“Say Yes to Someone”
Two years ago this month Matt and Kelly Erdman took their two daughters Camille and Tabitha and left everything familiar to them, their family, their church which they loved, grocery stores stocked with favorite foods, people who spoke English, a pension plan from work, Mexican food, TV news (well maybe not that so much) and moved to Africa to live their lives among the people of Tanzania, East Africa.
They had heard our stories of abandoned, orphaned, and at risk babies and after asking God to guide their decision, they said yes. It is amazing to me for young families to do this. Michael and I are old, it is not too hard but Matt and Kelly are young, both had promising careers, Kelly as an Occupational Therapist and Matt as an excellent builder. They said yes and gave it all up to come to Tanzania and work with the babies at Neema House Arusha.
(One of my favorite pictures, Camille Erdman, with Rehema’s help feeding one of the Neema babies, left.) I have just finished reading the book “Called for Life” by Kent and Amber Brantly and have to tell you I have not been so captivated by a book in a long time. The gripping story of this young family who, like Matt and Kelly, left everything to come and work with the people of Africa left me in tears one moment and sheer terror for them at other times.
From Physician to Patient, Dr. Kent tells how he struggled first to help people with Ebola and then how he fought to survive Ebola himself. As he worked with so many patients he knew he could not become involved in every life who came to him for help but with a few he was able to say yes as he took on their hurt and hope. We all have lots of pulls on our lives, there are so many people that need help, lots of good work that needs done, lonely people that need someone to listen, and we can’t say yes to everyone, but Dr. Kent says if we will all say yes to someone then everyone will be taken care of. I think that is what Matt and Kelly have done too. They said yes.
Above Matt, Kelly, Bekah and Mama Musa at the monthly staff meeting. Matt does a great job of managing the books and keeping the finances straight. He is out at the land everyday helping with the decisions about the buildings and grounds at the new property. Kelly manages the staff, daily schedules, dealing with Social Welfare and has now taken over the huge job of coordinating Neema volunteers. With all that she manages to home school Camille and Tabitha as well. Bekah as an EMT manages the medical issues of the babies and nannies. Mama Musa is our manager.
I am reminded at this time of year how Jesus said yes too. Could he have said no? Of course, but he didn’t, he said yes. And so he came to a little insignificant town, to a backyard stable that smelled of manure, he came unwanted, unknown, unwelcomed, his family living as refugees barely escaping with their lives, and yet he came to show us how to love those who hate, how to return good for evil, how to not worry ourselves into early graves but to live lives of faith in a big God who loves, who is near to each one of us and who is always good. Thank God He said yes!
We thank God Matt and Kelly did too. Below the Erdmans at one of our sweet adoptions. (Neema House does not take money for adoptions.)
As we work with these little ones at Neema House Arusha, many of them unwanted, thrown out and unwelcomed too, I am touched by how Jesus identifies with them and wants little children near him. I think his big heart is always tilted toward these little abandoned ones. I know yours has been too this year as you have helped us feed and clothe them. Bless You.
Neema babies, Patricia, Zawadi and Jemma, above, dressed for the Christmas celebration.
“If Jesus is not born once in my heart, he can be born a thousand times in Bethlehem and I will still be lost.” Corrie Ten Boon.
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?
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.
Gabriella above is also new at Neema. She is an abandoned baby. 
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!
s. 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.
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!
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!)
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! 
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. 
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!)
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
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!
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!
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?
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.
