HOPE shatters uncertainty!

It feels like time is twisting in the wind.  Some days feel like weeks, some weeks feel like months, and all this craziness is perhaps just getting started here.

The uncertainty that the world is feeling is no less uncertain here. Our children’s campus staff have been on lock down for 60 straight days now, living with and caring for 261 children (some with broken bones, pneumonia and other childhood illnesses), but not once have I heard a complaint or a cross word.  Last week, in our weekly meeting, my Sr. Supervisors told me that the staff were tired, and they were uncertain if we would keep them locked down for another month (or more).  They all have families back at their homesteads and many of them have children who are being cared for by their mother or Grandmother.  Uncertainty.

Discipleship involves communication, during the good times and the bad, and an important part of discipleship to me is teaching my staff how to problem solve. We all got together and worked on a plan to give a much-needed rest to 80 staff who live with the children 24/7 x 8 weeks.  For the past eight days/nights, a group of ten staff members (mixed from all homes) were driven up to The Lodge (our long-term volunteer building that has five double rooms and two dormitories).   

We delivered all their favorite food, with a fresh food pack delivered each day for them to start fresh. The people who love to cook, did the cooking.  They grilled more meat than they could (or should) eat. We delivered loads of firewood to have a bonfire and eat s’mores. They feasted at breakfast on fresh papaya and eggs from the farm, and their treasured Corn Flakes. Lunch was another meal of grilled sausage (boerewors) on a fresh bun with mustard and Nik Naks. They also received a personal care kit.

Each night when I let out dogs out of their day pen I could hear laughter and singing and joy rolling down the mountain towards our home.  They would send me photos of the group grilling, feasting or just being silly and then send beautiful messages of thanks for all that they had received.  Thank you to each and every person who has given so generously and sent words of encouragement to our staff.  

Moving forward our staff will have the option to go home for the five-day break, but most of them want to stay locked down on Project Canaan, saying that this is the safest place to be.  I completely agree. Those that do need or want to go home will go through a screening when they return and then wear a mask for seven days upon their return.  They will get double pay on the days they don’t take off. We are really hoping to avoid any contact with the dreaded COVID-19.  If we have the funds available we will do something similar for the staff in May to continue help with physical, emotional and mental health. If you would like to make a contribution to help give our children’s campus staff a break you can do so by clicking here for the US and clicking here for a donation in Canada.

 Here is one of the teams singing and praising God for his provision and love for them!

Then there are the Project Canaan staff who were considered “non-essential” at the end of March, and were told to stay at home. They have no money to buy any food for their families for the month of May, but because of YOU, the readers of this blog and other friends and family of Heart for Africa, we were able to buy enough food for 170+ staff for TWO+ months! Yesterday and today we had the privilege of driving with two delivery trucks and an incredible team of Project Canaan workers to deliver these food packs to families in Sigceneni, Gebeni and even to those who live far from us. 

God is good, all the time, and we continue to see His hand of provision, protection and love each and every day. Thank you for reading this blog each week and sharing it with others. The world needs HOPE and we know that ours is only found in Jesus Christ. I hope that message is seen loud and clear through Project Canaan and the whole Heart for Africa family.

Live from Eswatini … I saw HOPE shatter uncertainty this week.

Janine

An Important message from Ian and Janine Maxwell

Children who live at the Kibbutz on Project Canaan, whose parents will not get paid in April.

March 27th was the last pay day on Project Canaan.  Most of our "essential workers" (Children's campus Aunties and Uncles) were locked down and did not get their monthly four days off.  The "non-essential workers" took their salaries (averaging $100 to $150 US for the entire month) and went to town to buy food for the month of April.

A total of 169 Project Canaan staff walked out our gate, not knowing when they would be called back to work, and the country is now locked down until mid-May. That means that 169 families will not have ANY food for the month of May.  Nothing.  They don’t have pantries stocked up, they don’t have refrigerators or freezers at home, and the food is almost gone from their March pay.
These 169 staff are our family, they are our friends and they are our loyal, hard-working employees. 85 of them worked at Khutsala Artisans, but now they aren’t allowed to come to work.  I worked side by side with them five days a week, and now the building is empty and those workers, and their children are afraid.

Both parents worked at Khutsala, and now they have no income to feed their children

Heart for Africa has worked on a plan, using the produce from our own farm, to pull together highly cost effective food packs for a family of eight for a MONTH for only $75 US.  In fact, there is $25 of MannaPack from Feed My Starving Children included in the pack so they really will get $100 worth of food, for the price of $75. But they don’t have $75.  They have nothing.  
 

This single young mother needs your help.

Ian and I went on line this morning and bought ten food packs that we are calling “Partner in HOPE” program, but today HOPE stands for Help Our People Endure.  As we await the monster attacking the world to start to sweep across Eswatini, staying healthy through nutrition is the only way that our staff can try to keep their families safe while they practice social distancing.  Today I am begging you (and I hate begging) to join us in feeding one family, two families or maybe even ten?  It’s as easy as clicking on this link and sharing this link https://heartforafrica.kindful.com/?campaign=1063301 with everyone you know who cares about the Project Canaan family, or people in desperate need.

This is the link for our Canadian friends and family  http://www.heartforafrica.ca/partner-in-hope/.

This morning I opened my iPad to read my morning devotion, then I went to my bookmark in Proverbs. This is what was on that page, “He who shuts his ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in his own time of need.” Proverbs 21:13  

Wow.  I was shocked at the words on that very page. It was then that Ian and I went on line and purchased meal packs for ten families.

Food pack #1 - possible April 27th delivery with funding

If we can raise the funds to do this, the food packs will be delivered in two segments with dried goods (maize flour, sugar beans, soap, MannaPack, cooking oil) and fresh food (eggs, butternut squash, 5 POUND papayas, and fresh milk from the farm) on April 27^th, and then a second delivery of fresh food and more soap will be delivered on May 11^th.  We hope to continue this until everyone is back to work and can buy their own food, but we really, really need your help at this time.  If we can’t help with food, we will most certainly lose a lot of our work force and their children will be left behind.  The impact will be horrific and devastating. 

Food pack #2 - possible May 11th delivery with funding.

The photos below are of just a few of the families who live on Project Canaan with their children and need food soon.  Will you help them eat? Please?

Live from Eswatini … our family needs food, and they need it soon.

Ian and Janine

P.S. The papayas that we want to deliver weigh 4-5 pounds each and they are being harvested off the papaya trees that many of you bought last year. We planted them in July 2019 and each tree is laden with 12-15 of these giant pieces of fruit.  We can hardly fathom this harvest “for such a time as this”.

The papayas are bigger than our heads!

Looking at our children’s health through the lens of COVID-19

With 261 children living at Project Canaan we have a lot of health issues every day. We deal with “the normal” HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, asthma, boils (lots of boils!) and allergies, but we also have bicycle accidents, playground falls from kids just being kids.

COVID-19 has not appeared on campus yet, that we know of, but knowing that it is hiding in the bushes around us makes all of the above more complicated, and tense.  Two weeks ago, Miriam had a serious bike accident resulting in a head injury and broken tibia and fibula.  It took ten days before she could see the only orthopedic surgeon in the country for surgery, and that was at a private hospital, and another two days for us to get a one sentence report of what surgery had been done. 

Earlier this week our little boy Simeon (3.5 years old) suddenly had a seizure while on the playground, which lasted 2-3 long minutes.  He was unresponsive for a long time and was taken to a different private hospital and was admitted. They found a chest infection and tonsillitis and he was admitted for treatment, and they decided to do a COVID-19 test.  The results take five days, so we should have them tomorrow.  Several days later, when he was ready for discharge, he started vomiting, so is still in the hospital.

Yesterday we had TEN babies from the El Roi baby home go and see nurse Hannah with high fever and coughing.  Our children’s campuses have been on lockdown for two weeks now and any staff presenting with a fever in the AM (all staff are monitored daily) were sent to quarantine out of an abundance of caution. And yet, here we are with ten babies sick in one house.  Could it be?

Kitchen preparations for Easter breakfast.

Last night at midnight I was called by Anthony to tell me that Roderick (one year old) couldn’t breath and after being given oxygen and then nebulized, they were rushing him to the same private hospital Simeon is in.  I could hear him in the background gasping for air and it sounded like an adult saying “Help me! Help me!”  When they arrived at the hospital the doctor said it sounded like he had a chest infection and he was admitted. He will get a chest x-ray today. 

And then there was the day this week that a senior staff member presented with acute abdominal pain, possible appendicitis, and was rushed to a third private hospital for care.  On a prompting from the Lord, we sent her to see an OBGYN, who found a 4” x 4” ovarian cyst that had two twists in the fallopian tube and did emergency surgery.  I simply don’t know what would have happened to her if she had gone to a government hospital for care at this time.

Ovarian cyst removed this week.

If you are like me, living during this time of fear and uncertainty, you likely wondered how COVID-19 might be involved in or impact any or all of the cases above, and the truth is, we just don’t know, but I think about it a lot. We pray for protection over our children and staff daily, but the truth is there is a monster outside our gate who wants to come in, and he is here to kill and destroy.

Tomorrow is Easter and the timing is perfect.  We will focus our eyes on the resurrected Christ, knowing that He is our protector, He is El Rofi (the God who heals) and He is El Roi (the God who sees). Please join us for our live Easter service at 9:30AM EST on the Heart for Africa facebook page – I know you will be blessed. 

Today's craft at Kid's Club.

If you would like to give a very special Easter gift to a loved one, please consider making a donation to help us with our mounting hospital bills.  You would be giving the gift of life, and isn’t that exactly what Jesus did for us?

Please click here for the emergency medical fund in the US.

Please click here for the emergency medical fund in Canada.

Live from Eswatini … He is risen indeed!

Janine

#sharehope with an "essential" person

These are difficult days.  As we sit in the relative safety of the mountain top in Africa, we can’t help but feel helpless watching the news, knowing that our friends and family are struggling. Ian and I are “fixers”, and we can’t fix this global pandemic, so we have been asking the Lord to show us what we can do, and we got an answer.  About two weeks ago I really felt the Lord telling me to be intentional about encouraging others on a daily basis through social media.  So, I started posting daily videos on my Facebook page and Instagram pages that would hopefully bring a smile to my friends and families faces.  Below is a short video that I posted this week of baby Treasure and I doing a video selfie. 

On Thursday I had a video call with of our US team and asked how we at Heart for Africa could serve as encouragers to the world.   We obviously don’t have volunteers traveling to Eswatini, we can’t have meetings and fundraising events, and those things are what the US team does on a day to day basis.  Heart for Africa’s focus is to bring HOPE to the Kingdom of Eswatini in the areas of Hunger, Orphans, Poverty and Education, but now we must expand our efforts to bring HOPE to the world. 

So, here is one of the ideas that the team came up with.  What if we could provide a way to share hope with one another through Khutsala Artisans product?  They quickly created a special page with all of our HOPE products and we are asking you to consider ordering one of those products and send it to a front line “essential” worker who is working at a hospital, pharmacy, grocery store or any other essential position.  We will insert a special card that tells that special person that the gift is from YOU.  For as little as $10 you could bring a smile to someone’s face and let them know that you are thinking about them.  I will start by sending this HOPE bracelet to my cousin Carelle McKellan who is a Public Health Nurse in Canada and she is dealing with 400+ COVID-19 patients in the Fraser Health system. Carelle, we are sending love, prayers and thanks to you and all you are doing.  Stay safe!  

Please note that our Khutsala warehouse is in Michigan and product will be shipped from there, but we have limited quantities and we are not able to ship more product from Eswatini as Khutsala Artisans have all been sent home and airlines are not flying any non-essential product.  The good news is that if we sell a lot of product during this time, there will be work for our Artisans when they are able to come back to work. 

Some of you might be wondering how Spencer and Chloe are doing and I wanted to give you an update. Spencer is working in a consulting firm in Chicago and can do so from the safety of his apartment.  We are thankful that Jane and her puppy “Swazi” are nearby and they can spend lots of time together.  Chloe is finishing her last year at Brock University, but just started a job on Monday making COVID-19 testing kits!!!  Can you believe it?  She does her school work during the day then works from 4PM to 11:30PM at a biotech company called Norgen Biotek.  Two nights ago her team made 22,000 kits and they posted an hilarious video to celebrate. You can see it below.   We are so very proud of our two children and miss them so much.

 

 

Spencer working at home

Please join me in shopping, post a photo of yourself with your own Khutsala product and use our #sharehope hashtag to help spread the word.

Live from Eswatini … sharing hope.

Janine

An unprecedented week of encouragement

The world is crying out in pain, and the pain will continue to intensify in the days and weeks ahead.  We are watching from a mountain top that feels to be at the end of the earth.

South Africa is approximately 15 days behind the US outbreak and Eswatini is likely a few days behind South Africa. So, for now, there is silence.   As Ian and I sit out on our patio every night we have been talking about the tsunami that is coming our way, but this week we started to change our language to the wildfires that are coming rather than a wave.  Back in July we experienced for 40+ hours of horrific and terrifying wildfires on Project Canaan that quickly changed directions, jumped over buildings and came back to life after we thought they were out.  As this tiny nation, with the highest HIV rate in the world starts to look to the horizon, waiting for COVID-19 coming over the mountain, we know that we are not prepared.

Our Prime Minister made an announcement on Tuesday night that provided a glimmer of hope – a country shutdown that would start at midnight on Thursday night and end on April 16th.  He explained that all non-essential services should stop and only essential businesses such as banks, grocery stores and medical facilities could remain open.  We met with the Supervisors from all our departments to determine who was essential and who was non-essential. Then we met with all 345 Project Canaan employees to deliver the news.  Most non-essential people were very upset because they would lose their pay, but we did what we had to do.

Swazi’s all get paid once a month and it’s on the last Friday of the month, and then they all rush to town to buy groceries for the next month.  Public transportation and streets are packed with people, stores are emptied, and Swazi’s experience joy at being able to get their hair done, get nice food for the weekend and maybe even a treat for their children. The first day of the lock down was pay day. 

Then, a change in direction.  Friday morning we were told that the Minister of Commerce made an announcement on the radio on Thursday night saying all businesses are to remain open (perhaps so people could do their month end shopping?), and were to call all employees back to work on Monday. If we chose to remain closed we were to pay all employees their full pay until work resumes – that is 185 Project Canaan employees. It is only a partial lock down? 

Our employees all walked out through the front gate and headed to town with money in the bank, and the satisfaction of knowing that they would be back to work on Monday.  Ian and I saw their departure to town as being like matches lit and thrown out in to our surrounding communities.

We have put all the precautions in place that we can, and now we wait. But in our time of waiting the Lord has blessed us beyond measure.  We are in a time of preparation, and let me tell and show you what the Lord did in the last FIVE days.

The farm is an essential department and we have been looking for a new tractor for a couple of years. At the end of 2019 the funds were donated and our search began.  The current exchange rate is the highest it’s ever been in our time in Africa, so we were able to buy TWO tractors this past week. One is brand new and is being built and the other one is gently used and a really powerful piece of equipment that will help us immensely in our agriculture program. Our farm team is on the moon!

We currently have a 7-gallon milk pasteurizer that takes 90 minutes to pasteurize those 7 gallons of milk in our main kitchen. We need to pasteurize close to 44 gallons of milk every day for our children’s consumption.  Ian found a company in South Africa that makes inline milk pasteurizers, which will pasteurize 22 gallons per hour.  He ordered this equipment to be made at the end of 2019 and it arrived this past week!  Not only does it allow us to pasteurize 22+ gallons per hour, it then chills the milk and has a 90-gallon chilled storage tank.  The cherry on the top of this is that we purchased a milk separator and a butter churner, so we will be able to make our own butter! 

We want to increase our goat production so that we have more meat available, both for us and for our church feeding program.  This week we received the funds and were able to hire the people and purchase the materials to start fencing in 10 acres of land that will be prepared to start an intensive goat breeding program.  You can see the area planned in the image below.

With the recent closure of all schools, we took the opportunity to focus our construction team on building the 3^rd/4^th grade classroom. The materials for the second floor (called span slab) are made and imported from South Africa and we needed the funds to order them in order to proceed. Not only did the Lord provide the funds needed earlier this month, we were able to order the product and get it delivered on Thursday, before the borders completely shut down. 

Lastly, but perhaps the most interesting and comforting, was a US foundation approaching us and asking what we needed during this time of uncertainty.  David Bryant explained that with flights/trips cancelled for the foreseeable future, we will lose significant income that we receive when people travel with Heart for Africa to Eswatini.  The foundation committed to FULLY cover that lost income and a check is in the mail.

God is so good. He knew that during this unprecedented time of uncertainty that we needed an unprecedented week of encouragement, and He sent it in waves that brought joy, refreshment and hope.

I pray that this encourages you too. Look for the ways He is blessing you during these difficult times. “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  Isaiah 4:10

Live from Eswatini … we are going for a long walk.

Janine

Swazi's aren't worried about toilet paper

Nine children whose names can encourage you today.

We are living in strange times, and the whole world knows it, even Swazi’s in the most remote parts of our tiny country.  And they are afraid.

They are not afraid of not having enough toilet paper, because most Swazi’s are too poor to EVER buy toilet paper, so it won’t be missed (they use leaves or crumpled up newspaper).  Most Swazi’s are too poor to have a pantry, so there is no stocking up of food, and no money to stock up with 70% of the population being subsistence farmers.

This is a people group who are currently living with the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world and an estimated 70% of the population living with active or inactive Tuberculosis, but that is not what scares them.   What makes them afraid is the government hospitals because here have been out of critical medications for the past couple of years, so how will they possibly be able to help really sick people?  There are no masks, there is no protective gear and there are reports that some nurses just don’t want to go near sick patients. There are only four functioning respirators in the entire government healthcare system in the country. Yesterday I had a nurse say to me, “In the west, people who are thought to be sick with the coronavirus are considered ‘people of interest’.  It is the opposite here in Eswatini – no one is interested in them.”  Ouch.

Ian and I drove to South Africa on Tuesday and spent a day going from one pharmacy to the next to get the medications that our children will need for the next eight weeks.  The borders were starting to close that day so we had to work quickly and only got 75% of what we needed.  We also haven’t been able to get critical medications for many months from Swazi suppliers so someone always has to drive to South Africa (Pretoria is a 5-hour drive) to get meds each month. We pray that the borders will reopen before our medications run out.

It has been widely reported that we have only had one case of COVID-19, a woman who arrived from Germany, but we aren’t sure whether testing is being done and/or reported accurately. That is what Swazi’s are telling me they are afraid of – no tests, dishonest reports, and no possible medical care if they do get sick, which they will.

We are all trying to practice social distancing, but Swazi’s (like most Africans) depend on public transport that are small vans crammed with as many passengers as they can fit.  If the thought of contracting Tuberculosis wasn’t terrifying enough, COVID-19 increases the risk and fear, but still it is the only way for them to get from A to B.

Then there is the practice of “sharing a meal”, which is common to most of the African continent of one billion people.  Families share the same meal from the same bowl.  We see it from the front office to Khutsala where two or three people will take turns cooking that week and bring a plastic bowl of food that everyone eats from. 

I know that the world is afraid, and I can’t imagine the fear that people are feeling as they wake up each day to new startling numbers and data, but please don’t forget to pray for Africa.  Most countries won’t have access to the testing kits that they need (if the US can’t get them, how will we?), so we really won’t ever have accurate data, and most of those billion people don’t have access to health care services at all. 

We will not live in fear, and we have put all protocols possible in to effect here at Project Canaan, and we wait. 

Spencer is in lock down in Illinois now and Chloe is self-quarantined in her University apartment in Canada. For the past four days we have been working tirelessly to get Phiwa and Nokwanda home from Boston after the Doctor discharged them on Monday.  But alas, after two failed attempts at the airport where they were turned away at the gate two nights in a row.  Now, they will not be able to get home. South Africa has closed its borders so we are now locked in the country for the unforeseeable future and they are locked out.  Thankfully, the Habelow family came to their rescue again and got them flights to Florida where they will live with them until the borders open, international flights resume and they can come home.

After herculean attempts to get the girls home, we could not.

While these are complicated times of uncertainty, what we do know for certain is that God is God and he is securely on the throne.  I took the photo below yesterday of nine of our children who have names that will surely remind you to keep your eyes on Him, and do not be afraid. He is with us, to the end of time.

Live from Eswatini … enjoying the fresh air and daily walks around the farm.

Janine

PS – and in the midst of all this, Willis fell off the top bunk, hit his head and broke his clavicle this week requiring several days in a private hospital.  And theft continues, this time it was the Dairy Manager, who we liked and trusted, stealing dairy meal. He and his partner in crime were given a E7,000 fine ($400 US) or FIVE years in prison. They don’t have access to that kind of money so will spend the next five years in a Swazi jail.  This job doesn’t get any easier.

Posters we have put up on the farm to deter theft.

A new perspective on viruses

Last week one of our workers was bitten by a dog which was thought to be rabid.  If you don’t know much about rabies, there is no cure, and you have no more than ten days to start a series of five injections or you die. There were no rabies injections in any government hospital in Eswatini, so he went to a private clinic and got his first two shots.  Ian and I learned about this when we just happened to pick him up at the front gate on his way to get his third shot.  Our family was sprayed by a rabid bat when we lived in Ontario, and we know the fear and the pain of many needles, so we gave him our sympathy. The next morning during our morning walk, Ian saw him and asked how he was doing. He was visibly upset as he told us that the private hospital was out of rabies vaccine and they couldn’t complete his five-shot treatment. He was afraid he was going to die a horrific death.

Ian spoke with our nurses who were able to find a pharmacy in Nelspruit, South Africa (a 3-hour drive crossing two international borders) and we said we would drive and get them. The nurse asked us to please get chicken pox vaccines too as they have not been available in Eswatini for 7+ years.  When we got to the pharmacy, I told the pharmacist that I had strange list of prescriptions:  rabies vaccines for an employee, chicken pox vaccines for our children and blood pressure medication for me, which I need because I deal with rabies and chicken pox!  She suggested that we stop at the liquor store before he headed back to Eswatini!  Meanwhile, that huge pharmacy had already sold out of hand sanitizer, but that happened months ago before the coronavirus scare began.  She pointed to a poster that told us how to make our own hand sanitizer – good to know. She also told us that they had been out of chicken pox vaccines for months, but we ended up driving home with rabies vaccines, blood pressure medication and little tequila.

Eswatini has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and it is the very reason we moved here.  There also is no cure for this disease, and medication is antiquated, sometimes out of stock, but effective if take properly twice a day, every day at the same time of day (7AM/7PM).  It’s effectiveness is also dependent on proper nutrition and protein.  People don’t die from HIV/AIDS, they die from a common cold or the flu or Tuberculosis (TB), which 70% of our total population are estimated to have active or inactive TB.  If their TB is inactive it can be activated by getting sick with something as simple as a cold, or the flu, or coronavirus. 

Most of our 315 employees have children, and most of those children are cared for by elderly parents or grandparents while the employee is at work.  Many of their children are sickly with conditions that could be treated if hospitals weren’t out of medicine, but they are.  We are a country with a very broken healthcare system, virtually no hospital care and both clinics and hospitals have run out of many/most essential medications.

This morning we had our first coronavirus patient confirmed to be positive in Eswatini. She came from the US, traveled to Lesotho, and then came back here and tested positive at a private clinic.  It bears repeating that this is a country of very old and sick people, very young and sick people and an HIV/AIDS rate that could be as high as 40%. 

As the world is facing unknown fears, which includes health and economics uncertainties, I would like to say two things to you today. First, I am personally committed to post on social media every day with words of encouragement from our children, our staff and our volunteers so that you know we are thinking of you and praying for you.  Second, I am asking if you will help us raise the funds we need to build the rest of Emseni #7 for 40 big boys.  When I spoke at an event last month in front of 15,000+ Keller Williams agents, they collectively gave almost $100,000 towards the $225,000 cost of the building. Only a few short weeks later a gathering of that size is impossible, and none of us know when there will be speaking opportunities again to build awareness and raise funds for our needs here. I know that this is a time of financial fears for many people around the world, but I also know that we need to get this building finished quickly as the children are still coming and they are in desperate need of a home. 

Please consider putting your fear aside today and help us do what we can do for these children while waiting to see what happens as the coronavirus spreads throughout the Kingdom.  Please buy a block for $25 or 100 blocks or 1,000 blocks and help us get this done. Would you also please share this post today? Everyone is looking for content to read and looking for hope for the future. I hope that our lives can be a beacon of hope from afar in the days and weeks ahead.

In the US:  http://bit.ly/buyablockE6

In Canada:  https://www.heartforafrica.ca/emseni-childrens-campus/

Just yesterday as we drove back from South Africa we got a call about two different new born baby boys that needed a home. We haven’t received a new baby in SEVEN WEEKS, so this was a surprise.  One was the result of a violent rape and the other was found in the bushes covered in his own waste which burned his face.  Both tiny boys were in government hospitals, and very vulnerable.  We stopped and picked up baby Solomon and baby Rocky (the one who looked like he had been in a fight … a fight for his life!), and we brought them home, along with the rabies vaccinations.  That is the world we are living in.  We may not be able to stop the coronavirus (although we did a hand washing seminar with all our 315 employees yesterday and gave everyone a big bar of soap), but we can help these two little guys who are not safe in a government hospital.

Isaiah 41:10 says, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Live from Eswatini … we are washing our hands and praying.

Janine

P.S. There are rumors that our borders to South Africa may close soon.  90% of all food is imported, so that will cause another problem.