I'm in a funk

Last year on July 18^th we were all gathered at the new Imphilo Amphitheater to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of Project Canaan. There were more than 1,000 people gathered together and 100+ family, friends and volunteers traveled to Eswatini to celebrate with us.

 

Early during the celebration that we saw smoke starting to rise over the mountain behind our house. Little did I know that only a few hours later the fires would be just a few yards from our home, and that 48 hours later we would still be fighting fires that would burn 90% of our property, putting our family and staff’s lives in danger.

 

The next day, on July 19^th, I was standing near the chapel with Sarah Windham and Dr. Mark McGee when a red-hot fire ember flew 50 feet in the air, over our heads and landed on the top of the beautiful grass thatched roof of our chapel. Within two minutes the whole roof had erupted in to flames, and the chapel burned to the ground.  I stood sobbing, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  The fires would get worse that day, and would not be fully extinguished for another 18 hours.

 

This chapel was built and dedicated in 2009, and it burned to the ground ten years later.  Today we are fighting a different kind of fire, and it’s called Covid-19. Its embers are flying high in the sky landing in all parts of the world, including Eswatini. Cases were continuing to grow, but now testing has slowed down because the government has run out of money for fuel for vehicles.  The government is broke, so drivers can’t take test kits to clinics or take samples back to the lab to be tested.  In fact, this week we had to drive to the police station to pick up a baby who had been left in the bush because the entire police department and social welfare department didn’t have diesel for their cars to take the baby to the hospital. Things are bad here.

 

I find myself in a funk as I sit and write this blog. Our borders are closed, and will be well in to 2021.  That means we don’t get to see Spencer and Chloe for Christmas, we don’t get to go to Durban to celebrate our 30^th wedding anniversary in October, we can’t even run to South Africa to pick up some fun food.  We are stuck, and today I feel a bit like a caged animal.

 

I know many of you have felt the same way too, locked in your houses for months.  We are all likely feeling the same way about Covid-19 and are “OVER IT!”.  We don’t have the mask conflict here that seems to be plaguing the USA.  Since we have the highest HIV rate in the world, and it is estimated that 70% of our total population has active or inactive Tuberculosis, we all really embrace social distancing and wearing masks.  It’s the only way to stay alive here.

 

Today I will sit in front of small space heater (it’s winter here), with my cat, mourning the loss of our Doberman, Max, last week, and generally just feeling sorry for myself.  I’m allowed to do that, for a day. Tomorrow is a new day and we will dedicate the newly built chapel with performances by all our children. I hope you will all join us on the Heart for Africa Facebook page on Sunday, July 19^th at  9AM EST. I promise you will be blessed.

 

I will also be shopping on our amazon wish list and sending a few things on the UPS container that is shipping next month,  and I REALLY hope you will too. This container is the one chance during the year to ship items to us, and now that we won’t have visitors coming for the foreseeable future, we really need help.

 

I would like to specifically ask for people to buy bikes and helmets for our staff and kids.  We have 269 children who are LOCKED DOWN on Project Canaan – no field trips, no visits to town, nothing. So, riding bikes around the farm is a really great way to have fun and keep everyone active.  Will you buy a bike and/or helmet today and help us out? I think I will get Ian a bike as an anniversary gift. 👀

 

Live from Eswatini … in a funk.

 

Janine

Baby #237 and #238 (what were we thinking?)

 

Yesterday marked the 10^th Anniversary of when we officially dedicated the land which we now call “Project Canaan” and “home”.  I just can’t believe that it has been 10 years!  So much has been accomplished in such a short time, which is a testament to God, and Him alone.  Without Him, none of this would be possible. 

We are busy preparing for the official 10^th Anniversary celebration in only three short weeks, which means children are in daily rehearsals, the amphitheater is under construction (fingers crossed for completion!) and new people are joining the guest list every day.  I feel an excitement that is unexplainable and just yesterday I was saying that I feel like I am on a sugar rush because my body is overly stimulated with all that is going on. 

Never in our wildest imaginations did we think that 10 years after dedicating the land that we would be raising 238 children (under the age of 9) and responsible for 300+ employees.  What we did know was that this was a “Promised land”, and while it looked like bush to everyone else around us (many who did not support or believe in the vision), it looked like a place of hope to us.  And that is what it is today.

Yesterday we received two more children, both in desperate need.  One just turned 2-years-old last week and her baby sister is 8-months-old. They were living in a tent in a very rural area (it was 8C/46F last night) with no heater and no food.  There had been many reports of neglect, and then Social Welfare stepped in to rescue the children.  It’s always a bitter sweet day when we receive a child. It’s sad knowing the situation/conditions that the child is coming from, but great knowing that they are coming to a place of safety, love and hope.  It’s sad that they are not with their biological family, but wonderful that they are in the family that God has placed them in “for such a time as this”.  I too was fortunate to be placed in a loving home where the trajectory of my life changed, all because my biological mother put me up for adoption.  I am here in Africa because of her decision, and I am thankful for that.

Our friend Cissy Watson holding new arrival "Cissy".

Auntie Gcebile holding new arrival "Candy".

These two girls are babies #237 and #238, and at times I stop and find myself asking the question "What were we thinking? This is crazy!"  But I know the answer is that we weren't thinking, we were just listening and being obedient, and that is always the best plan. 

As we look at the big picture of the past 10 years, we also must keep our eyes on the small details of day-to-day living, and that includes diapers!  Today we are kicking off our annual Diaper & Wipe Drive on Amazon.  This simple initiative allows people from all over the world to join in and be a part of our ever-growing family by just clicking on this link to help us provide care for our babies.  We change 400+ diapers each and every day and use 1,300 wipes. That means we go through 146,000 diapers every year and almost 500,000 wipes!  We are not able to use re-washable diapers because of disease and cross contamination between children.   This campaign helps us reduce our fundraising needs for our babies and also invites people who might not already be involved with Heart for Africa to join the family!

Will you take a moment and buy some diapers or wipes today?  We really need your help!

Thank you for your love and support. 

Live from Eswatini … it’s another busy day in the Kingdom!

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.

 

Somebody stinks!

My “office” is at a picnic table outside the back of the El Roi Baby home and I love having meetings there. I have a weekly Supervisor meeting there, and almost all my meetings with VIP’s and visitors. I love meeting there because it allows me to spend time with our 6 to 18- month-old babies, each one cuter than the next.  It also helps me get to know them and see their individual personalities starting to show even at that tender age. 

Our staff is amazing and are incredibly attentive to the babies, but every now and then a waft of smell will pass my nose, and then like most mom’s I start sniffing children’s butts to find out which child is responsible.  Sometimes I’ll just say, “somebody stinks!”, and an Auntie will quickly find the perpetrator and immediately get the baby changed. 

We have 7 tiny babies under 6-months old, 31 babies who are 6-months-old to 18-months-old and we have 40 2-year-olds (those ones are being toilet trained).  That’s 78 children who need diapers and wipes resulting in us changing almost 400 diapers every single day! 

Thankfully, we have not had to buy a single diaper OR wipe since last August when a 40 ft container arrived from the US, filled by friends like YOU and shipped for free by our friends at UPS.

UPS has offered to ship another container in August 2018 and so it is time for us to start collecting diapers and wipes to fill it up!  This is where I need your help with two things:

1.     Would you visit our Amazon Wish List and shop today at  http://bit.ly/hfadiaperdrive  

2.     Would you share this blog and any Heart for Africa social media posts relating to the 2018 Diaper Drive in the days and weeks to come? 

Unfortunately, we do not have a container leaving from Canada this year, but our Canadian friends and family can shop on the US Amazon site.

Thank you all for your love and support and for helping us keep our babies clean and healthy.

Live from Swaziland … it’s Saturday morning.

Janine