Category Archives: Uncategorized

Trading Places

November 17, 2020

I will be as discreet as possible but I want to tell you the story of two prostitutes. No, not the ones in the story of King Solomon although that was quite a story too. This story happened at Neema Village this month. A woman who was five months pregnant and has been making her living on the street since she was 16 years old came to Neema Village for help.

Entering Neema Village

Our plan was to eventually set her up in a MAP business but first she had to go through a program to get rid of the label in her head of who she had been. While she stayed in the Mothering Center at Neema this month, Ashley and I were studying the bible with her and telling her that God loves her no matter what she has done.

The Neema Mothering Center pictured below.

She was sleeping a lot and didn’t want to come out and be with the other moms. She has Aids and is very skinny but didn’t like any of the food we cooked. She spent a lot of time in her room crying. Our nannies tried to make her feel welcome and the other MAP moms tried to include her in the weekly programs. Anna, our MAP director was doing a lot of counseling. But she was having a hard time believing she was not at the bottom of the heap of humanity.

Moms fun class below

Moms having fun making earrings in the Mothering Center.

Yesterday she was to go to a program designed specifically to get women off the street. With 91 young women, Pippi House was a bee hive of activities, children laughing, moms visiting together and a sweet red heart welcoming sign.

We had been able to secure a place for her in the program but only if we would take one of their moms who had just finished a two-year program. The new mom had just finished the program and others were there to see her off on her new life.

So, yesterday we made the trade. It did not go well.

Our lady would not look at the director and facing the door she cried big desperate tears and told us that she didn’t want to stay. It broke our hearts too but she has to do this. We prayed in the office for her but it was still hard to get up, walk out to the car and leave her.

On the other hand, the woman we traded for is excited about her new business of opening a small food shop through our MAP program and is grateful for the help. She has cute little twin boys age two. We have found a home for her and gotten permission from the owners for her to open her food business in the courtyard by her house.

We bought her a bed, pots and pans, sheets and towels, mosquito net and everything she will need to start her business and begin her life over. She had come to us with nothing and now could hardly find enough words to say thank you. We prayed over her new home and asked God to protect her from evil and bless her new business.

So, this week we traded one very unhappy prostitute for one so grateful she could hardly speak.

Oh, the Ups and Downs of this work in Africa! Some of the things we do are almost unbelievable but as I have said before we can’t make this stuff up!

It is so true, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

MAP Mom Linett interview at Neema Village IMG 9365

II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come.”

Can I just say how grateful we are for your support with the babies and the moms at Neema Village.

Love you guys!

Michael and Dorris

The Pumpkins Are Loose!

November 11, 2020

Cathing Up!

All Social Media has been down for 2 weeks here so we have a lot of catching up to do with new babies and a new face around Neema Village! Kassie Stanfield made it to Neema a couple of weeks ago. She is the new volunteer coordinator and since we have no volunteers right now, she is helping Anna in the MAP program and holding babies when she has time.

Kassie is a graduate of Harding University and is a Certified Public Accountant. She gave up a job in Washington D.C. to come volunteer at Neema for a year.

Kassie is teaching a class on Excel this morning for our directors.

These young people, like Kassie, who have such a heart for missions and helping the less fortunate of this world just amaze me. Welcome Kassie!

She brought cute pumpkin outfits for the big kids, too.

Two little Pumpkins are Loose, the twins Furaha and Neyesu!

Three new babies came to Neema Village this week.

Baby Kelle is three months old. Her mother, a prostitute, went out one day and left the baby with a friend and did not return. We don’t know how long but the baby was dehydrated, lethargic, barely moving and would not open her eyes.

She also had sores from what looked like bug bites on her little body and arms. The friend brought the baby in to the hospital. The nurses were frightened for the baby and called Angel, our Social worker, to come pick up the baby. We have been feeding her a few ounces every hour by pouring milk down the inside of her cheek from a cup. She is looking so much better this morning. Her name is Khauthar but we are calling her Kelle.

Precious little Innocent, (pictured below) is another new baby who came to Neema this week. He is one and half months old.

His father is unknown and his mother is deaf, blind, unable to speak and cannot take care of this sweet little guy. Social Welfare brought him in to Neema Village. We love him already.

Ruwayda is a long, skinny, frightened little girl who also came to Neema this week. Her mother died of clampsia shortly after the birth almost a year ago. An aunt has been feeding the baby Uji, a thin gruel with no milk. The baby only weighed 4.2kg (9lbs) at 11 months old when she was brought in to Neema.

She is an at-risk baby with “failure to thrive” diagnosis. The aunt could not continue to keep her but hopefully other family members will be able to take her when she is stable. I love her little face, so full of questions.

The young mom, Tausi, with two Albino children living in the “scary village” we wrote about in the last email, is doing great in her new home just down from Neema. Her oldest boy is in school for the first time and loving it. Tausi is attending the classes at Neema’s Mothering Center and making friends with other young moms who were also deserted by their husbands because they had “special needs or different” babies.

She has asked to study the bible and Ashley has set up some classes for her. She will start a small food business soon and will also continue selling firewood. Thank you to those of you who help these moms start new lives through our Mothers Against Poverty Program.

Life is full here but we miss our kids and especially since our son Rob and his wife Becky and their son Hunter all had Covid. We hear they are all recuperating and waiting for the sense of taste and smell to return.

Love you guys!

dorris

We Needed A Bodyguard

October 19, 2020

I’m not sure I know what “The New Normal” means, do you? Every day at Neema Village brings a new challenge, a different experience, or a dozen upsets to the routine! I can plan the day but it rarely turns out that way. Thank God He has it all under control.

Friday was no exception. Anna, Neema’s MAP director, wanted some company going out to check on a woman who had been homeless with two children. The village was “different” she said and we would need a body guard, so we took David.

With the purple Jacaranda trees it was a beautiful drive out to the village. But after we arrived we knew it was one of the worst living conditions we had seen in our fourteen years living in Africa.

The young woman we came to see had been abandoned by her husband after she had their second Albino baby. An older woman in a small village by the river let the little family live with her. The house was small for the five people living there and children and chickens running in and out.

There were big holes in the walls where the mud had fallen out from between the sticks, letting the cold wind blow through the house. She kept a cook fire going on the floor in one end of the house to keep it warm and there was a bed at the other end where they all slept together.

The old woman was cleaning small fish for their dinner during our visit.

There were cute little kids everywhere playing in the dirt. They made up their own toys like this little boy with his push toy that clicked as he ran around the yard.

The little guy below kept running back to his “box” so I guess that was where he stayed.

Tausi’s oldest boy had built a motorcycle out of logs for himself.

Tall banana trees and a clear, rocky stream tripped along beside the village. It looked lovely on the outside but there was something sinister about this village. I asked why the men of the village did not fix the old widow’s house. She said it was a pombe village where they made native corn brew and the men got drunk and laid around all day.

One of the houses had a scary witch drawn on the door. It certainly kept me out!

Tausi, the young mother, had been chopping wood and selling it to have money for food. You would not want to arm wrestle with this woman!

Ashley had brought a bible for her and she said she did not know about Jesus and asked if Ashley would come and teach her. That of course made Ashley’s day.

Next week we will move Tausi and her children out of this scary village. She will move to the houses we rent for other MAP moms until we can get the Jeff May MAP houses built. Then we can start talking to her about a business.

At Neema Village she will be able to attend the Women’s Rights seminars, sewing classes, computer classes, business classes or English classes. She will meet other women who have had the same experience of despair and poverty. She will learn that it is going to be okay and that there can be happiness again for her and she will hear that God dearly loves her.

When we go out like this to interview a woman who has been beaten down and thrown out like garbage, I always feel like we go with an incredible secret. She doesn’t know the secret yet but her life will never be the same because Hope by the name of Jesus Christ has just entered her life. It is one of the greatest joys we have as we get to be administrators of God’s Amazing Grace in Tanzania, East Africa.

Colossians 1: 27. “To them, God has chosen to make known the glorious riches of this mystery which is Christ In You, the Hope of Glory!

September 2020

October 1, 2020

I’m not usually good with numbers but I can tell by looking back at September it’s been a busy month with two outreach babies and their moms staying at Neema Village and three new babies from social welfare, three new MAP businesses, three babies went home this month and all four of our cows are pregnant! They are all four just big babies themselves and are at the fence begging for carrots.

These four little babies are currently in the isolation room at Neema with Loitapuaki.

Abandoned baby Dallas was left on the street and picked up by the police. His adoptive parents are out there somewhere. We are praying for you wherever you are!

Below, baby Ivan’s mom is a 16-year-old mentally handicapped girl who was raped by a 15-year-old mentally handicapped boy. All our babies have a tragic story or we would not have them. It breaks your heart.

Paul Jonson was born July 4 but weighed only 5.2 lbs. when he came to Neema. His mom died of fistula when he was a month old. PJ looked like a wrinkled little old man but is gaining weight now and looks good.

A friend brought two Maasai moms with handicapped babies to Neema Village this month to have treatment at the Daycare.

. One of the babies, two-year-old Lembursi, was not walking but should have been.

He spent the month at the Neema Village Daycare for Handicapped Babies and is now walking a few steps by himself. If his mom will stop carrying him on her back, he will pick it up back at the village quickly now.

The other Maasai mom has three children but the last baby, Namayani is a year and a half and still cannot hold her head up. She is also blind and deaf. Her little tummy and chest had rows of knife marks where the evil spirits were let out. Yes, we talked long and hard about that.

We were trying to fatten Namayani up before she begins treatment. Mom learned a new way to sit with the baby to strengthen her neck.

Three new MAP businesses were also set up this month. Mama Purity had gone out one day and returned to find her husband had abandoned her and her little CP baby. He had taken everything. She was begging in the little village below Neema. The village elders asked Neema to help so we have set her up in a new vegetable stand and here it is! We love this!

Mama Angel was very sick for two years after the birth of her baby so the baby Angel lived at Neema Village. Now mom takes her medicine every day and comes to all the classes at the Mothering Center.

She is doing great in the sewing class at Neema Village and has a contract to make 100 “Days For Girls” washable feminine pads for a medical mission next year out in the Maasai village. Those young girls do not go to school when they have their periods so they miss a lot of school. Educating girls in Africa is the single biggest thing you can do to lift women out of poverty, so let’s keep these girls in school!

Mama Angel received a sewing machine this month for her sewing business. Don’t you love her purple hair! Because of the sickness her husband gave her, this young woman will most likely never remarry so if purple hair gives her some joy I love it!

Another chicken business was begun this month to help Bibi (grandmother) Ebeneza. One of our happiest Neema babies, two-year-old Ebeneza, was scheduled to return home in October. His mom is mentally handicapped and had tried to kill him when he was a baby so he was brought to Neema Village.

The grandmother has been asking that Ebeneza be returned to her but she did not have an income so we set her up in a chicken business this month.

We have had one adoption this month, baby Faith was adopted and flew off to her new home in Dar es Salaam. Most of the new moms do not want their picture posted.

Our big boy Johanna returned home this month. Two years ago, Sylvia Pape went out to a remote Maasai village to pick up a baby whose mom had just died. Now little Johanna has traveled that road back home. We cannot regulate the homes our babies return to but we do know they go home with a song in their heart that Jesus loves me, this I know. It’s still hard.

The women’s sewing classes have started again after Covid with nine women in this class. They are all doing so good that Anna has asked that we get them all treadle sewing machines. We have raised money for five machines so far.

When you lift a woman, you change her world. If we can lift enough of them, we can change our world.

Love you guys,

Dorris

11 Corinthians 4:7 “We have this treasure in jars of clay that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”

The Life of a Missionary Teacher in Africa

September 15, 2020

At eight thirty every morning, Monday through Thursday, you will find Ashley Berlin at the Neema Village school building in Arusha, Tanzania.

Our kids are always eager to get to school with Ashley and Caroline who make learning fun for the five to three-year old children at our baby home in Africa.

Ashley Berlin, from Casper, Wyoming has been directing our school program for four years. May I just say she is an incredibly dedicated, resourceful and talented teacher.

Her classroom is filled with learning and life and happy students going from one project to the next, like the cute drawings below.

Her students who go on to regular schools in Arusha are always top students in their classrooms. Ashley’s class day starts with bible stories, songs and prayer. Our “Littles” are praying in school below, well some of them are!

Last year we completed the Neema school building on campus with two classrooms, library/music room, office and bathrooms. The building is located behind the baby home on the front corner as you pull into our drive at Neema Village.

The windows in the classrooms open to view beautiful Mt. Meru, the fifth tallest mountain in all of Africa. I would be tempted to just sit and stare out the window!

And the students are off to a good start this school year.

Elesha who is six years old is reading and doing double number additions. He read Psalms 19:21 for us at church a couple of Sundays ago. “The Heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Pretty good for a six-year-old!

The big kids have music and drum classes with Caroline. The two-year olds come later at ten in the mornings for music and they love singing with Caroline, too.

When Ashley has time she loves to hold the little babies at Neema

She also does toy time in the evening for the big kids.

We know this is a ministry of love and sacrifice for Ashley. She misses her family and church in Casper. At Neema she loves to take the big kids like Nengai to church.

For a young woman there are few prospects for marriage and family here and right now with Covid scaring off all our volunteers there are no young people here for her to pal around with, just us old folks.

But there are things that make it all worthwhile like this little face below, cheery little bubbly Isaac!

Sacrifice comes in many different forms today but I am confident that if you asked Ashley if her work was a sacrifice you would hear a resounding, “No Way!” .

May God bless all our teachers but especially those serving in foreign countries.

Mom and Dad Berlin you did an awesome job raising this one!

And Thank you to all the wonderful people who donated time, money, books, furnishings and suitcase space for educational supplies for this project. We know it was a work of love for you

Love and Blessings,

dorris

Ashley Berlin sings with the Neema kids.

A Sad Time for Neema Village

September 8, 2020

At 2:30 this afternoon, we lost Christina. I hate writing those words, it just cannot be. This morning she was sitting in the office and Priscilla was teaching her that when we sing “Jesus loves the little ones like me, me, me,” she was supposed to touch her own chest 3 times. Instead she would lean over and pat Priscilla’s chest. She will never sing those words again. As I write these words I know she is hearing those words right now from the very one who inspired that song. Jesus loves the little ones like you, you, you Christina.

Our Baby Christina was 14 months old. Her mother was a drug addict and the father was unknown. We were her family. We are the ones who took her to the hospital so many times we lost count. We almost lost her a number of times, once when they told us her bowels were dead. Our doctor thought she might have had an aneurism. She had had so many problems in her little body that something just blew and she went home.

We are so proud of our staff, of the nannies, Esther, Joy, Safina and Bekah who did their best doing CPR and of Baraka who raced us to the hospital, lights flashing and horn honking and me with the window down yelling at the traffic to get out of the way!

The staff and the hospital were incredible. They gave her a shot right into her heart and did the paddles, and more CPR, but she was gone. So many of you have prayed for this baby we knew you would want to know.

We say “Life is so short.” This one truly was. We thought she would be the next Neema baby walking. She has walked her little self right into the arms of Jesus. Yes, Life is short but eternity is long. She will be loved a long, long time. While we had her we loved her well.

Our First Graduate From the Day Care

August 30, 2020

Almost three years ago triplets were born at Mt. Meru Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania. The two baby boys were healthy and strong but the little girl was sickly and unable to keep food down, they were not sure she would live. Today she is a graduate!

After the triplets birth the mother stayed a month in the hospital with Esther while the triplet boys, Edward and Elesha, came to Neema Village. When the tiny baby girl was finally able to come to Neema she was put in the incubator in the isolation room and on the warming table to keep her temp up. She was about half the size of her brothers.

Her brothers grew big, were rambunctious and into everything. But Esther continued to struggle to put on weight and keep food down. She was slow to sit up and could barely stand on her on at two while the boys were running all over the place.

When we opened the Day Care for Handicapped babies last year, we began taking Esther to the center every day. With the help of some great donors we bought equipment to help the babies sit up, reach for things, crawl and hopefully someday walk. Napendaella and teacher Penuweli and the daycare staff worked long hours with Esther and the other babies enrolled at the daycare.

The babies get coconut oil massages every day to loosen up restricted muscles. Below, Esther on the parallel bars at the Daycare in her new blue graduation dress made by the daycare staff.

At the Daycare the babies eat nutritious food and are applauded for each accomplishment. In June while we were still in the States we got our first video from Kim that Esther was walking. I’ve watched that video many times and still cry every time. Below Esther at the graduation party at Neema Village.

The boys went home almost a year ago. Their mother had been working on the street, is HIV positive and needed help. Through the MAP program at Neema Village we moved her to a new location and set her up in a small shop selling staples like sugar, flour, salt, veggies, etc. She has a good business going now, is taking her medicine and the little family has a great future together. Esther is the tiny one in the middle below.

At the Neema graduation party, the Triplets’ mom talked about how grateful she was to have found the help she needed from Christians at Neema Village.

At the Daycare party we shared with the moms and staff that the world may have thought that Esther’s future was to be an invalid, to be put off and hidden in a dark room somewhere but that God’s plan was for her to walk and have a life full of joy and accomplishments.

Hopefully our talk was an encouragement for the other moms of the handicapped babies to not give up, that it might not be all they had planned and dreamed of when they were expecting their babies but that their lives could still be full of love and happiness if they will go with God’s plans for hope and a future. It is Amazing Love that brings these little handicapped babies into a life of hope.

I think we can all live life to the full with that promise, don’t you!

We hope you live God’s plan of hope and a future in your life today, too!

Bekah (above) spent long hours with this little one in the isolation room. She will miss this baby when she goes home one day soon. But it is what Neema does best!

Dorris and Michael, just Administrators of God’s Amazing Grace.

Jeremiah 29:11

Esther graduates from Daycare at Neema Village. video IMG 7679

A Double Whammy

August 27, 2020

Two moms with babies and such tragic stories came to Neema Village needing help. Two shipments we have been anxiously waiting for both came in on the same day. A double whammy twice on the same day!

This little 1.8 kg baby (below) was born three weeks ago at the hospital. The mom and baby had been staying in the hospital because they had nowhere to go. The hospital does not have food service so family members must come to the hospital to cook for the patients. Since the mother, Mariam, had no one to cook for her the nurses had been trying to bring her some food and snacks.

Her husband had given her AIDS, then abandoned her. She was alone in the hospital. The hospital staff called to see if we could help. We brought her home to Neema today and put her in the women’s shelter bedroom at the Mothering Center.

She is depressed and afraid to nurse the baby so we are supplying formula, bottles and clean water for the baby and good nutritious food for Mariam along with some counseling and encouragement. She also got to go into the “Dress For Success” room in the Mothering Center and pick out some clothes. We will have to make a business plan for her later when she is stable. The baby is so tiny he gets lost in the blankets .

Another mom, Happyness, came with her little eleven-month-old handicapped baby named Purity today. It’s another one of those sad stories where the husband cannot take the stigma of having a handicapped child and abandons the family. This one left with all the furniture and possessions of the family and Happyness came home to find her sole possession was one foam mattress on the floor.

She has been walking around the neighborhood with Purity on her back begging in the little village below Neema. She stopped at a poor widow woman’s house and the old woman decided she could stay in an empty room in her house for 5,000 shillings a month (about $2.50). There was no water or electricity.

The very poor mud and stick house was on a small hill just off the road down to the Moivaro Coffee lodge. The village leaders heard about Happyness begging around the village and called Neema to help.

The old lady’s two daughters in law came into the room when Anna and I came to visit and the six of us could barely fit in the room. But she said her son is coming home now and she will need the room back so Happyness and Purity were homeless again.

Below, our MAP Director Anna in the middle, met Happyness on the road looking for a room where Happyness and Purity could live. Anna also took them to the Neema Village Day Care for Handicapped Babies and got Purity enrolled.

After finding a room, Anna took Happyness to the African market for a bed, chair, table and gas cooker. I can never go with Anna on these buying trips. When an Mzungu shows up the price goes up! Anna also bought her some dishes, pots and pans and some food. Now Happyness and Purity have a home!

We prayed with both these girls today and told them they were not alone, that Hope and Help were available and they would be happy again. We told them that God is a Blessing God and loves to bless His people who then bless others. We will start Happyness in a small business selling staples like sugar, flour, salt, soap, veggies, etc. We pray Walmart never comes to Tanzania! It would ruin all these little businesses we are setting these women up in, all 74 of them now!

When we arrived back at Neema this afternoon, we got the call that the truck was on the way to Neema with the crate we had shipped back in March (pictured at the top). Then we got the call that the box with the pasteurization machine sent through DHL quick delivery, had also finally arrived. It took a month! The crate had been opened and we are pretty sure it had been pilfered. I guess someone needed those diapers more than we did!

We do believe that God is a Blessing God and somedays like today He blesses us with both challenges and blessings!

May you be doubly blessed today,

Dorris and Michael

The Widow Wins It All!

August 9, 2020

You are not going to believe who this is!!

Yes, it’s Phillip!

Kim Fortson White writes: “I was at Neema Village when this little cutie pie (above) came in. I have never seen a baby so emaciated (below). God placed just the right people at Neema to care for him. Thank you Rebekah Johnson for your tireless efforts. Keeping the oxygen tanks full (not easy in Tz) and giving the right meds to treat the worst lung infection the doctor had ever seen in a baby. And thank you God for the incredible nannies of Neema Village who literally stood watch 24 hours a day over this baby for months on end. They are also God’s miracles.”

Neema Village is getting close to 300 babies saved in eight years. There have been a few we got in too late to save, this little one at three months old and just over 3.3 lbs, was close.

It’s a little early for another blog but just had to share some good news with you. This week we began our 3rd Women’s Rights Seminar in the Koala Place Mothering Center on the Neema Village campus. It is named Koala because 2 Australian nurses built the Mothering Center where all the MAP events happen.

The Women’s Rights Seminar is a 16 week course taught by two young attorneys. They help women understand that they do have rights; the right to not be beaten, to inherit their land and cows, the corn, the home and the fields. The first class today was about how their children have the right to support from the father and how to make that happen.

Baraka, one of the attorneys, is with me in the picture to the right and Winnie is pictured below with some of the women during break.

The 25 women who came today are new to the MAP program. Most of them were abandoned by their husbands and left to care for their children alone. At Neema’s Mothering Center they find a support group of moms struggling just like themselves. They are also able to take classes in sewing, computer, bookkeeping, and look at other business ideas like sustainable farming, egg business, bee keeping, etc.

Winnie, the attorney, is the one in the grey suit below.

But on with the story of the widow. Mwajuma showed up at Neema a few years ago. She was sitting in the driveway one morning when we woke up. She had had polio when she was 12 and has walked on her knees since then. She married and had a son and then her husband left her. On this morning, Michael helped her into Neema where we could visit with her about what help she needed.

She knew how to make the beautiful shoes that are so popular in Tanzania so after visiting with her we set her up in the shoe business.

But last year she had a wreck, broke her leg and has had 2 surgeries, now sadly it looks like she will not be able to work again.

A friend called her a few months ago and told her that her husband had died. Mwajuma decided to go to the village. While there she began to talk to the elders about her right to inherit the land and home. She had learned some very important things through the Women’s Rights program and she was able to inherit all he had owned. The widow got it all!

Now one last happy story. A baby ( above) was left abandoned at the hospital in January. The mother just walked out after the birth. The nurses gave her a few days to hopefully return but she never did so Neema Village was called and we named the baby Patric.

Yesterday Patric was adopted! His new mom is from Dar and she flew to Arusha and spent a couple of days with Patric so he would not be afraid. She spent the night in the small baby room with the nannies and in the morning they flew off to Dar and a whole new life for this sweet baby. It’s what Neema does best!

A Whole New Life is what Jesus does best too, but you probably know that or you wouldn’t be reading this long blog!!

Bless you,

Dorris and Michael, just Administrators of God’s Amazing Grace.

Psalms 30:11

Another reminder: As you continue to buy things through Amazon, please remember to buy through Amazon Smile. It is Amazon’s way to give back. Set up Neema Village as your “Charity of Choice” and they will give Neema Village 5% of your purchase. We are registered with Amazon as a nonprofit so you just have to scroll down the list of nonprofits until you get to Neema Village, click there and everything you buy will make money for Neema. But be sure you choose Amazon Smile when you go to Amazon to purchase something. Asante Sana!

Michael and Dorris. www.neemavillage.org

A Happy Ending

August 6, 2020

We had told you a few weeks ago about a mother and her big handicap boy, Ezekiel. She had been selling homemade, fermented to near lethal, corn brew to men lounging outside her home and making trouble for her children. Social Welfare had asked Neema Village for help. Now here is the rest of her story.

We moved Mama Ezekiel and her four children from the mud hut where they had been living (pictured above) into a concrete house close to a busy street where she could do a different business. Ezekiel was excited to see us when we came to the new house today.

She had fixed up the new house by covering the concrete walls with colorful fabric.

But the biggest change was the light bulb! From a dark mud room (pictured below) where we could barely see her face to this bright cheery home, above, has been an amazing change for her.

I remember when we first moved back to Tanzania we were told that only 3% of Tanzanian families have electricity. Can you imagine the difference a single light bulb can make in the life of a family! The children can do their homework after dark, she can work on the books for her new business, they can read stories before they go to bed! To see such a huge change in the lives of these MAP women always makes me cry, too, Mama Ezekiel.

Today we had come to deliver her new business, a vegetable stand. Baraka, our Neema Village shop manager, had welded the metal stand together and it took four of our guys to move it.

We set it up on a busy street where we blessed the stand and prayed that she would have a good business there and be able to support her family.

This morning she went to the local African market and bought her first produce to sell; avocados, eggplant, bananas, new potatoes, etc. She wants to branch out to sugar, salt and soap next. As I finish this blog today, I learned she sold all the vegetables by the end of her first business day!

The rewards are great in this business of helping lift the women of Africa through our MAP program. Huge hugs are priceless!

May you be Blessed with lots of Hugs today!

Dorris and Michael, Administrators of God’s Amazing Grace.

Baby Ruth Hits A Home Run

Baby Ruth Hits a Home Run

July 26, 2020

I always think I will write just a short note letting you know the latest from Neema Village. Then I start thinking about all the cool things that God has done this month like what happened to Baby Ruth and the astonishing transformation of Margareth, the girl from the dump, and the words just won’t stop!

On August 26, 2013 a newborn baby was found in the grass in a stranger’s front yard. He was naked, still had his umbilical cord attached, and had a rash on his cheek from laying in the grass all night. It still makes me cringe to think of what might have come up in the night to sniff at him. Poor little guy.

Social Welfare brought the baby to Neema and we named him Daniel. Daniel grew and grew, he became like a little tank, healthy and strong but with a gentle spirit. A family from Dar es Salaam came to adopt a baby and they chose Daniel. They connected immediately, probably because the mom always brought cookies and Daniel loved food of any kind.

(I don’t know how the following picture got in here, except that I am a chocoholic and love Baby Ruth candy bars!)

But on with the story. A few years ago, another baby was abandoned when a mother asked a stranger to hold her baby while she went to do something. The mother left and never returned. We named this little abandoned baby Ruth and called her Baby Ruth. She was quiet and shy, didn’t smile much and never stood out when people came looking to adopt. Ruthie got older, had not been chosen to be adopted and was finally moved up to the big girl’s UCare house.

The big kid’s houses, Montana and UCare are usually for the kids who have some family problems or medical issues that make them un-adoptable or unable to return home. By the time the kids get to the big kids houses they are usually not adoptable and we foster them and put them in school in town. (Montana and UCare houses on the Neema Village campus pictured below)

But 400 miles away in Dar es Salaam, Daniel had decided he wanted a little sister and began to pester his mom about getting one. They didn’t want a little baby and when they came to Neema Village Ruthie was just the right age for them. So, Daniel got a little sister and Baby Ruth got a forever family. I like to think she hit a “Home Run” with this sweet family. (You probably have to be over 50 to understand that)

Last year we told you the story of a young mom picking up used plastic bottles from the dump. She would rummage through trash until she had a huge bag of dirty bottles and then take them to the plastic grinding plant where she was paid 1,000 shillings per bag, or about .50 cents.

We went with Anna and Kim to find this young girl and could not believe anyone could stay in such an inferno; the grinding machine was so loud it would “adle the brain.” Which is what we thought happened to Margareth. When we went to interview her, we knew there was something terribly wrong with her, her eyes were vacant, she never smiled or spoke a word, only sucked on a candy that we gave her baby.

Much to our surprise Margareth has flourished in Neema’s MAP program. She began taking sewing classes at Neema last year. When we returned to Africa after Covid 19 this year, we found she was taking computer classes at Neema! I just have to laugh at how God surprises us all the time.

The schools are opening again in Tanzania and our Neema Village Day Care for Handicap babies will reopen in August. We can’t wait. These little ones, like Bryson, need all the help they can get to reach their full potential in life.

As you continue to buy things through Amazon, please remember to buy through Amazon Smile. It is Amazon’s way to give back. Set up Neema Village as your “Charity of Choice” and they will give Neema Village 5% of your purchase. We are registered with Amazon as a nonprofit so you just have to scroll down the list of nonprofits until you get to Neema Village, click there and everything you buy will make money for Neema. But be sure you choose Amazon Smile when you go to Amazon to purchase something. Asante Sana!

May you always be surprised at God’s Mighty Hand in your life!

Michael and Dorris

Mama Ezekiel and The Pombe Business

July 14, 2020

We have been back in Tanzania and Anna asked if I would go with her to check on a mom who needed help. Our MAP program helps mothers in need with housing, food, support and small business opportunities. After a year and a half, we have 72 moms in our MAP program. God is Good Indeed!

This mom had a business of making Pombe (a local corn brew which could sterilize your nostrils from half a mile away!) and which was not a good business for her. She has four children and the men coming to buy the beer were causing much trouble. The local Commissioner called Neema Village to see if we could help her.

We took off down the dirt road but soon had to leave the car and walk in. The path led us through a winding trail of mud and stick houses with squawking chickens and crying children afraid of the strange Mzungu (me) walking by. We called, “Hodi” as we came to Mama Ezekiel’s door.

Mama Ezekiel, Paulena, has four children. The youngest was damaged at birth and the husband, ashamed that he would have a child like that, abandoned the family. Paulena began making and selling beer in order to feed her four children. Inside the house we found she had only one bed and she, Ezekiel and one of the girls slept in the bed. The other two children slept with friends or neighbors.

Ezekiel is seven and a big boy now. It always touches me how these moms with handicap babies are so proud of every little thing their children can do. Paulena was proud that Ezekiel could bless Anna by putting his hand on her head, a common custom here. Anna is always so gracious to these moms and their babies.

It is hard to keep from crying as we hear these women tell their stories of abuse and abandonment. Paulena would make a pail of brew but the men who came to buy would often run away before paying. Drunken men would hang around her house and she knew this was not safe for her children.

Ezekiel is a sweet child who tried to smile at us even though he was afraid. After talking with Paulena we decided to move her to a safer neighborhood and start her in a vegetable business. Her new house, below with the yellow door, is concrete and close to a major road where she can do a good business.

After the visit Paulena and Ezekiel came out to walk us back to the car. I don’t know about you but when I see this mom holding this big boy I wonder just how much longer she can carry him around! We may need to get her a stroller.

These African women are the strongest women I know. She tied this big boy on her back and off we went!

A vegetable stand is always a good business here since local Tanzanians do not go to the big super markets. With six months rent at $102, the vegetable stand with vegetables at $250, and monthly support at $30 per month for six months while she gets her business going, Mama Ezekiels’s business will cost about $532. USD.

As we drive off from these visits Anna always sings her song.

“The time to be happy is now

The place to be happy is here

And the way to be happy

Is to make someone happy

And we have a little heaven down here.”

May you be blessed with Health and Happiness and a little Heaven down here,

Michael and Dorris Fortson, Directors and Founders of Neema Village Tanzania Inc.

http://www.neemavillage.org