Elesha below helping in the garden is definitely essential.

I have to admit we are scared for Africa, this land we have loved for half a century. Our local doctor there says when it hits it will be hard and fast and then it will be over quickly. We are praying that the years of malaria medicine which most Africans have had at some time or another will protect them.  We are also praying that God will step in and say, “Enough!”

Kim says many of the people are terrified. Some of them have seen this before when smallpox, measles, polio, Ebola, the white man’s flu all came scouring over the land leaving villages deserted and babies motherless. Our nannies believe in the power of prayer and called for a three-day fast.

Then we got a new abandoned baby in and they named her Faith. How appropriate for such a time as this.

“When you come to the end of all the light you know and are about to step off into the unknown, Faith is knowing there will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to fly.”

 I love that.

Loving all of you who support this beautiful work, too.

Dorris and Michael Fortson. Neema Village www.neemavillage.org

*The nannies have since given her a name, Faith. How appropriate for this scary time in our world.

If you have never been to Neema Village and wondered what it looks like to drive on campus this is it. We are built into the side of a mountain, the bricks on the road are handmade right there on campus and we have had to plant lots of bushes and grass to keep the dirt from sliding down the mountain. Folks tell me it looks like a mansion on a hill and it does but we built for $24 dollars a square foot and All by God’s Abundant Grace!!

Michael and Dorris

When this evil virus was announced a few weeks ago I went to the store along with everyone else and bought lots of canned food in case there was a famine. Things like canned meats and vegetables, dried fruit and enough rice and peanut butter to feed an army.  Now after being in the house for two weeks I am beginning to wonder whatever possessed me to buy canned peas! or canned turnip greens?  I can tell you canned pot roast does not taste like real pot roast no matter what the label says. And dried beets, what’s with that! And who eats spam except on a camping trip? Actually, if you fry the spam until it is crispy it’s quite editable.

And I was driving to my sisters to take her lunch today and turned my blinker on to signal the turn. The windshield wipers came on!  The blinker was on the other side of the steering wheel and I turned into the wrong lane! I haven’t been outside driving and had digressed back to how we drive in Africa. Fortunately, no one else was out driving. They were all in their houses where the President has told us to stay!

Yes, I am a bit discombobulated!

And then I talked to our daughter, Kim White, who is in Africa with the abandoned and orphaned babies at Neema Village until we return in May.

She had read something she wanted to share.

“Social Distancing is a privilege. It means you live in a place large enough to spread out.

Hand washing is a privilege too. It means you have access to running water.

Hand Sanitizers are a privilege. It means you have money to buy them.

Lockdowns are a privilege. It means you can afford to stay home.”

And your school closed means you were privileged enough to go to school.

Most of the world’s people are not privileged enough to do any of these, including many of the people working at our baby home in Africa.

As I thought about our nannies coming to work each day in crowded face-to-face dala dalas (public vans) and how they bring the day’s water for their family into their house in a bucket from the public spigot down the road or the polluted stream in front of their home and how most of them live in a one room home and sleep in a crowded bed with the whole family, I know we are privileged.

This pandemic crises, which is truly awful, will be over someday and we will go back to our privileged lives, most of us unaware that the everyday crises of half a million moms dying in childbirth every year and handicap babies hidden in dark rooms and 3 million little girls cut every year in FGM and millions of children dying from drinking dirty water, and 200 million little girls waking up every morning wishing they could go to school and knowing they never will, etc.. etc… and that these crises will continue on because they happen to the poor and not the privileged.

And we will be left wondering what we are going to do with ten cans of peas and turnip greens.

Stay Safe Everyone,

Love you,

Dorris and Michael.

Did you know that 365 times in scripture God says “Do not be afraid.”

Blessings,

dorris and michael.

They couldn’t find a vein the first day for the blood transfusion and Christina became more critical as each day passed. The next day they were able to give her the blood. Christina perked up with all that new blood and in a few days Dr. Matthews said, “Well the bowels are working now so she doesn’t need the surgery.” Who knew dead bowels could come alive and begin working!!  God just continues to amaze us in this work of saving abandoned, orphaned and at-risk babies in Tanzania!

Have you ever laughed out loud at the exact timing of God’s provision? Has He ever schooled you in the futility of worry? Wow, has God been working on me all these years of doing Neema Village finances!!!! I cannot tell you how many times one of you has provided funds just when something urgently needed for the babies came up at Neema Village. We are continually amazed at God’s faithfulness working through you. Whether or not you personally donate or are one of the many telling others about Neema Village, thank you so much for your love and support! Neema Village could not exist without you!

Now a bit of housekeeping,,,

All of the 2019 donation receipts have either been mailed (USA donors only) or emailed to you last week. Because I have already received some undeliverable mail and email, please contact me at [email protected] if you have not received a donation receipt yet. Let me know if your email or address has changed so we can update the records. There are some international donors who need tax receipt for dates other than Jan-Dec so please let me know that as well. Donation receipts are sent by each Dec 31^st as required by IRS laws in order to provide a total for the year. However, anyone giving a once or twice per year donation can request a donation receipt by letting us know when the donation is made.

For volunteers who fundraise for Neema thank you so much! You can use the email above to ask about how much you have raised for Neema. To protect our donor’s privacy, we will never give names with amounts they donate. With 20 plus beds in the volunteer house, we do not automatically send weekly or even monthly reports to our volunteers but will gladly supply total fundraising if you contact us.

Something donors like to know- Neema Village Tanzania NGO is audited yearly by an independent auditor in Tanzania as required by Tanzanian law. The Neema Village Tanzania nonprofit in the USA also undergoes yearly audits from an independent auditor following standards of accountability for nonprofits.

Again- thank you so much for everything you do for the work done at Neema Village. Some of the projects now done were not imagined in the beginning- God has His own ideas about what He wants done! Obviously!

Have a blessed year!

Sarah Lockett, treasurer Neema Village Tanzania

Also this morning we got word that two abandoned babies needed picked up at the hospital so our volunteers headed out with Angel to bring the babies home to Neema Village.

Live Love Anyway,

dorris

Dear God, this is hard. Your son spent so much time with the desperately poor, I’m not sure how he did that day after day and kept his sanity.

If you have a floor that doesn’t turn to mud when it rains, please be thankful today.

dorris

God is preparing just the right adoptive parents for these two little abandoned babies, but we get the joy and privilege of loving them until their new parents arrive.

This is what we want for the babies, but I do have to say it is sometimes hard to see them go!

This month another mom, pictured below, finds hope through the Neema Village MAP program.  Halimah was abandoned by her husband while she was pregnant.

Come see us and we will take you out to lunch at Halimah’s!

All in God’s timing.

Selfishly please just say a prayer for our rental business which needs some major attention when we get home in February.  Since we don’t take a salary for what we do here that crazy business is what allows us to live and work in this beautiful land. We need it to be successful! Thank God!

Be Blessed in 2020,

Dorris and Michael

We had begun the morning with a “cow meeting” in French translated into Swahili and then into English. Not that we or our cows speak French but Jean Yves, our volunteer from France who is a cow expert, does. He has been observing our milking process and had some suggestions for Yohanna (pictured below).

After visiting in her home we drove her over to the day care and as usual were so touched by how precious the nannies are as they sing and work with the babies.

Another “atypical” day at Neema Village which is pretty typical.

In a country where there is very little government resources to help the helpless and homeless it is God’s people who step in. Bless you dear hearts who care enough to stand in the gap with us.

Dorris