One of the great privileges of my life was to serve as the founding board chairman of Heart for Africa. The organization spent three years working with children’s homes in Swaziland and Kenya to build facilities and support their operations with monthly donations. In 2008, we saw 2,500 acres of wild land in Swaziland that was purchased a year later thanks to a generous donor. It’s now home to 181 children from infants through the seven-year-olds plus a commercial farm, a diary, a commercial chicken house and an aquaponic farm.
I receive a weekly update from Janine Maxwell, the co-founder, who leads the faith-based organization with her husband, Ian. One recent post described a two-year-old boy who arrived at Project Canaan nine months ago severely malnourished with tuberculosis and full-blown AIDS. He could not crawl or stand and made only grunting noises, she wrote. His survival was in doubt, but he finally was discharged from the hospital.
When dealing with people with who are carrying the AIDS virus or have the active disease, physicians monitor the CD4 count (the higher the better) and the viral load (the lower the better).
When he was discharged eight months ago, his CD4 count did not register and his viral load was 10 million (yes, 10 million). He’s received plenty of love, nutritious food and anti-retro viral drugs plus medication to battle the TB. Most importantly, he was receiving lots of prayer for miraculous healing.
When he had a blood test recently, his viral load was just 179. He now walks, plays, sings in the choir, dances to music and prays at meal time. Praise God during Holy Week. He’s not the first miracle child living at Project Canaan, just the latest and presumably not the last.
For information, please see
If you want to share stories about people doing good, stop by Inklings on Main Street this morning from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and meet Mary Latham. She is travelling across the country finding good stories. She lost her mother to cancer and was struck by the lack of positive literature in hospital waiting rooms. She will compile her stories and photos into a book and then place them in hospitals. For information, please see
