Do you believe in miracles?

I will never forget July 14, 2017 when a tiny boy was put into my arms. He was a few days shy of his second birthday and weighed only 14 pounds. He couldn’t hold his own head up, he couldn’t crawl nor stand. He hardly had the energy to lift a hand to take some food. His body was skin and bones and he was very very sick with tuberculosis and extreme malnutrition.  His mother was 14-years old when she gave birth and she dumped the him with her Grandmother, just as her mother dumped her when she was born.  The newborn lived with his Great Grandmother for many months, being locked outside her stick and mud hut during the day then locked inside the hut when the Great Grandmother would go away, being completely neglected and starved.

 

We named the boy Jonathan and prayed over him daily, but Jonathan quickly ended up in the hospital for emergency care. Weeks later he came back to the El Roi baby home where we started the long journey to health, and one that none of us were sure would be successful.

 

This past Wednesday Jonathan finished pre-kindergarten and is moving on to Kindergarten in January. As we sat at the awards ceremony Jonathan was called up to the front and given the “Star Athlete” award.  Star athlete???  I believe in miracles because I have experienced them.

Then there is our Grace. A child who was left on the side of the road by her mother, and when found was taken immediately to the hospital where she was in a coma for many days. She was treated for meningitis, but was left blind. We did not know that when she was placed with us, and it was only during development assessments that we realized the depth and breadth of her disabilities. Eventually our medical team broke the news to us that Grace would never be able to sit on her own, or crawl or walk. We already knew from U.S. Ophthalmologist that she was blind and would never see.  

 

 

Well, Grace can see, she can sit and crawl and walk and dance and talk and sing. She is one of our extra special children who has extra special needs, and we are thankful to have her in our family. I believe in miracles because I have seen them. Enjoy Grace singing and dancing in the video below.

Then there are two other extra special girls who I want to update you on today. Both were burned as newborn children, both are strong and vibrant members of our family and both are testaments to the power of prayer, love, financial support and medical care from our friends in the U.S. and Canada.

 

Shirley has been to the U.S. twice for reconstructive surgery and we don’t anticipate her needing any more. She graduated from Kindergarten this week and was so proud to receive her certificate.  

 

Phiwa has also been to the U.S. twice for reconstructive surgery, and still has a long way to go in her healing process.  She came to us as a “boarding school” student two years ago and couldn’t speak any English and she couldn’t read or write as she was not able to attend school because of her facial burns (the other children were abusive to her). This week she not only passed 1^st grade, but she got STRAIGHT A’s and is on tot 2^nd grade in January. This is a testament to her hard work, great tutors, an educational psychologist and special education techniques from private school teachers in the U.S. who helped her catch up and WANT to learn. Phiwa is part of a very large global village of people who love and care for her and she in return is a blessing to all of us.

 

I believe in miracles because I have witnessed them.

 

 

None of these children would have been able to receive the care that they desperately needed if it weren’t for the generosity of people who have given sacrificially to help save the life or change the life of a Swazi child.

 

Would you join us in providing the ongoing care for the 275 children who currently call Project Canaan “home” and help us be able to continue to say “yes” to other children in need? We have a matching gift of up to $175,000 for our year end giving campaign so for every dollar you donate before December 31^st, it will be doubled! This might be the best Christmas gift you ever gift – the gift of life and love.

 

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

 

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

 

I hope that you experience miracles in your own life and find inexplicable joy during this sacred season of hope.

 

Live from Eswatini  … enjoying having Spencer home.

 

Janine

 

Praying with one eye open

Benkhosi

When I was a small child I was taught to pray with my eyes closed tight and would be corrected for opening my eyes until the prayer was finished. I was to keep them shut tight, as if that act would make my prayers heard by God (but maybe it was just so that I wasn’t distracted).

This week I attended two birthday parties and I will admit to opening my eyes during the time that our 40 x 2-year-old children closed their eyes, put their hands together and gave thanks for the cake that they were about to receive.  At the first party for Princess I opened my eyes and peaked, and I am so glad I did because I saw little Jonathan with his hands clasped, and eyes shut so tight that there was no way of him being distracted from giving thanks. And he has a lot to give thanks for having arrived at the age of two almost dead from disease and starvation.  

Jonathan

Princess

The next birthday was Benkhosi’s, and again I peaked, only to find Benkhosi praying with one eye open.  What was he looking for, I wondered?  Did he think his cake might go away or that something extra special would appear? 

I believe in the power of prayer.  Since living in Swaziland I have literally seen the lame walk, the deaf hear and the blind see. I have seen mountains moved, water come from dry land and funds provided, all in ways that defies reason.  My prayer life has changed dramatically in the past few years as I now pray EXPECTING my prayers to be answered and I pray expecting to see the hand of God.  Maybe that is why Benkhosi had one eye open?

Maybe we should all think about praying with one eye open this week – expecting to SEE God show up and answer our prayers. Why not? He wants to be seen :) 

Live from Swaziland … praying with expectation today.

Janine

 

We all have special needs

This week I spent a lot of time watching the individual development of our children.  We continue to work on making this a children’s home, and not an orphanage, and that requires being intentional about individual care and development.

I cannot tell you the joy that I got from seeing that  in practice this week. I will share a bit about a few of our most challenged children.

Morris is 13-months old and is very developmentally delayed.  He was abandoned at a rural clinic by his teenage mother and lived there for 6-months with little to no touch, stimulation or love. He cannot hold up his head, and while first receiving a diagnosis of severe Cerebral Palsy, we are now not so certain about that diagnosis. Our Occupational Therapist (OT) was working with him this week and identified a slight spasticity in one arm, but otherwise his biggest challenge is not being able to hold his head up. BUT look at the photo below of him with the exercise ball. He LOVES doing his neck exercises and we are seeing a huge difference his stability already.   I love seeing the Aunties cheer him on to lift his head and everyone claps to encourage him. 

Barry is also 13-months old and is developmentally that of a 5-month-old.  When I first saw him I thought he was blind because of how detached he seemed to be from his surroundings.  His mother was very neglectful and would leave him for days a time by himself, just lying on the floor. He had more abuse and neglect than love and positive human touch.  This week our OT noted that he is responsive to toys, music and TV, but not responsive to the human voice or touch.  We are beginning his daily therapy, which will include a lot of touch, massage and love.  I can’t wait to see this little guy in the months ahead.

Barry working on some exercises to help him sit.

Jonathan is 26-months old and still can’t stand.  He is cognitively smart, has quite the “attitude” when he doesn't get his own way, but loves to play.  Also, this little boy LOVES meat!  When we bring him a meal that doesn’t not include meat he gets angry. So, of course I said, “Let the boy eat meat!”.  You may recall that he only weighed 13 pounds when he came to us at the age of 2-years, but now he is almost 20-pounds!  Go Jonathan go!

Jonathan being assessed by our OT

 Princess is 3+ years old and is still not walking, but she sure wants to. She was off to a bad start with severe malnutrition, TB and related diseases.  Now we are working to put muscle on her tiny legs and challenging her to get her hands working so that she can put square pegs in square holes, and round pegs in round holes.  She works SO hard on her exercises and we are encouraged each and every day.

Princess working hard with her hands.

For the rest of our children we focus on individual childhood development plans. This week during school break the children worked on motor skills development, which included everything from paint-by-number to visiting the Kufundza center to hammer nails into wood, turn screws in to wood and even get to pull down on a drill press to make holes in wood.

Jacob and Allen teaching the kids to hammer and screw.

Gabriel doing paint-by-number

I am so thankful for an amazing team of people who are so commitment to each and every child.   Yesterday I was on a long drive to pick up out newest baby (#163) and our volunteer Program Director, Bryan Throgmorton, came along.   We had fun talking about so many of the things we love about so many children:

·      How Paul loves to say “thank you” for random things that he appreciates.

·      How Titus will tell me that he likes my hair.

·      How sweet Moses is when he runs over and gives a big hug.

·      How funny Caleb is when he gets his dance grooves on.

·      How sweet and happy Phephile is now, when 2-years ago she arrived with a broken femur, tibia and as a very angry and hurt child.

Our newest baby whom we are calling Bryan.  He is 8-months old.

Each and every child has a special need, just like each of us has a special need.   While we cannot  know about or provide for all of them, but I can rest in the knowledge that their heavenly Father knows them all and sees it all, and HE is our provider.

This full rainbow appeared last week and went from the Emseni chilren's campus to Dam #2.

Live from Swaziland … my heart is filled with joy.

Janine

PS – no updates on the break-ins. Nothing at all.

Testicles

This is 2-year-old Jonathan.  All of his parts are in the right place. I have an update on his health at the end of this blog.

I am not sure that I have every used the word “testicles” in my life prior to a month ago.  And in the last four weeks, it has been a word used in my daily vocabulary. 

Strangely, we have had four boys in the past few weeks who we have discovered in “well child check ups” to have un-descended testis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptorchidism). 

This is more common than one might think, with 1 in 20 boys being born with the problem.  Typically the testis do make their way down to where they are supposed to reside, but if they don’t get there by the time the boy is 9-months-old, surgery is recommended.  Without surgery, the risk increases for infertility and/or cancer.

How hard could it be to have this kind of surgery in Swaziland you ask? Well, not really that hard at all, but there is only one urologist in Swaziland (we are very grateful that he is here!) and the cost is approximately $4,000 USD per surgery/child.  Yes, that means an unexpected cost of $16,000 in the past four weeks for testicles. You can see why the word has been spoken so often in my current circles.  What do we do?  We had a small amount of money in our “Emergency Medical” fund, but certainly not that amount.  But we moved forward in faith, and started with the first boy.

Now I am writing a blog using that word with the hopes that some of you will understand the importance of the surgery for the other boys and will help us out.

Ian and I often sit and look at each other and say, “you can’t make this stuff up”.  And we sure can’t.  And the other thing you can’t do is predict that four of your boys will have undescended testis next year and put it in a line item on a budget for Board approval. Imagine that conversation.

Speaking of testicles, I wanted to give you an update on the rapist that I had the distinct pleasure of capturing in November 2015. You can read about it at http://janinemaxwell.blogspot.com/2015/11/a-rapist-was-caught-this-week-and-then.html

This is the evidence bag that had the phone, machete, and the lady's underwear in it.

Last week he went to court, and while he confessed to multiple rapes while at the police station, he denied them in front of the judge.  The good thing was that the day we caught him, and put in the back of my truck, he had the lady’s cell phone (that he stole from her) in his bag, the machete that he attacked her with and his DNA was on her clothing.  He was found guilty of two counts of rape and one robbery. He will be sentenced next week, but we are expecting 15 years for each of the rapes and then the robbery on top. 

While I sat in front of the prosecutor preparing for court, an old lady sitting beside me described how this man had also raped her a few months before the November case.  These two ladies were sisters.  One, the eldest in the family, and one was the youngest.  My heart broke for them both, and while I think that we should have used his bush knife to cut off his … well … I won’t use that word again in this blog, I am relieved that there is one more bad guy out of our community. 

The guy in the red plaid is the rapist, the blue stripe was the arresting officer.

If you can help with our Emergency fund so that our little boys can get help, please do so by clicking on the links below so that we can proceed with the other surgeries.

In the US click here.

In Canada click here.

Live from Swaziland … Ian and I are having a date day.

Janine

This skin problem is directly linked to Jonathan's severe malnutrition.

PS Update on Jonathan.  Our poor little Jonathan started to lose weight last weekend and so they did another x-ray, only to find a spot on his lung.  They have started him on treatment for Tuberculosis and will keep him in the hospital for the next two weeks to see if he responds to treatment. If he gets healthier, that is great news. If not, it could be drug resistant TB, which is a different problem. We pray for quick and total healing. 

We never thought this would be possible! (And an update on baby Jonathan from last week).

You have all read about the containers that have been filled in the US and Canada and shipped to Swaziland. They are typically filled with diapers, wipes, books, children’s toys etc.

BUT, this past week packed a container here in Swaziland, to ship to the US!  Yep, and it wasn’t filled with diapers or wipes, but it was chock full of handmade Christmas ornaments, beaded animals, key chains and jewelry, all made at Khutsala Artisans at Project Canaan!  Our timing was perfect and our July volunteer team was here to pray over the container before it was sealed and sent to sea.

In 2013 we had the idea of producing an ornament each year that we could make and sell in order to help us with our goal of sustainability.  The first year we sold 1,200 angels. In 2014 we added a colorful tree and sold 8,500 ornaments.  In 2015 we added a star and sold 13,500 ornaments. Last year we added a beautiful purple ball and sold a total of 32,500 ornaments (!!!!).  Not only did we provide employment for the 100+ people, we were able to generate 30% of the total operating costs for all of Project Canaan. HUGE.

The 2017 Heart for Africa Christmas ornament is absolutely stunning and combines our beautiful bead and wire work with a new SwaziMUD ceramic bead, made from clay right here on Project Canaan.

2017 ornament with red and silver glass beads with a SwaziMUD ceramic bead.

All five ornaments are available.

We have also produced all five ornaments in all an all white "Snowy Collection"

Here’s our challenge.  It’s all well and good that we have produced 70,000 assorted ornaments and shipped them, but if they don’t sell, we won’t be able to continue to employ the workers here, AND we need to find another way to raise funds to raise our 162+ children.

Whity and a very full storage room.

Today I am writing for your help.  I am looking for people to be Heart for Africa Ambassadors and help us sell the ornaments to friends/family/co-workers, or use them for your personal gift giving.   

2017 Ambassador Teams

Platinum – 1,000 +

Gold – 500+

Silver – 250+

Bronze – 100+

Each one comes in a beautiful organza bag with a cute information card in each one.

I know it’s July, and this seems like a really strange time for me to be writing this blog, but the container has shipped. It will arrive at our warehouse in Ohio at the end of August and we really need to have our sales teams ready to go. 

Will you help us today?  If yes, please email Kim Evinsky at kime@heartforafrica.org or me at janine@Heartforafrica.org and we will get you more information.

Baby Jonathan update – if you didn’t hear about our almost 2-year-old boy who arrived weighing 14 pounds, please go back and read http://janinemaxwell.blogspot.com/2017/07/i-refuse-to-be-angry-and-i-refuse-to-be.html .  On Thursday we took him to the Baylor Pediatric AIDS clinic to have him tested for TB and they hospitalized him immediately. He is a very sick boy. His viral load count is 10 million.  He is being treated for malnutrition while we wait for his TB results. If he has TB, we then wait to see if he has Drug Resistant TB.

This little guy is still happy, but his prognosis is not good. He is another good reason for you to get on board and help us sell ornaments (while you pray for him). It’s so much easier than asking for donations to help care for our children.

I ask again, will you help us? Please?

Thank you.

Live from Swaziland… praying for a miracle for little Jonathan.

Janine