Q & A from Taiwan

  It is Saturday afternoon here in Taiwan, so I am a bit late for “morning” in Swaziland, but still have a few hours before the sun comes up in North America so I have a few extra hours to put my thoughts together for this week’s blog.

Last night I posted a question on Facebook and asked what I should blog about today? I had questions from Australia, Canada and the US so I will take this opportunity to answer all of them.  I hope this information is valuable and interesting.  Thank you to each of you who posted a question!

Question:  Ann from Indiana asked:  I would love to hear the story of your friends in Taiwan and their involvement with and support of Heart for Africa Swaziland.

Answer:  Taiwan and Swaziland have a very important political and diplomatic relationship. Swaziland is one of only 24 nations globally that recognizes Taiwan as being and independent nation from China.  This unique political position provides an important platform for the two nations to work together.  Taiwan has a wellknown philosophy that basically says (pardon my paraphrase), “Fifty years ago Taiwan was a recipient of foreign aid and many other nations came to assist us in our time of need.  Now we must be givers of foreign aid and help others who are in need as we once were.”  Swaziland is a recipient of kindness and support due to the unique partnership with Taiwan.

 

This philosophy was one of the reasons that Mr. Lewis Lu starting bringing students from Changhua Senior Highschool to Swaziland to serve the poor in 2007.  His ambition, dedication and commitment manifested and grew into the formation of the organization called Heart for Africa Taiwan with Mr. Michael Chen, and their enthusiasm encouraged many other groups to get involved including: other High Schools, the Catholic church, Christian schools and churches, Universities, Hospitals, Lions Club International and Rotary International).  Due to Mr. Lu’s efforts we will launch a group called Heart for Africa Japan on February 2^nd at the ONE WORLD conference in Osaka, Japan.  I am always encouraged by and thankful for the never-ending efforts of the people of Taiwan to help us in Swaziland.

Question:  Lori from California asked: What are the greatest ‘needs’ in Taiwan?  They are doing so much for Swaziland, how can we help/pray for them?

Answer:  That is a tough one for me to answer because I do not live here and am only a visitor.  We are thankful for the love and support that we get from our Taiwanese friends and that religion is not a barrier to helping the orphans and vulnerable children of Swaziland.  I am proud to say that my Buddhist friends have joined with my Catholic friends, my Christian friends and my non-Christian friends to help the orphans and vulnerable children of Swaziland and I pray that each and every person is blessed abundantly for his or her participation.

Question:  Penny from Georgia asked: Talk about snake wrangling in Swaziland?

Answer:  Now, Penny, you know we don’t wrangle snakes in Swaziland!    We just sprinkle mothballs all over the property and they go away! J  The truth is we have lots of really nasty snakes that appear regularly on the farm including:  Python, Spitting Cobra, Black Mamba, Green Mamba and Puff Adder to name a few.  We try to avoid them as much as they try to avoid us (and Brooke Sleeper is working on a protocol for snakes bites on the farm).  But we discourage ALL “wrangling”.

Question:  Janet from Australia asked:  What do you do to de-stress? From the day-to day issues?

Spencer sitting in our favorite spot with the best vi

Answer:  I find myself much less stressed on a daily basis than ever before. When I was in business I carried the burden of the company and the people I worked with every day.  That was very stressful.  When I worked at Heart for Africa in Canada and the US I felt the burden of the work being done in Africa while I sat millions of miles away.  That was very hard on me emotionally. Now that I live and work in Swaziland I feel that I am doing the best that I can with what I have and that in itself gives me great peace and joy. 

BUT, at the end of each and almost every day Ian and I (and sometimes Chloe) will sit out on our patio at 6PM and enjoy the quiet and beauty of the farm. It brings us back to ‘center’ quickly and to a place of thanksgiving that is pure and real.  We also love watching TV – that is our big escape.  We don’t really get live TV, but watch series on DVD from beginning to end.  Favorites include:  Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, 24, Alias and for comedy Modern Family.

The view of the farm from our patio.

Question:  Kim from Ontario, Canada asked: Please talk about the Moringa Tree and why it is important?

Answer:  The Moringa Tree is one of the many crops we are growing on Project Canaan. To date we have planted more than 2,000 Moringa seeds, which have become seedlings used in with our church partners and in our own Moringa fields.  We harvest the leaves, dry them, grind them and sell the powder to anyone who would like to purchase it. One day we hope to have enough for export, but in the meantime it is proving to have significant positive impact in the health of some of our HIV workers at Project Canaan.

Moringa leaves being harvested by November volunteer team.

“In developing tropical countries, Moringa trees have been used to combat malnutrition, especially among infants and nursing mothers. Leaves can be eaten fresh, cooked, or stored as dried powder for many months without refrigeration, and without loss of nutritional value. Moringa is especially promising as a food source in the tropics because the tree is in full leaf at the end of the dry season when other foods are typically scarce. Analyses of the leaf composition have revealed them to have significant quantities of vitamins A, B and C, calcium, iron and protein. According to Optima of Africa, Ltd., a group that has been working with the tree in Tanzania, "25 grams daily of Moringa Leaf Powder will give a child" the following recommended daily allowances:

Protein 42%, Calcium 125%, Magnesium 61%, Potassium 41%, Iron 71%, Vitamin A 272%, and Vitamin C 22%. These numbers are particularly astounding; considering this nutrition is available when other food sources may be scarce.

Scientific research confirms that these humble leaves are a powerhouse of nutritional value. Gram for gram, Moringa leaves contain: SEVEN times the vitamin C in oranges, FOUR times the Calcium in milk, FOUR times the vitamin A in carrots, TWO times the protein in milk and THREE times the Potassium in bananas.”    Source - www.naturalnews.com/022272.html

Question:  Linda from Georgia asked: How about blogging about your hopes and dreams for 2013?

Answer:  It’s funny that you would ask that while I am sitting in a guest room at a boarding school in Taiwan with my 16-year old daughter Chloe.  Today, my hopes and dreams for 2013 are that Chloe will find peace and joy in the school that she is going to attend for the next two years of her life.  She has gone through tremendous transition over the past six years as we moved to Alpharetta, Georgia and then to Swaziland, Africa.  She has supported our “calling” and the work that Ian and I are doing, but it has not been easy and not been without personal sacrifice.  Chloe is a beautiful young lady and the only thing that I want more than her happiness is for her to be right where she is “supposed” to be.  We believe that God has a very big plan for her life and the road ahead may not be easy and carefree, but I believe with my heart and soul that it will be well worth the hard work it in the end.  Linda, thank you for asking.

That's my girl - never afraid of a challenge.

Live from Taiwan … it’s Saturday evening.

Janine

Good news and bad news.

Baby Nathan arrives at El Roi.

First the good news. Yesterday Baby #24 arrived quite unexpectedly while I was in town with Chloe running errands and preparing for our trip last week. The Grandmother of the baby brought him for help because the mother is not doing well physically and couldn't travel. We will go and check on her today. Thankfully I had an emergency diaper bag in the back of my car, packed with love by Lori Marschall for "such a time as this".  Baby Nathan was born on January 5, 2013 and he is now home at El Roi.  That's the good news.

Now for the bad news.

This past month I have learned four very bad words:  Multi-drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB).  Maybe it’s only three words, but they are words that I had never heard in my whole life until I met the young woman whom I will call “Nomsa” – the mother of our twin girls Leah and Rachel.

If you read my blog dated December 15^th you will remember how I met this young woman.  It was a desperate and heartbreaking meeting as she handed her precious 3-week old babies to me from the back of an ambulance and then tried to be brave through her TB mask while tears of sorrow and regret poured out of her eyes.  I didn’t think I would see her again because she was going to the National TB hospital to die.  She borrowed a cell phone at the hospital and called me that same night to see how her babies were doing. I immediately liked her and thought that I should plan to visit her in the New Year. My visits have now become a weekly event and usually the high point and the low point of my week.

Nomsa has Multi-drug Resistant Tuberculosis and is “co-infected” with HIV.   She is very very sick and has a long and difficult road ahead if she is to live.

When I first went to see Nomsa I had to find my way to the TB hospital. I had never been to (or heard of) this place, but it was easy to find.  It is a huge, multi-building facility that was built in 2009 to provide a safe place to treat this highly infectious disease away from the general population.  The buildings are well maintained, very open (lots of ventilation) and sterile, as one might expect. 

There is a guard at the front gate (not sure if he is to keep people in or out) and once you pass him you move on past the mortuary sitting prominently near the entrance (also with a guard outside - ??).  Just down from the Mortuary is the Women’s Ward.  After you enter, you put on a paper mask and then find your way to the patient you are seeing.

The first time I visited Nomsa there were ten women in the ward with her.  She is 24-years old and most of them were around the same age, except for the 12-year old who was the youngest one there.  Each of these women are in for very aggressive treatment which includes 18 pills at 10 AM every day followed by a very painful injection in the hip.  They get 4 more pills at 10 PM and those are there MDR-TB medication.  All of the patients are “co-infected” so they are all HIV positive and are automatically put on Anti-retroviral medication as soon as they arrive IF they are stable enough to endure it.

This treatment is done for a MINIMUM of six months and can last up to two years.  The treatment has terrible side effects including daily violent vomiting, total hearing loss and psychosis.  While we all read the possible side effects of various medications that we take, we rarely see those side effects manifest themselves.  In this case, many (maybe even most) have the side effects of these drugs.  It seems that they all spend time vomiting after their meds.  Of the ten women in the ward on my first day, half of them were totally deaf and my friend Nomsa has ringing in her ears after only a month of treatment.  Of the ten women in the ward, four of them had extreme psychosis and would yell out for help, talk to invisible people, crawl around naked on the floor or urinate on the floor in front of you

I have been to the hospital to visit Nomsa six times in the past month and I have not yet seen one other person visiting in the ward.  I have seen the odd person standing outside, distant from the patients so as not to catch anything. (It reminded me of the scene in the Valley of the Lepers in the movie “Ben Hur” when people would hide behind rocks and peek at their loved ones from afar too afraid to go near.  I can’t say I blame them).  Inside the ward there is no radio, no tv, no books, no sound, no calendar to mark the day, no color and a lot of death.  But it is clean, appears to be professionally run and is clearly the only hope these patients have of survival.

On Friday I stopped in for a quick visit and to let her know that I would be away for the next two weeks traveling.  I took her some much needed protein and prayed that she would be alive when I returned.  MDR-TB patients who are also HIV positive can take a bad turn and die in a matter of weeks.  In fact of the ten patients who were there at the beginning of the month, five of them have died.

On Wednesday my friend Wendy was here from the US volunteering to distribute TOMS Shoes and help out at the El Roi baby home.  We had to take Leah and Rachel in to be tested to see if they contracted MDR-TB so Wendy agreed to go in and spend some time visiting/ministering to/encouraging Nomsa while we took the babies to be x-rayed.  The twins test was negative so we believe they do not have TB and now can come out of the isolation room at the El Roi Baby home and join the rest of the family.

Nomsa looking at her twins from a distance.  A very moving and difficult moment.

When we went back to pick Wendy up I took my usual walk around the ward to visit and encourage some of the women there.  There was one woman who had been very sick the past few weeks. She was just skin and bones and lay naked with her boney arm stretching out to us for help. Her eyes were stretched open wide and white as snow.  She cried out to us and said, “Help me!  I am dying!”  It was a horrific plea from a woman who had no hope left in life. We held her hand, rubbed her arm and tried to comfort her with words that seemed empty, but Nomsa reminded us that the woman was totally deaf from the treatment and couldn’t hear us. We had large protective masks on so she couldn’t see us smile or read our lips as we prayed wit her.  We all tried to smile with our eyes and prayed to God to help her.  When I returned yesterday, she too had died.  Nomsa said when the time came for the woman to pass away she started wailing and screaming.  Nomsa said it was terrifying, and then she was silent.  It was over.

While my heart ached for Nomsa and the other women in the ward who have now seen six women die horrific deaths in the past month, I can’t even begin to imagine how the 12-year old girl is processing and surviving this all.  Please pray for her and the others who are fighting for their lives.

We had the great privilege of meeting one of the founding Doctors at this hospital. He was more than helpful, informative, educative and very willing to help us in any way that he possibly could.  I look forward to continue learning from this man as we continue on this journey together.

As I was waking up a few mornings ago I had a random thought float through my head.  I recalled the book “Tuesday’s with Morrie” and wondered if Nomsa might be willing to allow me write a blog called “Wednesday’s with Nomsa”.  To me, Nomsa represents the women of Swaziland.  She has lived in poverty, but had hopes and dreams. She found love and then lost it. She had babies, and then had to give them away. She was a vibrant, smart, educated young woman and then became infected with HIV due to choices that she made or were made for her.  There are so many layers to the social situations happening here in Swaziland that maybe we could peel back many of them and take a peak inside through this one bright young woman. 

I have asked her if she would allow me to sit with her every second Wednesday and write her story.  She is thinking about it while I travel. I hope that you, the reader, might be interested in doing a little more reading every other week and go with Nomsa and I on this journey.  It won’t be pretty, but hopefully will be insightful.

On Tuesday Chloe and I will get on a plane and head to Asia for two weeks. We will spend several days in Taiwan visiting the Morrison Academy where Chloe will attend school in August. Then we will head to Japan to officially launch HEART FOR AFRICA –JAPAN. I look forward to sharing all that God has done and is doing in Swaziland with our friends in Asia, but I will be happy to get back home to visit my friend Nomsa again.  Please join me in praying for health and safety as we go our different direction this week.

Live from Swaziland … pondering life.

Janine

Baby #23 arrives while 15 children still starve at home alone

Baby Asher

On Thursday I got a call from a Social Worker at a local hospital saying that there was another case of rape and the 17-year old girl couldn’t possibly care for the baby that had been born that morning.  Fortunately some of our friends and family signed up to give monthly to support the El Roi Baby Home over the Christmas holidays so I was able to say “YES” when asked if I could pick up the baby on Monday.  That baby would be #23 and what a gift to have a team of volunteers here with us to celebrate his arrival!.

Then late Friday afternoon I got a call about another newborn baby boy, this time from a different hospital in a different part of the country.  His mother is 26-years old and is in and out of the psychiatric hospital with many voices talking in her head.  Her own mother kicked her out of the house when she came home pregnant, but would welcome her back without a baby.  Could we take him?  The answer was “yes” and he would be baby #24.

So baby #23 actually will be baby #24 when we go to pick him up on Monday.

When does it end?  What is our maximum?  I am often asked those questions by well-intentioned people from North America, but I am never asked that question by my Swazi or Kenyan co-workers or family.  Not ever.  Why is that?  I think it is because they have been there when a baby is found or when a baby shows up starving to death or having been burned or left on the side of the road.  It’s great to build spreadsheets and set goals, but at the end of the day we must prayerfully say yes to any and all babies that El Roi (the God who Sees) sends to us.  I am not sure how I will say “no”, if and when that day comes.

I am thankful to each and every person who supports Heart for Africa and the El Roi home for abandoned babies.  I have no doubt that El Shaddai  (Our Provider) will continue to provide for these little ones.  I could not do my job without you and I can’t imagine not doing what I do.  I love my job, my calling and am eternally thankful to have been given this gift.

Taking the baby to the car to bring him home.

Early this morning we drove to Siteki to pick up the 4-day old baby boy, named Asher (means “Happy”) we stopped to drop food off to the homestead with 15 children living with no caregiver, whom I write about often.  A dear friend from Missouri dropped money off at the US office yesterday and asked me to buy them some food.  Last week I took Manna Packs and 10 KG of rice, which should have been sufficient for a month. Today I brought bananas, bread, oil, onions, potatoes, squash and other fresh food. We even brought plastic plates and cups because the children all eat out of the hot cooking pot with bare hands.  Today, I discovered that the food I left last week had been stolen by a 19-year old “Auntie”.  Nice eh?    I am so angry. But that fight is for another day.

 

15 children living with no adult to provide for them.

Our last stop before getting Asher home was at the National Tuberculosis Hospital.  My young friend (Leah & Rachel’s mother) asked if I could bring her some mayonnaise.  Mayonnaise?  Yes, because she said the food was inedible and she thought mayonnaise might help.  When I walked in her room I found a young woman lying naked, face down on the concrete floor.  She couldn’t have weighed more than 70 pounds and was skin and bone.  I was shocked and asked my friend if she was alive. She said yes, and shook her head. She said, “She is very sick and has gone mad. She refuses to lie on her mattress so lies here until they come and put her back.”  Minutes later two people came in with masks on (to protect from the TB), then put on rubber gloves and lifted/dragged the lifeless body back to her mattress on the floor. That is a vision that will never leave my head, and I am thankful that our volunteers stayed in the car with the new baby.

That’s all for today, I am a bit weary and weepy and it is time to sit on the patio, look at the beauty that God has created and give thanks.

Live from Swaziland … it is Saturday afternoon.

Janine

My heart hurts for the women of Swaziland

My beautiful family

Happy New Year from the Maxwell family at Project Canaan, Swaziland!   I am incredibly thankful for my beautiful family being together over the Christmas holidays.  May the year 2013 bring you joy, peace and love.

______________________________________________________________

Some of you have asked me privately what I struggle with and/or how you can pray for me?  My first answer is usually asking for prayer for El Roi funding so that we never have to turn away a baby in need.  But today I have a different request based on several women I spent time with this week. 

Being a girl or a woman in Africa is very hard.  Females are not valued as males are valued, but they are the backbone of most African cultures and societies.  I remember reading a statistic that 75% of all food that is planted, grown, harvested, prepared and put on the table to eat on the whole continent of Africa is done by women.  Women are beasts of burden and are also responsible for fetching water (many miles away), giving birth, raising children and providing love and care for the entire extended family. In Swaziland and the woman is also responsible for building the home that the family lives in (typically made from sticks, rock, mud and grass).  Their bodies are not their own (often used by male family members) and their real value is in the number of cattle or goats they are “worth” when it comes time for “lobola” to be paid for their hand in marriage.

I have met several young women in the past few months who have really impressed me, even through the tragic situations that brought us together.  They seem to want to break the cycle of poverty, but it is virtually impossible to do in a country that doesn’t value women, has an unemployment rate of 70% and where sex is the easiest and quickest way to provide food for your children (or yourself).  

I am really struggling with this because I want to help these young women, but don’t know how to do it and don’t have the funding to do it at this time.  Let me tell you a short version of three stories from this week. Some of these you may be familiar with if you are a regular blog reader.

Woman #1 – She is 30-years old, has 8 children, is HIV positive and has been in the woman’s prison multiple times over the years because she steals food to feed her children.  She is now in prison for three more years.  Her youngest ones (age eight months and the other is two years) are living in prison with her.  The next five (ages eleven years to three years) are living alone with no food, no clothing, no adult care.  We have been working with police, Social Welfare and the Correctional facility for seven months to try to get assistance for the little baby in the prison and the young ones living alone.  This continues to seem like a hopeless situation, but we haven’t given up hope yet.  While we are trying to provide a medium-term solution for her children’s care while she is incarcerated, the question remains how she will be able to care for them when she is released in 2015?  She would like to live and work at Project Canaan, but we have no housing or facilities for her at this time.

Baby Hope

Woman #2 – She is 26-years old and is the mother of two-year old twin boys.  She was violently raped in 2012 and after several failed attempts at aborting the child she recently gave birth to a beautiful girl, who now lives at the El Roi baby home.  She is a hard worker (she cleans at a local factory) and tries to provide the best care she can for her twins on her $100 US per month salary.  She recently discovered that her boys are being neglected (to say the least) by the woman caring for them while the mother works 12-hour shifts.  She would love to come and live at Project Canaan and work on the farm or in the baby home, but we have nowhere for her to live and no one to care for her twin boys. Her own parents kicked her out of the homestead when they heard she had been raped because they didn’t believe her story and believed she was just being promiscuous.  The father of the twins is unemployed and refuses to help with the boys.  She is stuck.  And I am stuck because I want to hire her, but I have nowhere for her to live with her little ones.

Leah and Rachel

Woman #3 – She is 24-years old, is HIV positive and has active Tuberculosis. She has given birth to five children - one single birth, a set of girl twins and another set of twin girls on November 19^th (which just happens to be my birthday).  The first three children are being raised by their fathers parents.  The new twins live at El Roi and were brought to us by the Social Welfare department when the young mother was being taken to the National TB (Tuberculosis) hospital.  She is deathly ill and could not begin to care for her newborn babies in her mud room home.  She has what is called DR-TB – Drug Resistant Tuberculosis and is a sanitarium that is designed for acute cases of this highly infectious killer.  Each day she gets 18 pills at 10AM as well as an injection in her boney hip.  At 10PM she gets four more pills.  When I asked how she got in to this situation her simple reply is “bad behavior – and it will not happen again.”   IF she responds well to this treatment and IF she lives she will reside at this TB Hospital for the next six months to two years. Each and every day she will receive the 22 pills and injection in order to save her life.  She was quick to tell me that she is trusting in the healing power of Jesus more than she is trusting in the medicine, which makes her vomit violently and often results in long term effects like loss of speech or psychosis.  If and when she gets well, she wants to come and live at Project Canaan and learn to make jewelry and sew.  But right now we have nowhere for her to live when she is health again.

All three of these women have become my friends.  I visit them as often as I can and think of them and pray for them daily. But each day my heart gets heavier and heavier for them.  They remain hopeful about their futures, while I stand in awe of their hopefulness.  My hearts desire is to be able to help these girls/women just as we can help their babies.  I know we can’t “save them all”, but maybe we can help the one who is right in front of our eyes; the one who look through the prison bars and ask for help to save her children’s lives, the one who stands against a mud wall and shares her fear about her babies being abused by a caregiver while she works, the one who looks over her Tuberculosis mask and thanks you for caring for her twins.  

Next week I will blog about my visit to the National Tuberculosis hospital.  It was a shocking and life-changing experience for me and I want to do some research before I write next week so that I can best articulate what I saw and what is happening here in Swaziland with AIDS and TB.

Please join me in praying for these three women and all the others of millions of women who are suffering every day.  May the God Who Sees us all provide His hand of protection and provision as only He can do. 

Live from Swaziland … my heart is hurting.

Janine

Sometimes things just don't go as we plan them to.

Christmas 2012

Sometimes I have pictures in my head.  I don’t know if I put them there or if God does, but I get an image of something that I believe is to come and with prayerful consideration work towards bringing that picture to reality.

A couple or examples would include: Grandma’s Cows in Kenya 2007, Litsemba 2010 in Swaziland and Christmas dinner on our patio last Tuesday at Project Canaan.  I will explain. 

In 2007 I had a picture in my head of a team of people from Canada and the US herding cows down a long winding road in Kenya and delivering them to a group of women living with HIV/AIDS in order to help them generate income and to feed their children and Grandchildren.  When that day came and I was walking with a switch in my hand I knew that the vision that had become a reality had come from God.

In 2009 I had a picture in my head of thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children gathering in a large stadium in Swaziland and as they gathered together. They sang praises to the King of Kings and reclaimed the Kingdom of Swaziland for the Kingdom of God.  The following year I stood in awe as streams of children arrived from all over the country of Swaziland for Litsemba 2010 and filled the Somhlolo National Stadium for a day of praise and worship.

In the fall of 2012 I had a picture in my head of all the people who are living at Project Canaan and all the babies from the El Roi baby home gathering together on our patio for Christmas dinner.  I had shipped the fold up tables from the US, we would use benches from the chapel and everyone would bring food from their own family tradition.  We would grow and slaughter our own Turkey and Guinea Fowl, Helen would make Chapatti bread from Kenya and Jamie would do some home cooking from “the south”.  The babies would sit in high chairs and together we would overlook the beauty of Project Canaan as the sun set over our shoulders.

Christmas day arrived and so did the 28 of the 30 people who live/work at Project Canaan along with the 22 babies who live at the El Roi baby home.  But the photo wasn’t quite as I had seen it in my head. 

A huge storm came up in the middle of the day so the patio was wet and wind blown.  A large tarp was hung at one end (the end where the beautiful sunset should have been seen) to keep some of the gale force winds away so that we could actually sit outside.  The storm took out the power for most of the day so the turkey never did finish cooking (good thing we cooked 4 small chickens early in the morning as “extra” meat in case the unknown turkey was not enough).  The Guinea Fowl that we slaughtered looked more like an ugly Cornish hen and there was absolutely no appetite appeal with it at all.  Of course Helen’s Chapatti arrived well made because her stovetop is gas, not electric. Jamie could only use oven or stovetop, but not both at once so the cornbread stuffing made it, but the gravy didn’t (first world problems?).   Of course with no turkey there was little need for gravy.  Mark and Austin Klee didn’t make it at all because they got some kind of African bug and were very sick at home. The next day I was told by Ian and two others, who will remain anonymous, that they really doubted the wisdom of my plan to have us all together, especially the 22 babies part.  But I had heard that with the cows and Litsemba as well (by many).

Christmas day was a comedy of errors in a way.  The day did not turn out at all like the picture in my head, but in many ways it was perfect, in every way that mattered.  Spencer was home from University. Chloe and Ian were here and healthy.  We were surrounded by friends and family from Canada, the US, Kenya, Ireland and Swaziland and we had 22 babies who reminded us of why we were all living in Swaziland. 

I am sure that Mary and Joseph looked back on the day that Jesus was born and shook their heads (maybe even laughed?) at the circumstances surrounding his birth.  A stable?  Really?  No room in the Inn?  No hot water for baby birthing?  No midwife?  Not an ideal situation, but truly the best day of their lives.

My cousin Kim feeding baby Esther

December 25^th, 2012 will go down in my books as a great Christmas, not because of the gifts and food, but because of the people who we were with.  I am thankful for all who have supported our move to Swaziland and all who have supported each individual who has been called here to serve the Lord through the children of Swaziland.  I consider it a true gift to live here and call Swaziland “home”.  I am eternally thankful for having a beautiful family, a beautiful home and the best job in the whole world.

As we close out 2012 and look forward to what is in store for 2013 I encourage you to give thanks for the things around you that may not be as you had planned them, but are still good in His eyes.  That is the standard by which we should measure “good”, not ours.  His ways are not our ways, and His plans are not our plans. 

Happy New Year to you all and may the Lord bless you and keep you as you follow Him and seek His will for your life.

Live from Swaziland … I am off to put new TOMS Shoes on hundreds of children’s feet!

Janine

A Christmas celebration at Project Canaan

It’s the Saturday before Christmas and I know that you don’t have time to be sitting reading this blog so I will keep this one very short and sweet so that you can go back to your baking, wrapping and last minute preparations.

Christmas can be a very difficult time of year for many people. My cousin Kim and her three teenagers (Jeremy, Matthew and Joanna) are with us here in Swaziland celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but they are missing Paul, husband to Kim and father to the kids.  Paul was diagnosed with a rapidly growing brain tumor in June of this year and passed away only 52 short days later.  This Christmas will be filled with grief and pain for the Bannon family, but it is through this pain that we are invited to draw closer to the baby Jesus, who then turned in to a man who died and rose again for each of us.

The Bannon family is not the only family who is hurting this Christmas.  Many people around the world are hungry, scared, grieving and in pain.  I encourage you to take a moment after you read this to stop and give thanks for all that you have been given by your heavenly Father.  Look around you and find the joy that He brings, even through sorrow and sadness.  Ask Him for His perfect peace that passes all understanding.

This Christmas I miss my dad who went to heaven in 2005.  I miss my mom who is in a nursing home in Canada.  But this is a new season in our lives and there is much to be thankful for, so I choose to focus on that.

Today we celebrated the true reason for the season with all of the people who work at Project Canaan.  We slaughtered two goats, harvested many vegetables to cook and packed special gift bags filled with sugar, salt, beans, rice and a blanket for each worker. We are even sending each person home with a live chicken to share with their families for Christmas!  All of the children from these families will receive a new pair of TOMS Shoes and will go home with a fully tummy.  Today is a great day at Project Canaan and just the thought of my new family brings me to tears.  I am so very thankful for all that the Lord has shown me this year and all the stretching and growing that has been required, even through the pain that growth brings. 

Thank you for reading this blog and for your support and encouragement to me and to my family.  I pray that you and your family, whomever that might be, will have a blessed Christmas and that you remember that JESUS is the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Live from Swaziland … it’s almost Christmas!

PS - you can still make a year end contribution to Heart for Africa and make a big difference in the life of the people of Swaziland.  www.heartforafrica.org  or www.heartforafrica.ca

One Mother throws baby out of moving car, another Mother dying of TB gives away her twins

On Tuesday a little baby girl (approximately 4-weeks old) was found lying on the floor of an apartment building in Manzini.  On Wednesday an 18-year old mother decided to throw her baby out of the window of a moving vehicle rather than keep him.  On Thursday I was given a set of 3-week old twins out of the back of an ambulance on the side of the road (literally on the side of the road).  What is going on here!?

I will admit that when I started hearing stories of “baby dumping” a few years ago there was a part of me that just didn’t want to believe it.  The stories in the newspaper just couldn’t be true.  These must be very isolated incidents that are few and far between, and then sensationalized by the press.  But I also felt in my heart that the problem was bigger than anyone knew, and so we pressed on and built a home for the most vulnerable children in Swaziland – newborn babies.

By January 2012 the El Roi home for abandoned babies was ready to open. Walls painted, furniture built, cupboards stocked and staff hired and trained.  And then we waited and prayed.  On March 1^st 2012 we received our first baby and his name is Joshua.  As of December 13^th the El Roi baby home is home to 22 babies who have been dumped in pit latrines, left on the side of the road, in bus stops or somehow survived after multiple attempts by their mothers to abort them. 

On Thursday I was heading to town to take Chloe to the doctor. She came home from a few days beach vacation in Mozambique with friends and was very sick.  Based on the extreme headache, fever and intestinal issues we wondered if it might be malaria (we don’t have malaria where we are in Swaziland, but there is a nasty strain of it in Mozambique)?  Thankfully her tests came back negative and she is feeling better now.  But during our drive I got a call that there was a set of twins that needed to come to us and they were in the Social Welfare office in Manzini and were in a vehicle heading our way.  I told them I wasn’t at Project Canaan, but would come to them after Chloe’s appointment.

Nothing is simply in Swaziland so between almost running out of gas, a long wait at the clinic, car malfunction etc it was three hours before I was heading to the babies. By that time the Social Welfare folks were getting anxious and drove to meet us on the road.  We connected by cell phone and I pulled over on the side of the road and was met by an ambulance.  The ambulance had two small cots in the back, which were not strapped in.  There were a couple of dirty spare tires on the floor, which you had to step on to get to the cots.  On one of the cots was a very thin young woman with a mask over her mouth.  The woman was the mother of the babies and was dying from Tuberculosis.  Beside her lay the most beautiful twin baby girls I have ever seen.  I don’t know how the mother or babies were able to stay upright in the back of this vehicle with no straps or seats, but there they were. 

They say that Tuberculosis (TB) is HIV/AIDS “best friend”.  People who are HIV positive don’t die from that, they die from opportunistic infections that attack the body because the immune system has been damaged or reduced.  I have been told that 70% of the people of Swaziland have active or inactive Tuberculosis and it is highly infectious. 

The mother was 24 years old and this was her second set of twin girls (she also had a firstborn who was a boy).  She is HIV positive and not taking her Anti-retrovirals (ARV’s) for reasons I could not understand.  She had been living alone in her small mud room with the twins and had a home-based care worker trying to care for her.  The other children were all living with the families of the respective fathers of the babies, but the father of these twins was not interested in his paternal responsibilities.  The babies were at high risk of getting infected with Tuberculosis and the mother was losing the battle, mainly because of her advanced HIV status.

I have blurred this woman's face for privacy reasons.

The healthcare worker told me the story of the young woman and said they were taking her to hospital as a “hospice” measure because she was too sick to stay at home.  She had explained to the mother who I was and what the El Roi baby home was and that we would care for her children.  I could only see the mother’s eyes because of her TB mask, but they were so very sad.  I wanted to comfort her so put on a mask myself and climbed up into the ambulance (truck) and stepped over the spare tires to speak with her.  I told her that Jesus loves her and her babies and He sees her pain and fear.  I asked her what the girl’s names were and both names meant “beautiful twin”. 

The healthcare worker passed me a piece of string and told me to tie it on to the firstborn so we knew who was who. But the twins are SO identical that even the mother couldn’t tell them apart.  She said that the smaller one was the firstborn, but it took some intense looking at both babies with only diapers on before we made our best guess as to who was who? 

Traffic was starting to get busy and cars were honking at us so it was time to take the babies and leave.  Thankfully Chloe was with me and we picked up Bailey Klee  (while the car was malfunctioning) so I had two sets of hands to hold these precious children.  Not quite sure what I would have done without them??

I gave the mother a hug and held her babies for her to kiss and say goodbye before handing each one down to the girls.  Her eyes filled with tears as she saw them be passed along.  I hugged her again and encouraged her to take her ARV’s so that she may live.  She nodded and thanked me for taking good care of her children. 

James 1:27 in the bible says, “Religion that God our Father considers pure and faultless is this; to care for orphans and widows in distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.“  This scripture has never been so real to me as it was on Thursday, standing on the side of a busy road, taking twins from a dying mother. 

The El Roi baby home has monthly funding for these 22 babies, thanks to people like you who read this blog and want to be a part of the solution. I honestly don’t know what I am going to do when the next call comes in and I have to say “no”.  There are 400+ people who read this blog every week. If everyone gave something each month we wouldn’t have to turn any baby in distress away. 

Ian, Chloe and I are driving to South Africa this morning to pick up my firstborn from the airport in Johannesburg. I can’t wait to see Spencer and have him home for Christmas.  I can hardly fathom that he is 18-years old.  It seems like just yesterday that he was a little babe in arms.  I can’t imagine being so sick that I would ever give him away or so desperate that I would drop him in a filthy pit latrine.

As we prepare for this Christmas season let us all remember that the reason for the season is the birth of a baby.  That baby was and is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Live from Swaziland… I am excited to celebrate this season with my babies.

Janine