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!
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.
A Hedge Around Us
ir faces are certainly imprinted in my heart.
d 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.)
d which can now hopefully be passed on to the sellers who actually gained the capital.
