Author Archives: mfortson

Just One More

Meet Neema House Arusha’s newest precious little babyHer name is Nengai which means “Of God.” Nengai’s mom died giving birth to her. She is from a Masaai village where there is no refrigeration, no clean water and where many of these little motherless ones will not make it due to unsterile conditions. We are crying with her today. Nengai will stay with us until she is ready to go back home. We are crowded with 45 babies in a home that should have 30 but how could we say no?

In 1979, Stan Mooney bought a boat and sailed to Vietnam to rescue “boat people” who were fleeing the war torn countries of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The boats were so heavily loaded they were capsizing and thousands were drowning in the South China sea. So Stan went to help. His trip was deemed a failure but he was able to save one boat load.

A four year old boy named Vinl and his family were on the boat. The family had nothing and could not speak English when they landed in America. A church adopted the family, found a job and a house for them and got the children into school. They flourished and after high school Vinl was accepted at Harvard and became a medical doctor. Stan became president of World Vision and told the story to Richard Stearns who wrote the book, “He Walks Among Us” where he tells Vinl’s story.

I love that. I love thinking about what our babies will grow up to become someday. Its these kinds of stories that inspire me to take just one more baby. Just one more. Our next one might grow up to become a doctor or find the cure for Beals Syndrome, or invent a waterless toilet or become the next Billy Graham. But even if they don’t and they just grow up to give the best hugs in the world or have a smile that lights up the room, we’ll take just one more.

Angel and Benson both abandoned babies came to live at Neema in the last couple of weeks.

Even though it is loud and messy at Neema, we’ll take one more. How could we say no? If the hospital calls or the police find an abandoned baby or another mom dies how could we say no. Yes, we’ll take one more.

One more we can help, one more that will never have to spend another night, crying alone and abandoned outside a gate like Benson (above), or in a gravel pit like Dorothy, (below left), or in the trash like Bryony, (below right with volunteer Shermaine).

One more that will never again be left on the road like Chris, or in the grass in the front yard like Danny (below in the pink blanket right after we got him.).

We do what we can, one baby at a time. It might not change the world but for this one baby her world will change. Jesus never told us to take care of the millions, he said feed one, just the one. Just one cup of cold water at a time. Just one more. So yes, we’ll take one more baby.

If you are a new sponsor and want to see pictures of your baby be sure and follow the Facebook page for Neema House Arusha. Volunteers post lots of pictures of the babies and you can even request some.

A Happy Ending. Remember newborn Christopher who was left on the side of the road and covered with dirt. He has been adopted! We thought you might like to see a happy ending!

Praise God!

Dr. Sue Hamby Speaks about Neema House

BUY A BRICK FOR CHRISTMAS AND HELP US BUILD A HOME FOR THE NEEMA BABIES!

When you are making your Christmas list please remember Neema House Arusha. Just $25 will help us buy 80 lb. cement blocks which we are using to build the new baby home.

Neema Village (AKA) Neema House Arusha is building a home for the 43 abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies who currently live in the rescue center in Arusha, Tanzania.To buy a brick please go to www.neemavillage.org

and click on “Sponsor a baby/Donate” at the top. On the purpose line write “Buy a Brick.” We will even put your name on a plaque in the Welcome Center at the new baby home!

New Baby Joel says “Thank You!”

Dr. Sue Hamby, Neema Board Member writes:

Neema Village, a home for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Tanzania needs your help. As many of you know, Neema is in the process of building a 60 bed baby home as well as a widow’s cottage, and a cottage for unadoptable children. James 1:27

You may wonder why we are building this 60 bed home. Originally Neema was going to keep 30 babies but we have known for a long time that we would have to expand. As of today we have 43 babies in our rented home in Arusha. A total of 87 babies have come through the center in three and half years. It is impossible to say no when a baby has been abandoned or lost his mother and many of these babies would not have survived without Neema House Arusha. You also may wonder why build a cottage for older children since many babies are adopted out? Unfortunately, some of the Neema babies have disabilities so they have little opportunity to be adopted. Therefore, Neema plans to provide a loving home and the best education possible for these children. We believe these little ones like Frankie will be the leaders in their community someday. The widow’s home is an exciting part of our vision. Widows in Tanzania are often outcast. Thanks to the generosity of a young widow from Georgetown and her father that home has been completely funded. However, we are still lacking money to complete the baby home and home for unadoptable children. Because of this, we are launching a “Buy a Brick” program to help fund the completion of the buildings. We are asking those with a special interest in Neema to consider buying a commemorative brick that will make a difference in the lives of many children in the future in Tanzania.

We know you have probably given in the past and may be currently giving and we really appreciate it. However we need to finish these buildings so we are asking that you pray about it and consider buying a brick for $25 to help us complete the Neema Village project. You can buy a brick for yourself or for someone else, to commemorate a special occasion such as birthday, anniversary, Christmas or in memory of a loved one. When you don’t know what to buy a family member for Christmas, buy them a brick! Your name or the name that you designate will be placed on a plaque in the welcome center in the new baby home.

Since Neema relies on the generosity of individuals like you, we are writing this letter to ask you to consider buying a brick or making a donation to the Building Fund. Please share this request with your church and your friends.

We hope that you will help us complete this worthwhile project. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

May God richly bless you and your family.

Dr. Sue Hamby, Neema Village Board Member, Secretary

(Go to the www.neemavillage.org donate button to buy a brick. If it is a gift write on purpose line “Brick in honor of…” )

BUY A BRICK AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE THAT WILL LAST A LIFETIME

Brick by Brick

Brick By Brick

“…The whole wall was soon joined together and halfway to its intended height because the people had a heart to work.” Nehemiah 4:6 MSG

I know you cannot possibly be as excited about this as I am but doing a little jump and click of your heels would be appropriate here! As of October 15, 2015, Neema Village, formerly Neema House Arusha, a home for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies, has four major buildings going up with one building almost completed. The babies will be rocked on the front porch of their new home while looking at this beautiful view of Africa. Mt. Meru is the 5th tallest mountain in Africa and Mt. Kilimanjaro is visible from the baby home on a clear day.

Below is the Main Gate leading into Neema Village

As you drive up to the gate leading into Neema we will plant bouganvilla bushes along the fence to the right. We have 24 hour guard service at Neema and the little house beside the gate is where you will check in to volunteer or visit the babies. The guard shack has its own restroom. We have guards not because we are afraid. Michael and I have never been afraid to live in Africa. People are poor and sometimes desperate here, they may want your stuff, but they are not out to hurt you. We tell our volunteers don’t wear expensive jewelry, wear the pretty jewelry the African women make here.

Below is the new baby home going up. It will accommodate 60 babies which is great since we are currently at 43 babies. We have been renting the big house in Arusha and it will be nice to get out of paying rent!

Little Joel to the left above is one of the new babies at Neema. His mom died during his birth. He is one reason we are building.

Gabriella above is also new at Neema. She is an abandoned baby.

The Widows home, right, is almost completed and is getting a paint job. It is in a U-shape almost like a motel. We wanted the widows to feel they had their on apartment. The courtyard in the middle is for the women to gather and visit or cook outside if they want. There will be a kitchen in the home too but sometimes the women prefer to cook outside on a fire with their three cook stones, much like African women have cooked for centuries..

Below is the shop and storage building.

We will be so excited to finally unload the container sitting beside the new shop in the picture to the left. The blocks used to build the buildings at Neema weigh 80 pounds each! They carried those heavy blocks up a handmade wooden ladder. The men and women building Neema are the hardest working people I have ever met. They also dug a septic tank hole 25 feet wide and 22 feet deep by hand!

A big thank you to all the great folks who sent items for that 40 foot shipping container sent from Global Samaritan Resources out of Abilene. There is building equipment, playground equipment, sewing machines and hundreds of packs of diapers in that container so we really need to be able to unload it soon. With the new shop we will have a place to store the items inside the container.

The Montana Home above is being funded by a group of Christians in Montana. It will be home to husband and wife house parents and up to ten children who are unadoptable. We are planning up to four homes like this. The forty children who will grow up in these homes will be given the very best education we can give them. We believe they will become the leaders in Tanzania some day.

Psalms 113:7 – 8 “He picks up the poor from out of the dirt, rescues the wretched who’ve been thrown out with the trash, and seats them among the honored guests, a place of honor among the brightest and best.” MSG

Elesha’s Giant

Elesha’s Giant

Sooner or later we all have a giant to face. For many of us our giant came early, looming over our shoulder and making important decisions about life and relationships for us. I was raised in an orphanage, went when I was four and left when I was 18. It was my giant. I’ve dealt with it but so has my husband of 52 years and our 4 children who were raised by a motherless mother. I have had to apologize for so many decisions I made. By the Grace of God, they have stuck by me.

When I look at Elesha at Neema House Arusha I think what giants this little boy will face in his life. Born in a country where extreme poverty affects so many people, where unclean drinking water takes the lives of children every second of every day and where there are no government programs to help the poor and disabled, Elesha will have a hard row to hoe. He was born with Beals Syndrome, a condition so rare there are only a few thousand cases in the world. His little misshapen back, thumbs stuck to his palms, legs that wouldn’t straighten and made of delicate extra-long bird like bones, we prayed he would make it to his first birthday. He did.

Well, read what Rhiannan Stevie, a travel writer, who stopped by and left her heart at Neema, writes:

We prayed he would be able to sit up some day. He has. We prayed he would be able to pick up a toy. He has. We prayed he would be able to walk. He’s trying! You gotta see him trying in the video link below!

As Kelly, who thank God is an occupational therapist, has worked with Elesha, rubbing those little hands encouraging them to open and to his whimpers of pain stretching his legs so he might someday walk, he is struggling to be like his little friends at Neema. He sees what they are learning to do and you can see the hope in his eyes that he can too someday. What this little boy could teach us about courage!

I’m reading a book that my friend, Dr. Sue gave me, “He Walks Among Us” by Richard and Renee Stearns. It’s one of those “stomach puncher” books. As Richard and Renee walk among the poor on this dusty planet with World Vision, he writes:

“There is a misunderstanding we often have about the poor – believing that we who have so much are the ones in the position to offer help to those who have so little. But what we have discovered on so many of our trips is that we were the ones who were poor and they were the ones who were rich: rich in wisdom, community, perseverance, courage, faith and even joy. They had much to teach us about living, loving, overcoming and celebrating. They had much to teach us about dependence on God.”

Elesha will face many giants in his life. Our job is to teach him there is no giant bigger than our God. That is our faith as we work with these babies, as we try to find water on our land, as we build a home for the babies and widows and disabled children, as we try to keep them fed and healthy and safe and as we work in a land where power is sporadic and the internet is down about as much as it is up, we do battle daily. We thank God for those of you who battle with us with your prayers and support. (To see the cutest video ever of Elesha trying to walk with Sylvia Pape click on the link below!)

Our newest baby (pictured below) made 40 babies this week until one flew the nest. So here is sweet baby Nuriath Mariam whose mom died. She is a little cutie pie.

“Live simply so others can simply live.”

To see Elesha walk, click here

The Day the Goat Came to Visit

It dawned in Africa like any other day, sleepy babies waking up, finding clothes to put on 35 babies, morning bottles, changing dirty diapers, finding enough bibs for breakfast, porridge that can’t be fed fast enough, dirty diapers, checking morning medical charts, notes on the board for who was sick in the night, more dirty diapers, potty chairs, gathering shoes for the morning walk and did I mention dirty diapers!

But unknown to those busy with Neema babies inside there was a party brewing outside the gates.

The Maasai family and friends of our sweet baby Joshua, who has lived at Neema House Arusha since the day he was born, had arrived early outside the gates of Neema. They began lining up to practice; people, chickens and goat, for a dance into the yard. Joshua, a first baby for his young mom and dad, had lost his mother during the birth and the grief stricken father had been at a loss at what to do. The young father has a job that keeps him away from home for weeks and their culture will not let a single man hire a live-in woman to work in his home. The grandmothers could not keep the baby and with formula at twelve to sixteen dollars per can in a country where people make less than a hundred dollars a month, the dad realized the baby would have little chance of survival without help. That is when a friend recommended that he call Neema.

So today a grateful family arrived outside the gates of Neema House Arusha to say thank you. They brought a goat and gifts of handmade beads, necklaces, Maasai cloth and chickens and lots of singing, clapping and dancing. It’s party day at Neema!

And that is when the goat decided he needed to see the inside of the house. With a goat running around inside the house with 35 babies and a crew of nannies and cooks, you can imagine what that sounded like! Between the laughing and squealing the goat was finally caught and persuaded that outside was where he belonged. Actually, we soon learned that where he belonged was in the stew pot, and our visitors made short work of putting him there. Soon lunch was bubbling in the big pot outside in the back yard. Poli Sana Mbuzi! (So Sorry, Goat!)

Baby Joshua is one of our little sweethearts. He will be going home soon and we are so happy that we have had a part in helping this little guy make it past the first critical months that are the hardest for these babies who lose their moms. Our problem is that he has lived at Neema for over a year and has never had a single sponsor. We never refuse to take a baby in, no matter what shape they are in or whether we have the money to take them, but it does get a little tough at times.

Just so you know, it takes over $300 per month for us to keep a baby at Neema. You ask why that high? Glad you asked. With 32 full-time employees, for whom we pay salaries, social security, and half of their medical bills, plus 3 meals a day for all employees on duty, salaries and benefits are our biggest expenses. There is no McDonalds where they could go get their lunch and since we have 24 hour care we do feed employees and volunteers as well as the babies. High medical bills, petrol at nearly $6 per gallon, rent $1,800 per month, formula and food at around $600 per week, utilities that work sometimes and sometimes don’t which then means using the generator at $6 per gallon, all of which adds up to a whopping $13,355 per month budget! I think you begin to see why keeping babies is so expensive. Keep in mind that only Tanzanians are paid from Neema sponsorships. All non-Tanzanians are either volunteers or have raised their own support.

With 39 babies in house now we have many new babies who need sponsors.

Bregetta and Jackson above are brand new at Neema as of Sept 7, 2015.

Please check out the “See Neema Babies” on our website (www.neemahousearusha.org) and choose a baby to sponsor. You can sponsor for as little as $30 per month. I do so hate asking for money but I decided a long time ago that I am willing to do what it takes to care for these incredibly beautiful little ones of whom Jesus says “If you will take care of the least of these, it will be just like you are taking care of me.”

If you are already sponsoring,

Bless You!

Michael and Dorris Fortson

All God’s Creatures Got a Home

“All God’s Creatures Got a Home”

I have just spent the summer with a lizard, I can’t believe I’m telling you this. Michael was gone all summer helping with the building going on around Neema and I stayed in Texas to take care of our rent houses which as you know if you follow our story helps support us as we do Neema work.

Soon after Michael left, this lizard moved in.

I spent a few days chasing him around the office and finally decided he could stay since I couldn’t chase him out the back door. One morning I noticed he was sitting by my desk with his back to me but his head turned slightly so he could look around at me with one eye. I did the “shoo thing” a few mornings and then decided to be polite. “Hi little buddy, how are you?” I said. So began my long lizard summer. Most mornings he would come sit by my desk in the same spot, not moving even when I talked to him and then calmly move off to his home under the filing cabinet where I am sure he took up his day job as my own personal bug zapper.

I feel a tear almost glistening on my cheek as I tell you this, but yesterday, just two days after Michael returned and Little Buddy and I had had our last cup of coffee together he slithered over to the back door and waited for me to open the door. I am not kidding you, he sat there while I opened the door for him! He really wasn’t much as far as lizards go but he was my lizard.

Michael on the other hand spent the summer helping build a home in Africa for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies called Neema House Arusha.

Cement blocks, foundations, and stones are being moved all over this beautiful land. The widow’s home is coming along, one of the homes for the unadoptable babies has a foundation and the baby home is going up and the 22 feet deep septic system is being dug. It is all quite exciting.

We have just been renting for the last three years and it is time to move. We have had a host of great volunteers helping this summer and I know this is a dangerous thing to do but I want you to see some of their pictures. If you came and volunteered this summer and I leave you out, it might be because YOU DIDN’T SEND ME A PICTURE!

An awesome Aggie with little Mohammed

Happy babies with 2 Happy Belton Volunteers

Meredith blowing bubbles

Shelly Sellers from Waco with Elesha reading The Baked Potato Boy, our first published story of one of our Neema babies. You can get one for your church library at Guardian Angel Publishing. All proceeds go to Neema House Arusha.

The Wonderful Waco Group

Anne Pape with Shabani

Kent Smith from Fort Worth Texas getting a Malikia hug.

Deborah Key from Waco.

Michael trimming the acacia thorn trees on the new property.

Two important things I learned this summer, one is I’m not getting any younger and after 51 years with this man I want to spend what time I have left with him, not a lizard, so no more of this “you go to Africa and build and I’ll stay here and work on rent houses” thing!And I learned that if I had to I could survive in a prison camp – as long as I had a lizard!

Love and Blessings,

Dorris

I Used to be Funnier

“I used to be funnier”

Just in case you didn’t know I used to be funnier, I thought you might enjoy one of the “Lost Blogs,” from the chronicles of this incredible journey called Neema House Arusha.

The Nile River

Saturday October 8, Michael decided we would take the day off and as a birthday present for me, we would float the Nile River. Did I say “present?” There were times during the day when I thought a coffin would have been more appropriate. We have floated a lot of rivers, the Gallatin, the Flathead, the Colorado, the Arkansas, the Snake and the Buffalo among others, so we thought we were experienced white water rafters. I can’t even begin to describe this trip in words.

I should have known we were in trouble when the guide, before we got in, asked me to take off my rings at which I politely smiled and said no, because you see we are experienced rafters. Within five minutes of beginning the incredibly long day trip we were into a category

five white water rapid and when I say into I mean into, as in not in the boat. I think I spent more time under the boat frantically trying to fight my way back up to the surface than I did in the boat. Of course when I got to the surface huge waves crashed into my face just as I was trying to take a gulp of air so I got a smacking gulp of Nile water in my lungs instead.

A nice lady before we left the hotel had offered a bit of advice, albeit useless advice, when she said don’t swallow the water, you’ll get an amoeba. I swallowed so much of the Nile river I’ll be able to grow a whole village of amoebas. I told the guide, “Just give me a water purifying tablet to chew and I’ll shake it around in my stomach.”

There were six of us and a guide in the raft; two young South African guys on a cross countries drive from Amsterdam to South Africa (I didn’t know you could do that!), Molly a really sweet, gorgeous blonde business woman just taking the day off from work, a young man from China named One Way, about whom I kept wondering if his mother had given him permission for this trip, and Michael and I.

I think all of them at one time or another saved my life. The guide would say, “Okay this next rapid is a category six so stay with the raft, don’t lose your paddle, and the river divides up here so make sure you don’t get swept down that left side because that is called killer rapids and we won’t be able to get you out.” Was he kidding, stay with the raft? Like I had any control. He forgot to mention “oh and hold your paddle, hold the boat and hold your nose because we are going over!” I was always one hand short.

I noticed right at first about eight or more kayakers paddling along with us; one was doing acrobatic tricks with his kayak, flipping under and over, I thought, how nice, they were along just for the show. No, after the very first rapid when I was swept downstream, here he came, paddling for dear life, to pick me up. I was coughing up Nile water and he said, “hang on,” while he dragged me back to the raft. I asked him if I could just stay with him on the kayak which seemed safer than the raft, but he made me get back in the raft.

We asked if there were hippos and crocodiles in the water but the guide said, “no, none in this section of the river.” I kept thinking, don’t they swim? After about the fifth rapid as I was being pulled like a beached whale back into the boat (the guide grabs you by the neck of your life jacket and hauls you into the raft) I began asking if I could switch boats and ride with the food boat. It didn’t seem to be flipping as much as we were. After the last rapid when we were coasting in to get out and I realized that I had actually lived through the trip, I began to think, Yeah It was a blast, one I don’t care to repeat, but a Blast!

Dorris Oct 8^th 2011.

Yes, I used to be funnier.

Now that you have had a good laugh I can tell you, that was before we started Neema and saw babies starve to death and moms die giving life and babies with an OCA gene become “prime flesh” because someone thought their skin cured AIDs. I was funnier before I knew about our baby Innocent floating in a latrine and Baraka all alone in a house for days and Chris left crying on the road side and newborn Dorothy in the gravel pit…. David Platt was right. “It is easier to ignore them before you know their names, it’s easier to pretend they’re not real, but once you hold them in your arms, everything changes.” It did for me, I am not so funny anymore.

Bless you for staying with me through the hard blogs to read. I assure you they’re much harder to write. What I am seeing is that most of us living our abundant, God blessed lives would rather hear about puppies thrown in trashcans than babies thrown on garbage heaps. Who wouldn’t? It’s too much. We can’t take it. So thank you to you wonderful people for hanging in there with me as I struggle to write what really happens to these babies and yet not scare you to death with their stories. As I mention quite often all our babies have a tragic story or we would not have them.

Neema House Arusha received three new babies in one day last week. You know how it is when a new baby comes to your family, relatives come in, neighbors come over to Ohh and Ahhh. Well, that is how it is at Neema only this time I am sure multiplied by three! After the baby is washed, weighed and checked in, all the nannies, cooks, drivers, volunteers and manager gather round to greet the new little one, hold their tiny fingers and tickle their little toes. Me? I cry.

(New abandoned Baby Sifa to the left.)

I’ll show you pictures of two of them, the other one I’ll not be posting. She is going to have a hard life in Africa, please pray for her.

(Baby Pascal to the right.)

I hope your day is full of joy and that you laugh and love a lot and that you can see the Goodness of God in this dark world and want to be a part of the answer.

Bless you. Dorris

Three Generations at Neema House Arusha

Three Generations at Neema House Arusha

Two years ago we got a phone call and the voice on the line said those three little words we all love to hear, “Can we help?” Jack and Sylvia Pape after over 50 years in ministry and teaching were looking for a place to put their energy and hearts and the babies of Neema reached out and grabbed them.

They have been coming to Neema for two

years now to hold babies. Sylvia designed the reading program for the babies, assigning each volunteer 2 to 4 babies to take to a special place or chair three times a week and read to just that one baby. If you try to read to the whole group, they all want on your lap and they all want to hold the book! The babies love this and will come and take their reader’s hand and point to a book. Jack goes to the market with Safina, works on cars and helped Baraka, one of our guards, get his driver’s license. He is pretty much like Michael, a general all around handy man willing to do most anything.

This trip they brought their son Arnis, his wife Connie and daughter Ann, pictured below with Sylvia.

That makes three generations volunteering at Neema. We could become the next best family reunion site!

When I told them I wanted to do a story on them, they protested, “Oh no one wants to read about us.” They must have been wrong because here youare!

Connie left, holding baby Patricia.

Ann with abandonded baby Shabani Boy right.

“Like Father, Like Son”

Jack and Arnis both doing double duty with Neema’s abandoned and at risk babies.

When a retired couple doesn’t settle down comfortably on the couch but instead devotes hours, days, and nights in a home with 33 crying, spit upping, hungry babies I think that is big news!

Jack and Sylvia kept three little newborns tha

t came to Neema at the same time last year upstairs in their room. Sylvia says they never all ate or slept at the same time!

Right are the three babies who stayed with Jack and Sylvia. Dorothy who was left in a gravel pit, Doris whose mom died in childbirth and Dawson who was abandoned in town.

Below are some of my favorite shots of Grandpa Jack and Grandma Sylvia.

Real men do socks!

Jack helping match up pairs of socks.

Always the gentleman, Jack above left, receiving a giftfrom baby Joshua’s Masai grandmother.

Sylvia above with Bryony who was abandoned in a latrine.

The picture to the right is my all time favorite picture of Sylvia with abandoned baby Dawson.

Jack is also a phenomenal photographer. Jack and Sylvia don’t normally take time to go to the big game parks preferring to stay with the babies but Jack took some time this trip to show Arnis’s family some of the beautiful animals of Africa.

Biggest Elephant Jack ever saw, notice the size of the car!

If you are still with me after this long picturelog MY BOOK IS OUT!!!

It is a children’s book, the story of Neema’s Elliott who was abandoned at 1.65 pounds. As our daughter Kim said, about the size of a large baked potato, Elliott’s book is titled “The Baked Potato Boy.” It tells the story of a little boy who wanted to be big and that God has big plans for everyone, even the very smallest baby. All proceeds from the book go to Neema House Arusha. Really they do.

You can order it from the publishing company

Guardian Angel Publishing.

or you can order it from Amazon.com

I will leave you with this blessing from 11 Cor 9:8

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

May God do some “abounding” in your life for your prayers, support and encouragement to us as we do this work.

Bless you,

Dorris

A Sparrow Falls

June 24, 2015

A Sparrow Falls

I just finished fixing my breakfast and it made me cry. I had to throw away a half a loaf of bread because I couldn’t eat

it before it spoiled. As I let it drop into the trash I thought, we just lost a baby at Neema because she was literally starved to death. That is what the Doctor said, she was starved. Does that still happen in our world today?

I have been a little shaken this week by some comments made because we were trying to save the life of baby Noreen.

“Why don’t you save babies in America?” and “Is there really much purpose in saving a baby like this?”

Almost a year old, Noreen weighed about eight pounds, had

pneumonia and was HIV positive when she was brought to Neema House Arusha. But those were not what killed her. AIDs is manageable, you can live a fairly normal life now with it and she was being treated for pneumonia. She died of starvation. We tried. We had nannies staying with her 24/7 around the clock, she was in ICU in the best hospital in Arusha and being fed around the clock but it was just too late when we got her.

Would we even be asking those kinds of questions if it were one of “our babies” here? We would want the doctors to pull out all the stops, do whatever it takes, don’t mind the cost, do everything you can, try something else. Wouldn’t we? What makes some lives worth more than others? I know, I know this is my soap box but really if a child were dying here every minute from drinking unsafe water wouldn’t we be up in arms? God help us.

And with hundreds of government programs to help the poor in America and ninety five percent of all charitable giving staying in America do we have to hear that question once again!

Unfortunately children still starve and mothers still die at alarming rates in parts of this small planet we live on. Most of you read my blog because we are friends, you’re not looking for sensationalism and I don’t write for sensationalism. I just want you to see that Noreen was real, she laughed, she smiled, her mom had dreams for her and she cried more than she laughed. And I want you to see that hunger is real. I’m sorry but you need to see this.

Noreen

Every life is precious, if God knows when a sparrow falls, His heart must have been broken when this little one fell. We tend to want to blame God. I think the answer to the question, why does God allow starving children in Africa, is more – He doesn’t, we do.

Is what we do at Neema House Arusha worth it? Ask these little guys.

Neema’s Ebenezer

Neema’s Maxine

Neema’s Frankie Boy

Neema’s Elesha

I could go on, about sixty eight more times.

Thank you to all of you who supported us through this trying time with your notes of encouragement.

dorris

One Shipping Container, Two Baby Girls and Five Aggies

June 13, 2015

“One Shipping Container, Two Baby Girls and Five Aggies”

What do they all have in common? They are all at Neema House Arusha now!

The Shipping Container out of Global Samaritan in Abilene, landed in Mombasa over a month ago and has been sitting on the dock racking up a daily charge of $65 dollars a day. It finally got to Arusha on Thursday followed by a big crane to off load the container onto the pad out at the land. Unfortunately the crane could only lift 7 tons and our dear friends from Nacogdoches and Temple had loaded nearly 10 tons of goodies into that container. It was loaded from front to back and top to bottom with building supplies, play ground equipment, power saws, mowers, an incubator, furniture, high chairs, diapers, car seats and even a trailer, to name just a few things.

Jack Pape who was out at the site with Matt writes that it was quite precarious as the crane made some scary attempts to get the container off the truck. They ended up having to sit it down and unload items out onto the grass to get it light enough to pick up, swing it over and sit it down on the pad.

There is an old song that keeps popping into my head as I write this little blog, “You loaded 16 tons and what did you get, another day older and deeper in debt.” I’m sure our guys who didn’t get home until after 10 that night felt another day older! A big Thank You to all involved in another great adventure in Africa! There is never a dull day at our home for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Arusha, Tanzania.

Two new babies joined the Neema family this week. Beautiful Patricia whose mother cannot keep her is getting a welcome kiss from Nanny Zawadi.

Noreen whose mom died of AIDs, is eleven months old and weighs just 8.4 pounds. This precious baby is HIV positive, severely undernourished and is battling pneumonia tonight. Please help us pray for complete healing for this baby girl. Psalms 77:14 tells us that God is a God of miracles. We could use one for this little one.

Her medical bills are going to be high this month. It would be awesome for some cool doctor’s office to take on the sponsorship of medical bills for Neema. There are some months when it is tough to pay the bills.

But I am so glad that Neema House never refuses to take a baby no matter in what condition the baby comes to us.

The long awaited Five Aggies for Christ: Hayley Strawn, Alex Miranda, Cole Dotson, Chandler Young and Andy Hounsel, have arrived at Neema and from all reports and the happy looks on their faces are having a blast helping with the building, holding babies and doing some volunteering at the local government hospital. Whoo Hoo! Go Aggies!

And finally the “David and Lyndy Edwards Home for Widows” is going up on the land. It thrills my heart to be able, with God’s help and the generous help of the George and Dorothy Dawson family of Abilene, Texas, to build this home for women who have lost so much in a land where people have so little left to lose.

May the LORD our GOD look with favor upon you.

Dorris and Michael Fortson

Emergency Trip Back to Africa

There are few things worse than having your baby girl hurt, but when she is halfway around the world, it’s worse! Bekah broke her ankle in Arusha,Tanzania a couple of weeks ago and is needing surgery to set it and put in a pin. But there is an infection now, so they have to wait on the surgery. It was a compound fracture and there is about a 5 inch cut on the inside of her ankle which has gotten infected. Dads are not good “waiters” so Michael is heading back to Africa tomorrow to be with her. If you are new to the blog you know we have just gotten back from Africa. We could use lots of prayers right now for Bekah and Michael.

(Bekah in the middle baby room)

Bekah was born in Africa at the Chimala mission hospital back when the lions still roamed the courtyard of the hospital and monkeys swung from the trees outside the door. Actually the monkeys are still there.

She has always had a heart for Africa and babies, so with her EMT skills, our home for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Arusha, Tanzania was the perfect combination for her.

She could use your prayers right now and financial help, she doesn’t have insurance, not that it would be good in Africa anyway. Thanks for helping. You can give on the website donate button www.neemahousearusha.org and just mark it “medical bills”.

Blessings, Michael and Dorris

Bekah checking meds at Neema House Arusha Baby Home.

A Hedge Around Us

April 20, 2015

A Hedge Around Us

Wednesday morning I awoke to sounds of babies crying, which of course was impossible since we are home in Temple, Texas now. After four months of living in the center of our home for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Africa, maybe the cries of our thirty plus babies are permanently imprinted in my mind, I know their faces are certainly imprinted in my heart.

We miss them terribly when we are gone from our home in Arusha where we live with these incredibly beautiful babies. I miss the full body hugs of Frankie who when asked if he had fun at school answers with a lispth “Yeth,” and the cute head ducking of Carolyn Sue which means “You can pick me up now” and tiny abandoned baby, Neema Joy, with both sides of her head shaved from a bout of pneumonia in the hospital with an IV stuck in her scalp, and the chubby cheeks of Bahati and the wrinkle nose smile of Doris and the big eyes of Julius and Ebenezer and … Okay I miss them all! I even miss putting calamine on the 21 Neema babies who had Chicken Pox this trip!

The building site (below) for Neema’s new home is progressing, not as fast as we would have hoped but dirt is moving.

The sites for the baby home, the unadoptable baby home and the widow’s cottage have all been cleared and the road through the property has been levelled. The fence is up and the concrete pad with the one ton generator bolted onto the slab is finished. (Matt and Michael at the delivery of the generator, a gift from the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation.)

Now the village council just has to decide that we have jumped through enough hoops to warrant giving us the building permits! They had at first asked us for 54 million shillings in capital gains tax, a figure they pulled out of a hat somewhere and which translates into a whopping $30,000 US dollars. Since we had not gained any capital in our six months of owning the property we were not inclined to agree to the astronomical price. Our Tanzanian lawyer got the figure down to $5,000 which we have paid and which can now hopefully be passed on to the sellers who actually gained the capital.

Matt, Kelly, Michael and I had a dedication of the land before we left Tanzania last week. (right) It was very sweet and brought tears as we walked around the fence, read bible verses, prayed and put down tent pegs with scripture verses. We asked God to build a hedge of protection around us and give safety, health, joy and vision to all who will live and work on this beautiful land God has provided. Job 1:10

Our daughter, Rebekah (below), has now moved in at Neema and has taken over the medical issues with the babies and nannies. With twenty one babies and two employees covered in Chicken Pox this trip she has had her hands full. Carolyn Sue, (below) one of Neema’s abandoned babies, with Chicken Pox.

As an EMT on her last trip to Neema, Bekah saved the lives of a number of Neema babies and we are blessed to have her living in the baby home now. Kelly, along with homeschooling her two daughters and managing the 32 full time employees at Neema, has taken over the huge task of managing the volunteer program at Neema. Michael over the last three years has spent many hours emailing, sending applications, answering questions, helping with visas, scheduling bed space, calming fears, etc for hundreds of potential volunteer applicants and is overjoyed at handing this over to Kelly so we can concentrate on fund raising and getting sponsors for the babies.

We had over a hundred volunteers last year from twenty one different countries. So if you are interested in volunteering at Neema contact Kelly Erdman at kelly@tzorphan.com.

“Volunteering at Neema is hard work but someone has to do it, like Rhiannan from the UK.”.

Hope you enjoyed these cute pictures of Neema House Arusha babies. If you are not already sponsoring one of these babies jump on board! We need you! As a registered non profit your gift is tax deductible and no administrative salaries are paid from Neema donations.