children will live. That is why I am giving you this tree. Oh, and there is a big mahogany tree over there that I would also like you to have.”

 

Wow. I have never heard of anything like this before. While we have support from our local community because we are employing almost anyone and everyone who is willing and able to work, this was a different kind of support. This was thoughtful, caring and wise and he was giving us something that did have significant value. That big tree could still provide shade from the scorching sun, and he could have sold it to us for money, but instead he  chose to give it to us as a gift. Sanele thanked him profusely and we went together to meet Philip the next day.

I grew up in Northern Ontario and my dad taught me to LOVE trees. I love working with wood, just as my dad did, so it pains me to cut down trees. But please know that we do it carefully, thoughtfully and use as much of the tree as we possibly can (table tops, charcuterie boards, trivets and coasters). In addition, when people purchase our charcuterie boards this year they will help us plant many more bloodwood trees for the next generation. Details to follow in the fall.

So, I drove to Sigceneni and spent most of the day with three guys cutting down a giant tree with a small chainsaw (if anyone wants to donate a big one or two we would welcome them!), and then cut it in to moveable pieces. The next day the JCB (backhoe) and tractor with trailer made the 7-mile journey to load up the wood. When it got back to Project Canaan is was then loaded in a truck and driven 100+ miles to a sawmill to be cut into planks. 

While all that was happening, our guys had to build a much bigger sun wood-drying kiln (13 yards long) to dry the wood quickly so that we can begin our work in the weeks ahead. Just this morning I took these photos of the beautiful wood that has been harvested and cut. After it dries our guys will plane it, I will spend many fun/dirty days at the shop drawing out each charcuterie to make best use of the colors, grains and live edge, then they will be cut, dried again and then fumigated. The entire process takes many weeks to make a single charcuterie board, but each one is made with love by the Kufundza team (including Nokwanda and me).

These particular boards, made of bloodwood and some with mahogany, will also be sent with love from an old Swazi man who didn’t have any money to help the children, so he gave us what he had - the biggest and most beautiful bloodwood tree we have ever seen. Phillip gave us hope.

This is what the mahogany looks like.

Is there something in your life that you could bless another person with, even if it isn’t money? Look around you and give someone a gift of love, and perhaps even hope, today.

Our goal is to ship another 1,000 boards in early May via seafaring container, which will arrive at our Georgia warehouse for August sales. Please start thinking about corporate gifts or an extra special gift from www.khutsala.com this Christmas. If you have questions about these products, please contact julie@heartforafrica.org

Live from Eswatini … thankful.

Janine

This first video is the guys carrying a big tree down the mountain on Project Canaan.

 

This second video is Sanele climbing the tree (with the help of a human ladder) to cut the next branch off. Enjoy!

Christmas with our kids = a day filled with joy and hope!

 

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with 275 children and 100+ staff who provide a loving home for those children. We believe that traditions are very important and not only help with identity and a sense of belonging, but also provide excitement and expectations for life events in the family.

On Christmas morning our children eat delicious fat cakes (big round dense donuts) rolled in sugar and cinnamon. Christmas day is typically scorching hot so the swimming pools are assembled and swimsuits are pulled out of the closet.  Lunch consists of pancakes, crispy bacon, syrup, fruit and a healthy dollop of whip cream. 

 

 

After lunch is cleaned up and sticky hands and faces are washed, we present each child with a wrapped gift and a very special chocolate wrapped in foil. The children all know that the gift contains a new pair of pajamas and they know that they get the same chocolate every year, and they are so excited about it. Every child sits quietly waiting for their name to be called and then they run up to the front of the room, put out both hands to receive the gift (very important in Swazi culture) and curtsy while saying thank you. Then they head out of the Oasis to sit at a picnic table and wait patiently for everyone to receive their gifts so that they can all open them together. Some years we give the chocolate at the same time as the gift (if we remember) and some years we don’t.  

 

 

As I was video-taping everyone opening their pajamas I felt a tug on my leg and looked down to see a very sad little boy with his bottom lip quivering. It was Willis (given my maiden name following my mom’s death). He was holding his pajamas, but with a very sad face asked if he was still going to get the chocolate. Willis is only five years old, but remembered the tradition (and probably heard the older kids talking about it) and so came forward to make his simple request. I assured him that everyone would be receiving a chocolate and he was relieved. I too was relieved that we hadn’t forgotten them in the walk-in fridge only to find them later. Ian told me that many of the children also asked him about the “expected” chocolate and so while we may have forgotten, they sure hadn’t. I realize there is a fine line between entitlement and tradition, but we really do want to have things that they can look forward to each year.

 

 

Like most mothers I always want Christmas day to be perfect, and that is hard at the best of times, but with 275 children with tradition expectations the pressure is amplified. But we have an incredible team of people who do the heavy lifting and help make Christmas perfect.  I would like to take a moment to thank our Sr. Supervisor for the toddler home and kitchens, Khosi Mamba, for her never-ending smile and willingness to listen, learn and lead. Khosi, you and the kitchen staff made Christmas day perfect for our children and staff. 

 

 

I would also like to thank our long-term volunteer, Bryan Throgmorton, who is the master planner and organizer for all of the 190+ children living at the Emseni campus. He not only creates a daily plan that includes chores, learning, play and activities, but he also makes sure that decorations are put up, and come down in a timely fashion, tables set and decorated and children ready to do whatever they are asked to do next. 

 

 

The only thing that Bryan wasn’t able to do this year to make Christmas 100% perfect was to bring Chloe home. Chloe, you were missed by us all, but no-one more than me. 

 

 

We were all so happy to have Spencer here and ZOOM allowed us to open gifts with Chloe in Canada and enjoy a family visit with the Maxwell clan in Canada, U.S and Scotland.

 

 

We know that this Christmas brought new types of stress to people all over the world, and that stress was wrapped with sadness and loneliness for many, but I hope that you were able to find a way to find joy on Christmas day, and I hope that this blog and our children will bring you hope for today and in the days and months ahead.

 

As we all look forward to 2020 coming to an end, I ask that you consider making your most generous year-end gift to Heart for Africa to enable us to continue to fight hunger, caring for orphans, alleviate poverty and provide education in Eswatini. 

 

To make a year end gift in Canada please click here.  

To make a year end donation in the U.S. please click here.

Live from Eswatini … enjoying a season filled with hope!

Janine

Finding joy during lock down

Our borders have been closed since March, which means we can’t leave Eswatini.  We hear that they won’t open up again until South Africa reaches Level 1 of lock down.  South Africa is at level 4 now, and we also hear that South Africa won’t hit the peak of Coronavirus cases until September.  We can’t leave, we are stuck for a long, long time.

BUT, we are “stuck” with 263 really cute and funny children, and so I spend a lot more time with the kids than I usually do.  They just crack me up, and I am quickly able to find joy during lock down when I am with them.

Take Treasure for example.  She just turned 2-years-old and has more personality than perhaps any of our children.  Her face tells the whole story of what is happening in her mind, and she can go from a very grouchy scowl (usually when Ian is around as she doesn’t like him) to a face with total joy, in a split second.  She sheds crocodile tears to get her own way, and feels that she is the only baby who should be held.  I picked her up the other day and took her to the clinic as I had a few things to discuss with the nurse. She sat on my lap and started counting to five.  None of her words were right, but the tone, intonation and self-congratulations were perfect.  Rebekah caught it on video for you to see below.

Then there is a conversation I had with Ruth when I was painting the big girls finger nails, that went like this: 

Ruth:  “Make (mom) Janine, are you going to paint the fingers of the little girls from

Emseni 1?”

Me: “ No, I am only painting the big girls nails.”

Ruth (big sigh): “Well, they probably don’t know if they are a boy or a girl anyway.”

Then there was the conversation with Titus about Spencer and Jane being engaged.  I was telling him that they might come to Project Canaan for a wedding ceremony. Here is how that went:

Titus: “ Why would they come here for a wedding?”

Me:  “Because they would like to have their younger brothers and sisters to be a part of special wedding.”

Titus: “Make (mom), will they kiss?”

Me: “Well, yes, I think they will.”

Titus (closing his eyes): “Oh Make, I can’t watch that. I will have to close my eyes.”

This week at the Project Canaan Academy teacher Amber introduced the concept of sharing hope with people in need, to our primary age children.  When they got their morning snack, they had the opportunity to take that snack and put it in a basket that had a “Share Hope” sign on it.  They were told that the fruit would be given to children who really needed food. Most of our children quickly took their snack and put it in the basket.  Amber did this every day last week, and each day there were only one or two children who ate their snack – everyone else gave it for a hungry child.  Below is a short video of Joshua explaining what they are doing, photos of the basket, and photos of Anthony distributing the fruit to children in need.  

I also want to let you know that we have started delivering food again to our 30 church partners.  We were forced to stop delivery due to travel restrictions, but now the government is encouraging food delivery to help the hundreds of thousands of Swazi’s in need.  Schools have been closed for two months and there is no sign of them reopening in the months to come, so that means that school-going children are not getting the meal that they have come to depend on at school. We MUST feed the children, and we have started doing so again, while encouraging social distancing etc.  We will have more news to share on this in the next week or two. Stay tuned on how you can help feed starving children.   

With many of our workers not able to come to work, with children around the country starving, with the future of our ability to leave the country looking bleak, and with coronavirus news on every channel, it would be easy for me to be depressed and fearful. But I choose joy, and I choose to look at the things that bring me joy and bring me hope.  I hope that you will do the same.  Look for joy.  Look for hope. Watch Treasure’s video over and over again if you need to.

Live from Eswatini … sharing hope with the world.

Janine

HOPE shatters uncertainty!

It feels like time is twisting in the wind.  Some days feel like weeks, some weeks feel like months, and all this craziness is perhaps just getting started here.

The uncertainty that the world is feeling is no less uncertain here. Our children’s campus staff have been on lock down for 60 straight days now, living with and caring for 261 children (some with broken bones, pneumonia and other childhood illnesses), but not once have I heard a complaint or a cross word.  Last week, in our weekly meeting, my Sr. Supervisors told me that the staff were tired, and they were uncertain if we would keep them locked down for another month (or more).  They all have families back at their homesteads and many of them have children who are being cared for by their mother or Grandmother.  Uncertainty.

Discipleship involves communication, during the good times and the bad, and an important part of discipleship to me is teaching my staff how to problem solve. We all got together and worked on a plan to give a much-needed rest to 80 staff who live with the children 24/7 x 8 weeks.  For the past eight days/nights, a group of ten staff members (mixed from all homes) were driven up to The Lodge (our long-term volunteer building that has five double rooms and two dormitories).   

We delivered all their favorite food, with a fresh food pack delivered each day for them to start fresh. The people who love to cook, did the cooking.  They grilled more meat than they could (or should) eat. We delivered loads of firewood to have a bonfire and eat s’mores. They feasted at breakfast on fresh papaya and eggs from the farm, and their treasured Corn Flakes. Lunch was another meal of grilled sausage (boerewors) on a fresh bun with mustard and Nik Naks. They also received a personal care kit.

Each night when I let out dogs out of their day pen I could hear laughter and singing and joy rolling down the mountain towards our home.  They would send me photos of the group grilling, feasting or just being silly and then send beautiful messages of thanks for all that they had received.  Thank you to each and every person who has given so generously and sent words of encouragement to our staff.  

Moving forward our staff will have the option to go home for the five-day break, but most of them want to stay locked down on Project Canaan, saying that this is the safest place to be.  I completely agree. Those that do need or want to go home will go through a screening when they return and then wear a mask for seven days upon their return.  They will get double pay on the days they don’t take off. We are really hoping to avoid any contact with the dreaded COVID-19.  If we have the funds available we will do something similar for the staff in May to continue help with physical, emotional and mental health. If you would like to make a contribution to help give our children’s campus staff a break you can do so by clicking here for the US and clicking here for a donation in Canada.

 Here is one of the teams singing and praising God for his provision and love for them!

Then there are the Project Canaan staff who were considered “non-essential” at the end of March, and were told to stay at home. They have no money to buy any food for their families for the month of May, but because of YOU, the readers of this blog and other friends and family of Heart for Africa, we were able to buy enough food for 170+ staff for TWO+ months! Yesterday and today we had the privilege of driving with two delivery trucks and an incredible team of Project Canaan workers to deliver these food packs to families in Sigceneni, Gebeni and even to those who live far from us. 

God is good, all the time, and we continue to see His hand of provision, protection and love each and every day. Thank you for reading this blog each week and sharing it with others. The world needs HOPE and we know that ours is only found in Jesus Christ. I hope that message is seen loud and clear through Project Canaan and the whole Heart for Africa family.

Live from Eswatini … I saw HOPE shatter uncertainty this week.

Janine

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” – Edmund Burke

I had an “ah ha” moment this week while I was preparing to speak to 300 students at Changhua Senior High School in Taiwan.

I was talking about the topic of hope.  Then I talked about hopelessness.  Then I talked about evil.  And as I prepared for my presentation a link between the three became very clear to me.

I used three examples of hopelessness; Baby Shirley, Baby River and Little Phephile.

Baby Shirley’s mother was hopeless, so much so that she felt the only option she had was to dump her newborn baby in a pit latrine and then dump fire on top of her and left her to die.

Shirley "before".

Shirley "after".

Baby River’s mother was so hopeless that after she gave birth to him she put him in a plastic bag and then dumped him in the river, and left him to be eaten by river crabs.

River "before".

River "after".

Little Phephile’s mother was so hopeless that she was powerless to stop a year of abuse by family members that resulted in Phephile’s arm to be broken in five places and her leg broken in two places.

Phephile "before".

Phephile "after".

I find that people who hear these stories are quick to judge these mothers and call them “evil”.  They are also quick to sentence them for their crimes and demand the harshest of punishment.  But I don’t see it that way. I have looked directly in to the eyes of Shirley’s mother and Phephile’s mother and what I saw was hopelessness.  They were empty, dead inside, with no options, and no hope.

I showed my Taiwanese students before and after photos of these three children. The before photos represented hopelessness, and the after photos represented hope.  And then showed them a quote by Edmund Burke that I find very powerful.  It says: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Could it be that hopelessness turns in to evil when good men and women do nothing?

Could it be that River, Shirley and Phephile would not have had to suffer if their mothers could have found people who cared and acted to help them before their hopeless turned to an act of evil?

Oh how I wish we could have helped these young women when they were in need rather than having to try to put the pieces back together after their babies were injured.

After my speech was finished a young man came up to me and was visibly moved. He said that he has always wanted to stand up against injustice and make a difference in the world, but he has always been told that he wasn’t good enough and would never make a difference. I told him that he had been told lies, that he was powerful beyond measure.  Later in the day he sent me a message that read, “Today, after listening to your speech, l felt something turned to be different in my heart.”

Working and living in Africa has taught me that hope is life-saving, and life-giving.  And hopelessness is life-taking and life-threatening. 

On my darkest days when I am discouraged or wanting to give up it is inevitable that I get an message from someone from around the world writing to encourage me and remind me to keep my eyes on our only true hope … Jesus. Those words are always timely and are exactly what I needed to hear.

I pray that each of us will reach out to others with words of true HOPE when we feel prompted to do so.  You may just save a life.

Live from Taiwan … I am hopeful.

Janine

Finding hope through heartbreak.

This morning I asked Ian what I should write today’s blog about and without missing a beat he said, “HOPE. Write about the hope that we saw as we walked around the farm this morning. It’s all so exciting, you need to help people see what we see even though they are reading it on a computer.”

Like many of you, in 2015 we are trying to eat better and exercise more.  Exercise to us means walking around the farm. The “loop” as we call it takes about two hours and it is up and down rolling hills on gravel. (I HATE exercise), but we are trying to do it regularly and the bonus of the walk is seeing Project Canaan slowly and up close. It is truly the best two hours we spend together.  Today I will share a bit of what we saw on today’s walk.

I will start with a story about a baby whom we HOPE will make Project Canaan his home in the weeks ahead.  

This little guy was born on December 13, 2013.  His mother died, his father ran away and then he was being cared for by his very old Grandmother, who is also very sick. The baby was found starving to death and was admitted to the hospital for severe malnutrition.  We guess that his weight (at 1-year old) is around 6KG (13.2 lbs).  As you can see from this photo, his skin is bursting and peeling off from the malnutrition (not to mention his diaper was a plastic grocery bag).  He is severely developmentally delayed and can’t even sit yet.  What does hope look like?  It looks like this little one getting the treatment he needs to reverse his malnutrition at the hospital, then for him to come to the El Roi Baby Home and start his new life.  El Roi sees him. Please pray for this baby and all involved.

On the lighter side of “hope”, I present you with a photo of the vegetables that were harvested this morning on Project Canaan.  The fields are producing again and we are harvesting zucchini, patty-pans, baby eggplant (aren’t they cute!) and soon we will have green beans.  Another wonderful thing about our “loop” walk is that we get to stop in to the ISO building, which is REFRIDGERATED!!!! :)

 

This next photo is one of my favorites.  It is a view from the inside of The Oasis, which will be the new kitchen/dining/meeting hall for the “big kids” – with capacity to feed 200 children at time. The view is from the pass through window of the kitchen, looking in to the dining room, with the large window/door walk-out to an outside patio.  We will have a stage inside for children’s performances and it will be home for movies, homework, crafts and family meetings.  I CAN NOT wait to see this finished!! But even at this stage of construction it brings me joy and hope for their future. 

The next photo is a view from the Kindergarten looking back to the toddler home on the left and Emseni East and The Oasis up to the right.  It’s a beautiful sight and we plan to move 20 children to their permanent home at the beginning of March.

Last but not least, I give you the real Face of Hope – baby Seth.  This little guy is HIV positive and has been very sickly since we received him after his mother dropped him in a pit latrine and left him for dead.  He spent most of this past week in hospital trying to get several blood transfusions because he was severely anemic (due to a change in his Anti-retroviral medication).  Yesterday he was discharged and he is home, sweet home.  

Last Sunday our Pastor, Andy Stanley, preached a message called “Re:Solution” (http://northpoint.org/messages/resolution/the-better-question/) , which asked the question “What breaks your heart?”.    Suffering children break my heart and I am driven to action when I see them. But I have learned is that it is through their suffering and through my own heartbreak, that I find HOPE… I find Jesus, and He is my only hope. Without Him we could not do what we do. Without Him, there would be no Saturday blog because there would be nothing to blog about.  I can’t imagine a world without hope.

2015 is a year of HOPE and I am looking forward to being overwhelmed by His plan.

Live from Swaziland … hopeful in a land filled with hopelessness.

Janine