Massive flooding and massive blessing

For those of you who have been reading my blog or following Heart for Africa on social media for years, you will know how much we talk about water. When we first purchased the 2,500 acres of African bush, that we now call Project Canaan, there was no river, which meant there was no water. For years we drilled bore holes and built dams to capture rainwater from the sky and runoff from the mountain.  Then the drought of 2015 hit sub-Saharan Africa and our bore holes dried up and dams emptied, which lead to the mammoth undertaking of building a 6 miles pipeline from the top of the mountain down to the farm.

 

Last weekend Cyclone Eloise arrived in Eswatini after causing massive destruction in Mozambique and brought more water than have ever seen.  Much of Eswatini suffered from the heavy rains (thankfully there was very little wind), causing roads to crumble, rivers to flood and houses to collapse. 

 

Road to Nhlangano

Nkonyeni Golf 5KM from Project Canaan

Dam #1, which has been dry since 2015, filled up to overflowing in just one night of rain. Thankfully our spillways worked the way they were supposed to and dam #1 spilled over to dam #2, which spilled over (with some help of some quick bulldozer work) to the Living Water dam (#3).  Even THAT spillway overflowed and that has never happened before. One week later, with minimal rains each day, the dams are still flowing into each other.

 

Dam #1

Dam #2

Living Water Dam (#3)

 

The only real damage to Project Canaan was a retaining wall which slid down the hill due to excessive water at the back of two new buildings which had not been trenched yet. Not only did we have little damage, but our dams full we have been blessed beyond measure with water and protection.

 

One thing that did come to light during the week of rain is that our children don’t have proper rain gear. In fact, we realized that have never bought our children rain jackets or ponchos. Last year we did a quick amazon drive for rain boots for the older kids and there are a few umbrellas that are shared on the wettest of days, but otherwise they put on their hoodies and walk to school in the rain, arriving soaked and cold (no matter the temperature).

 

 

 

We quickly realized that we need more rain boots and we need rain ponchos for our kids. THANKFULLY (because God is God and He is the great “planner”) we have container coming this way in February that has space on it so we are hoping to fill it with enough rain boots for all our school age kids (200) and ponchos for all of them as well.  We set up an amazon wish list, which you can access by clicking here. When you go to the check out, just click the Heart for Africa gift address and it will automatically be shipped to our warehouse in Georgia. The deadline for delivery is February 18th.

 

If you want to drop off or send gently used rain boots, jackets, umbrellas they need to arrive no later than February 18^th.  The address is: 410 Peachtree Parkway, Suite 146, Cumming, GA 30041 and please only drop off on Monday – Friday. We are also accepting gently used Hot Wheels type cars and Barbie dolls and Barbie doll clothes.

 

It does take a village to raise a child and I am eternally grateful for the great big, beautiful village that I am a part of in raising 275 Swazi children.

 

Thanks for shopping at our amazon wish list today http://bit.ly/raingearforpckids!

 

Live from Eswatini … trying to stay dry.

Janine

The heart of Project Canaan is pumping again

Jonathan

Many people think that Project Canaan is all about our children, but some of us would disagree with that.  Project Canaan is so much more than a home for orphaned and abandoned children, it is truly a place of hope in many other ways.

When the drought hit in 2016 the country was devastated.  We had to suspend our farming initiative and I distinctly remember all of the irrigation drip tape being rolled up from the fields and the pipes being put away. It was very depressing.  We had just finished building the greenhouse where we had planned to start a hydroponics program, but there wasn’t even enough water to do that, and so it sat empty.  It wasn’t until our friend Billy Nolan from North Point Community Church asked if we had heard of Aquaponics (which we hadn’t) that we were able to at least start working on that project while we waited for rain and started the monster project of bringing water from the top of our mountain.

While the rains have not yet come, we are now water secure and we have been able to fill our dams, roll out the irrigation drip tape and start planting crops again.  Our greenhouse is full to overflowing with all the tomatoes/cucumbers/peas/red peppers and broccoli that we can eat (and sell).  The aquaponics system is providing us fresh tilapia fish and all different types of organic lettuce that we serve every day. It’s simply wonderful.

Ian checking out the newly planted beet root

But when I say that the heart of Project Canaan is beating again, it is the whole agriculture part of the farm that I am referring to.  We live on a farm, and when nothing is growing on a farm it is disheartening and depressing for all.  The farm is the heartbeat of Project Canaan and while there is a buzz throughout the project as everyone sees the spinach and cabbage flourishing in the fields, it is the rows and rows of beet root that has got everyone talking.

Who would think that beet root would be something that we talk about every day?  I sure didn’t. In fact, Ian is down in the greenhouse and fields multiple times a day to oversee this incredible new crop. We have hired a Farm Consultant from Zimbabwe and he is an expert in his field (and now in our fields 😂) and he is passionate about all things agriculture.   We have a customer who will buy as much beet root as we can produce, so we are planting 150,000 beet root seeds every two weeks in the green house.  They live in the greenhouse for three weeks and then they get moved outside for a week to “harden”, then they get planted in the fields.

We planted our first 150,000 seedings this week and will plant another 150,000 in two weeks. We will start harvesting the beets in eight weeks and then “double crop” the field by preparing and replanting it again.  In the next 12 months we will produce and sell more than 1,100 tons of fresh beet root, which will help feed the country, and also help generate income for Project Canaan.

In addition to this, the beet greens (tops of the beets which are extremely high in nutritional value) will be cut off and distributed to our church partners to add to our child feeding program, providing extra nutrition to children around the country.

The heart of Project Canaan is beating again, and this would not be possible without the 9.5 KM (6 miles) of piping which brings water from the top of our mountain.  Without water security we would not been able to risk the investment for the beet root with the knowledge that the rains still may not come.

Water isn’t just for the crops though, it’s for our swimming pools!!! Now that we have lots of water, and summer has arrived, the pools are open and our sprinklers on on!!  I just had to throw in a cute video and couple of photos for your enjoyment.

Roderick

Live from Eswatini … water is life.

Janine

$850,000 US for water??

Giving thanks for fresh water flowing

This week Project Canaan became “water secure”.  This is a REALLY BIG DEAL and may not make any sense to those of you who have access to water any time you turn on a tap or flush a toilet.  We don’t have that luxury (which you likely take for granted).  Let me explain – I know you will think this is really cool.

We don’t have a river on Project Canaan, so we have built three dams which are only filled by rain fall.  We have drilled down below dam #2 and we pump the water 1.7 KM/ 1 mile up 100 meters/yards to a holding tank. There it is goes through a filtration system and then flows back down the mountain to our homes, schools and to the front office. The tank is filled a couple of times each week.

There is no aquafer (body of water below the surface), and we have had many surveys done to look for water that we could source. We are completely dependent on rain water, and we have been in the worst drought in recorded history for the past few years. 

This is a bone-dry dam #1 where we gathered in August 2016 and prayed for safety as the bulldozer started up the mountain.

That lead us to the top of the mountain where we found seven natural springs.  Even during the drought the water flowed freely from the springs.  Once we knew there was water at the top of the mountain, then we had to find a company who could bring it down to the farm.  This was a MONSTER project at a cost of $850,000 US. 

Natural springs located 900+ meters/yards above the farm

I cannot tell you how much conflict this brought to our lives. There were people who just didn’t think we should be trying to raise that much money for “just” water.  It caused conflict on our Board, and with some donors. Of course, those people don’t have to worry about only showering every few days to save water or bathing 190+ children with no water.  But we were steadfast in our belief that the Lord created those natural springs and put them on this property for a reason – for us to never be without fresh water.  AND, if it’s God’s will, it’s God’s bill, and He would provide.

We secured the water rights with the government for two of the springs and started raising funds. First, we had to make SIX MILES (9.5 km) of roads up a mountain with our bulldozer.   Not an easy feat. Then all the materials (steel, concrete, piping) had to be taken up by tractor loads.  

The project was done in four stages:

1.     Build two weirs/dams at the top to redirect the water. You MUST watch the video  below of a guy taking one of hundreds of loads of wet concrete down a steep hill to build the weirs.

2.     Install 1.7 km (1 mile) of steel pipe above ground.

3.     Dig 7.8 km (4.8 miles) of trenching to bury the OPVC piping underground from the steel pipe down to connect to a 500,000L (110,000 gallon) holding tank.

4.     Dig more trenching to connect that tank to another holding tank of the same size behind the egg barns.

As we raised the funds for one phase, we would start that phase. The OPVC piping had to be ordered from Spain, so each order would take 6-8 weeks to receive, and then we could continue.  

Weirs being built

Chloe on weir #2

Each and every person who Ian has taken up the mountain to see the progress has been BLOWN away by the magnitude and scope of this engineering feat. No photo or video can possibly capture the complexity or scale of the project.

Two years later, the pipe was connected to the second holding tank, and on Thursday we became water secure! Once that holding tank fills up (which should take two days), the water will then be channeled down to fill dam #2 (remember, that’s where we get our drinking/bathing/cooking water), and when that is full it will overflow and fill the Living Water Dam (dam #3).  I should also mention that there is a T-junction in the piping so that the community of Gebeni can also tap in to the water once they have their piping secured. 

Easy eh?  Ha!

I cannot tell you how proud I am of my husband, Ian, for his tenacity, perseverance, passion and absolute faith that this project was the Lord’s will.  This project is like a “life’s work” and  generations to come will have water on Project Canaan because of his faith. 

Thank you to David Bryant for working tirelessly to raise the funds for this project and for never giving up.  Thank you to Tim Lambert and Chad Gregory for having our backs through this journey and for your commitment to water security. Thank you to each and every person who gave a large amount or a small amount or even bought a Water bracelet to have a part of this massive undertaking. 

Thank you Jesus for the gift of fresh water, and for being our living water. Because of you we will never thirst again.

Live from eSwatini … I am eternally thankful.

Janine

PS I loved this comment that someone wrote on my Facebook wall in response to our water photos: “I am partnering in prayer with you for ALL the ways that water symbolizes and releases life over your community.”  Amen.

Droughts, hurricanes, wars and rumors of wars – who can really save us?

Greetings from Durban, South Africa where I am sitting over looking the Indian Ocean.  We are here celebrating Ian’s 52^nd birthday and taking a day or two to reflect on where we have been, what we are doing and where we are going.  We have 164 children living at Project Canaan now, and the responsibility of that weighs heavily on our shoulders.

As far as my eyes can see, I see water, and it's beautiful and powerful and awe-inspiring.  It seems that water has been at the center of conversation for us for a very long time now.

Last Saturday we were glued to the TV, like so many others around the world, watching for surging ocean water as Hurricane Irma moved north through the Caribbean and on in to Florida.  The week before we watched helplessly as Hurricane Harvey dumped 33 trillions gallons of water on Houston and other parts of Texas.  During that same week we had a conversation with a vegetable farmer from the Cape Town, South Africa area who told us that their rainy season had just finished and their dams were only 1/3 full. He told us that Cape Town (and surrounding farms, wine country etc) will run out of water before the rains come next year.

I have always heard that water is life, but why does it seem that water can be life-giving and life-taking all at the same time?

While I don’t understand why God allows droughts, floods or hurricanes, I do believe that HE is the only one who can make it rain (or not), and I believe that He is the only one who can save any of us from disaster. I don't understand a lot of what God allows/does and doesn't do and I sure don't understand why He doesn't STOP many of the things we see from happening, but that is not for today's blog.

On Thursday we got a call from a Social Welfare officer about a 3-day-old baby who was found in a plastic bag, hanging on a branch of a tree.  The child was still covered in blood and his umbilical cord was tied with an elastic band.  A passerby heard the child cry and called the police.  Why did God allow that?  I believe that God is the only one who could save that child’s life. The mother could have dumped him in an outdoor toilet (where 30+ of our other children have started their lives), or lit him on fire (like two of our children), or strangled him and dumped him in a garbage can (like one of our children), or left him in the river to die. BUT she didn’t. Something in her had mercy on that small baby. Something whispered to her spirit to give him a chance, and she did.

As I sit and look at the Ocean and give thanks for my husband’s life and this journey we are on, I am stopping to ask you for help.  While it is God who saved each of our children’s lives, it is us who must feed, clothe and care for them, and He invites people to be a part of that journey with us.  This is difficult timing because SO MANY people need financial help to recover from the disasters that have recently struck.  We do not get government funding to raise these children. We are 100% donor funded, and without more help from monthly donors we will have to say “no” to a baby who has been dumped or abandoned.  Please, will you help us today by becoming a Heart for Africa Angel?  Or even make a one-time gift to help us help a child?

To give in the US please click here.

To give in Canada please click here.

We can’t control the rain, the wind or the weather, but we can do something about helping a child in need.

Thank you for considering my request today.

Live from South Africa … the ocean brings me peace.

Janine

PS In other news, we have a lead on who was involved in the break-ins on Project Canaan. This "Wanted" article was in the newspaper yesterday. We pray that the thieves will be found and prosecuted.

It begins with 65 tons of material carried UP the mountain ... BY HAND!

Ian and Gil reviewing the plans to bring water down from the springs on HOPE mountain.

At long last I can write you with some really great news!  As I am writing this blog, Ian is finishing a meeting with our “water guy” discussing the day that we can start bringing the water down from the top of HOPE Mountain.  As you may have read, we are in the worst drought in recorded history, with the last big rain happening at Christmas 2014.

This has been a loooooong process involving researching every possible option and/or alternative to this expensive initiative, getting written “water rights” from the government, gaining local support from surrounding Chiefdoms, building a rough “tractor road” to the top and then finalizing a plan of action, complete with drawings and then negotiating the final pricing for the project. It is critical that we become "water secure" for our children, our staff and our animals to survive and for us to start growing food again. This project will even benefit people in our surrounding community when complete.

ONLY after all those things could be done could we in good faith reach out to our friends and family for funding.   The total project will cost approximately $800,000 USD ($1,100,000 CDN), but with as the exchange rate changes (daily) the cost rises.

On Wednesday we launched our “Water from the mountain” campaign and in two short days we raised $91,000 USD from friends in the US and Canada, which will allow us to get started, hence the meeting on our patio this morning.

The next step is to build two wiers, which in layman’s terms is a concrete structure that will adjust the flow of water to a pipeline that will bring the water down 5.7 miles.  One wier will be 9 feet wide and the other 15 feet wide and 9 feet deep. Unfortunately we cannot get heavy moving or digging equipment to the site so it will all have to be excavated and dug BY HAND!  This will all start in the next two weeks and I will be sure to post photos.

An example of what a wier looks like.

To make things more interesting (!) we can only get trucks to within 500 yards of the actual springs and from there everything will need to be carried up the mountain on the backs of strong Swazi men including:

o   32 tons of crushed stone

o   5 tons of concrete

o   28 tons of river stone

o   1 ton of rebar

o   Wood to build forms

o   A total of 65+ tons materials will be carried.

On average a man will be able to make 15 trips back and forth carrying a 25KG (55 pound) load each time.  65 tons divided by 55 pounds/load is 2,600 man loads or 173 days of carrying, if it were one man.  We plan to hire 20 strong men and have the materials up to the springs in 15 days and we are HOPING that the wiers will be built within a month… if all goes as “planned” (hahahahaha).

So, we are taking another step in faith to get this incredibly important and life-saving project underway, with the $91,000 already raised.  But we need another $710,000 to complete the project, and we need it soon.  Once the dam is dry, we have no options for water, and raising 139 children takes a lot of clean water.

Ian and I bought each other $250 of pipe to celebrate our 25^th wedding anniversary this past week. It might not be the traditional “silver”, but the gift of water is even better! 

Will you join us in buying a piece of pipe for $25 TODAY?  Or ten pieces for $250?  Or 100 pieces for $2,500?  Or maybe you are willing to give a gift of $25,000 or $250,000 to help us bring water from the top of the HOPE Mountain?   Our lives literally depend on your support.

To make a donation in Canada please click here.

To make a donation in the US please click here.

Live from South Africa … praying for funding in a big way.

Janine

Water crisis causes us to close down our vegetable production

This week tough decisions had to be made.  Ian and I are not afraid of making tough decisions, but that doesn’t make them any easier.

On Tuesday, Ian sent this letter out to our US and Canadian Boards of Directors.  It read,

“Dear Boards Members,

Due to the current drought that southern Africa is suffering through right now we have had to prayerfully make the decision to stop all vegetable growing on Project Canaan, effective immediately.

There have been a few days of light rain, for which we give thanks, but it is not nearly enough to moisten the land or fill our dams. 

We stretched the water as far as we felt reasonable, without jeopardizing the domestic use from the borehole (dam #2 is an indicator of the water in the domestic use borehole), and we now know that we must stop growing vegetables.  The dairy and egg laying projects will continue.

This decision has not been made lightly as it will not only impact 40 employees (and their 13+ each dependents), but it impacts our income projections for 2016 and beyond.  

Living on a farm with nothing growing in the fields is discouraging to all and hard on morale, but it is a direct reflection of what the whole country (region) is going through.  Our people are suffering, food prices are escalating (the maize staple have increased by 66% this year!), and there is still no food in the school system.  

There is no doubt that our focus now must be raising the funds to bring the water from the springs at the top of the mountain in order for us to become “water secure”.  There is no guarantee that the rains will fall in the next rainy season (which starts in November) so we must direct the water that the Lord has provided on this land for His work.

Please keep us all in your prayers. This is a tough week at Project Canaan and surrounding communities.

Thanks,

Ian”

The line from the natural, year-round springs and the dams that we need to fill.

That’s what is happening here.  Please pray for all involved and please pray for the funding needed to bring the water down from the top of the mountain so that we can become “water secure”. We need a total of $800,000 (yep, a BIG number) to install 8,000 yards of piping and it will take us 6-8 months to build the pipeline once we have the funding. In the meantime, we pray daily that our last borehole does not go dry.

Live from Swaziland … I will never take water for granted again.

Janine

PS  Update on last week's blog. We got all the funding needed for Isaiah and Seth's ear surgeries!  Here is a photo of them with their passports!  Their surgery is April 6th in South Africa.  Thank you Lord for your provision!

Isaiah and Seth

Never-ending rain, another pit latrine baby and an intervention of sorts

Swaziland is in a 20-year drought.  Both our dams were dry last week.  Very few people in the country had any kind of successful harvest last year and ours was down 65% vs. the year before … all because of weather (lack of water mostly, but also wind).  Water is life and we can’t make it rain, only HE can.

In Swaziland we don’t have “summer” and “winter” we have “rainy season” and “dry season”.  The rainy season starts at the end of October and goes until March.  Last year we had virtually no rain, which leaves us with no water to irrigate crops during the dry season as we had hoped and planned.

This is usually a small bridge - we cross over it to get home

Dam #2 is starting to fill!

We have been praying for rain (which seems a bit senseless during the already dry season because it would be out of season to get rain).  It has only rained once since we moved here on June 1^st and that was the day that our friends from the International Egg Commission and the American Egg Board stepped foot on Project Canaan in August (a “lucky” and much appreciated gesture).  When we arrived back from the US on Tuesday at 2PM the rains started as we were unpacking the car (not that our arrival had anything to do with it, but that is how I know when it started because I got wet!).  It is now Saturday morning and the rains continue to pour, the ground is saturated and the runoff from the hills around us is starting to fill both our dams.  We are thankful, but we are also stuck … literally.  There has been 6 feet of water rise up and now covers the bridge that we use to get to town (office, school, gas station, grocery store, airport, hospitals … you get my point, eh?).  I am glad that I have a fully stocked pantry, tetra milk for my coffee and matches in case the power goes out.

Many people around the world have been praying for rain and it has come without ceasing. Be careful what you pray for – you just might get it!

Baby Joy arriving home.

Okay, on to our new bundle of joy.  Yes, her name is “Joy” and she came to us on Tuesday at the tender age of ten days.  She was dropped in a pit latrine (outhouse/toilet) when she was born and thankfully someone heard her cry and climbed down in to get her out.  She was immediately taken to the police and hospital to be cared for while an investigation took place.  As you might guess, the mother was found and is now in prison for attempting to kill her baby. Same story, different faces.  Joy is a beautiful baby and we are thankful for our fourth little girl.  We have eight boys and now the ratio is a solid two to one.

On Thursday I spent the day with Gcabile (one of our wonderful caregivers at El Roi) and Robert Smucker (volunteer extraordinaire) trying to have an intervention of sorts and get ahead of the problem of baby dumping.  We know that Emmanuel’s16-year-old mother is almost ready to give birth to her third child, (Emmanuel lives at El Roi and is 13 months old).  The mother is HIV positive and sometimes lives in a bus shelter.  She does not want the baby in her belly and we fear that she will give birth and “dump it”, just like Joy’s mother did.  So we spent the day with her, trying to encourage her to get pre-natal medical care and promise to go to see our wonderful doctor friend at the hospital when labor begins.  But she is afraid of hospitals (both of her first two children were born in someone else’s home because she had been kicked out of her family homestead for her bad behavior=pregnancy).  She is also very young, mentally unstable and is refusing to take live-saving Anti-retro-virals so this was a very difficult day for us all.

In the end, after a short, but unsuccessful visit to the hospital we were able to negotiate “plan B”.  Gcabile’s sister-in-law kindly agreed to allow this young girl to live with them until the baby is born.  I don’t know many people who would offer that to a stranger, do you?

Emmanuel and his mom.

There were times on Thursday that I found myself asking myself if I was helping her only because she had asked that her baby would be able to go to live at El Roi?  And the answer is complicated.  Yes and no.  I would want to help her either way, but sometimes helping is hard to do and people have to want to be helped (and have the capacity to accept help) in order to be helped.  The flip side is thinking about a newborn baby being left in a ditch or on the side of a road or in a filthy, bacteria filled pit latrine.  Wouldn’t you want to get ahead of it if you could?  We will accept her baby (if she still decides she doesn’t want him/her) whether she has dumped him or not, but I would rather give her the choice of making a healthy decision rather than one that will haunt her the rest of her life, which won’t be long if she continues in this lifestyle and without ARV’s. 

This was such an encouraging week to everyone who is living here at Project Canaan.  God’s love, His provision, His promises were seen and felt every minute of the day (even when scooping after our 5 dogs who don’t like the rain and really like our front patio to do their business).  He is faithful, He is Holy, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and His plans are perfect, but they rarely look like our plans. 

Thank you all for continuing to read this blog. I am truly overwhelmed by the comments I get (most of them positive so far J ) and to know that so many people are praying with us and for us here at Project Canaan. 

Live from Swaziland … we are thinking of building a raft (or ark!)!

Janine