A Baby On He Lap
April 9, 2019
Our daughter, Kim White, has been at Neema Village for three months handling the volunteer coordinating and the bookkeeping. We are so proud of the work she has done in the office, getting more procedures set up in Quickbooks for Priscilla, designing Excel spreadsheets to keep better records in the office, setting up shared folders so we can all see volunteer schedules, handling payday, balancing the books and she has not lost a single volunteer!
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She has done an especially awesome job with volunteers; meeting new volunteers at the airport, arguing with the airport customs inspector for them, giving introduction tours to the work at Neema Village, (below greeting Caroline and Luna from Belgium) and
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Taking volunteers to exchange money and to the market, getting nightly supper on the table, making sure everything works in the house, giving out keys, scheduling bed space, helping them plan safaris, giving them available opportunities to see the different areas of our work, checking on the sick ones, counseling the troubled ones and daily (sometimes hourly) answering the myriad of questions in emails before volunteers come to Africa like “Will I be safe?” or, “I want to come next week, is that ok?’ (we are now booking many of the busy months one year in advance!) or, “Can you pay my way so I can come hold the Babies?” or “Can I have my own private room? (FYI, we operate like summer camp!!) and “I can only eat …” Really??! And she has handled it all without pay and with Grace and a whole lot of tact.
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All we could say as we watched her work was, “Wow!”
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Her husband, Bruce the Saint, let her come for three months while he stayed home in Wisconsin to work. Kim has paid her own way to come and live at Neema and is a volunteer herself just like the volunteers she serves. She is also on the board of Directors of Neema Village. Kim and Bruce have two children both out of college now. Below is Kim, Bekah, me and granddaughter Maria at one of the many breakfasts at the volunteer house.
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Kim was three months old in 1965 when we first came to Africa. Growing up to the age of six in southern Tanzania as a missionary kid, she spoke perfect Swahili, helped skin animals for meat, played in a river with crocodiles (once), had her diapers washed in a muddy river, named her cat “KLMNOP,” had a monkey bite her on the leg, had a leopard eat her dog, and camped in tents with lions walking around. It is always a wonder for us that our children survived!! Kim says we must have walked around in a God Bubble!
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It looks like she is still doing wild and crazy stuff!
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Africa is in her blood and Neema Village is in her heart. She dearly loves the babies and worked many days in the office with a baby on her lap. But the big kids are her favorites.
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Three months away from her husband and children has been a sacrifice for her and her family but she has done it with great love and commitment to God and her enduring love of the Neema babies. She left for America today. We will miss her beyond words!
Jesus tells us, “Everyone who has left brothers, sisters or father, or mother, or children for my sake will receive a hundred times as much.”
Be Blessed a Hundred Times Dear Heart!
Proud Mom and Dad
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