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.

Do you believe in coincidence?

Welcome home Princess.

This week we picked up a baby from the hospital who had been there for a month.   Today is her FIRST birthday, but her first 365 days have not been good.  She weighed 4.86 KG (10.7 pounds) when we got her two days ago.  Stop and think about that for a minute.

Happy 1st Birthday Princess.  Welili and Helen had to hold her up, but she got her first cake!

In addition, she is HIV positive, has Tuberculosis, can't sit or crawl and was in the hospital for severe malnutrition.  Her mother is 19-years old and also has a 3-year old who lives with the Grandmother.  The young mother couldn’t care for the baby and begged the Doctor/nurses/social workers to find someone who would take her baby (and take some of her problems away).

Social Welfare did their investigation, court orders were signed and we were called to pick up the child.  Her name is Princess.

When we went to pick the baby up “coincidentally” Anthony Mutua (a Project Canaan Supervisor who is currently studying nursing in Mbabane) was Interning at that very hospital and met us at the front door. He was able to help with language, care instruction and details that the nurses wanted us to know upon discharge.

As we left the hospital we passed an old man and woman sitting outside the ambulance entrance area. He was in a broken wheelchair and she was sitting on the ground.  Princess’ mom was walking out with us and she greeted the couple as we walked by.  “Coincidentally”, they were her very own Grandparents, and they live in Sigceneni , the community right next to Project Canaan.  In fact, they are Baby Princess’ Great Grandparents!  We discovered that they had been sitting outside for the past 24 hours, hoping that someone would give them a ride home or money to take public transportation.  The temperature dropped to 10C (50F) the night before and this couple sat through it, hoping for a good Samaritan to come by and help. The man is 90-years old and his young wife is 67-years old.

I have masked their faces to maintain their privacy (sometimes my blog is posted in the national newspaper here). The Grandfather was trying to show me the tube coming out of his stomach when I was trying to take the family photo.

My little car was full with 3 adults, one baby and $900 of children’s clothes that I had just purchased with Sharla and Scott Miller so we were not in a position to drive them home, but there is no way we could leave them there shivering.

“Coincidently” at that very moment a van pulled up beside us and it had a sign that said Good Samaritan 911 on the side.  I immediately asked the driver what Good Samaritan 911 was and he said it was a private ambulance service that had just started.  I asked him how much it would cost to take this man in the wheelchair and his wife to Sigceneni and he told me R450 ($37 US).  SOLD!  I pulled out my Compassion Purse, the Scotts handed me some money and between the two we hired the private ambulance to take this poor couple home.

An hour later the ambulance driver called me to say that they had been delivered safe and sound.

Every Saturday I have a list of things for Anthony to do when he comes home from Nursing School for the weekend. Most of is work in the community surrounding Project Canaan.  Today Anthony was to take Alyssa Yount and her mom Debbie out for a homestead visit. Anthony asked one of our workers to choose a family since he would not be home until Saturday.  I then asked him to go and check on the old couple after he did that homestead visit and take them some food.  As I am writing this blog I got a call from Chris Cheek (who went with Anthony and the ladies).  Guess what?  “Coincidentally” the homestead that was chosen by another worker is the homestead of the Grandparents, and it is the homestead where Baby Princess’ older sister lives with their Grandmother.  

Back to Baby Princess.  Unfortunately, when we go her home we discovered she had a fever of 41C (105.7F), she was severely dehydrated and she had pneumonia.  “Coincidently” we have a Pediatric nurse (Camille Vincent) here volunteering for 7 weeks and she was able to move in to action and put an IV in the tiny baby and start antibiotics and re-hydration.  Camille saved us an emergency drive back to the hospital and perhaps even saved Princess’ life.

Every day we see miracles here, and the “coincidences” are too many to write about.  But today I thought I would share just one small story of what I believe is not coincidence, but the mighty hand of God.

Live from Swaziland … I believe in God-incidences, not coincidences.

Janine

PS – Did I mention that when I asked Chris Cheek to go with Anthony to visit the Grandfather and Mother in Sigceneni today I sent her the photo of the couple so that she would know who she was looking for. Chris texted me immediately to say that she had actually MET that old couple in 2013 when she first came to Swaziland, and then she sent me this photo of her and the couple from 2013.  The hand of God.

Chris and Princess' Great Grandparents in 2013.