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