Hi Everyone!

My name is Gabrielle, also referred to as Jabu (my SiSwati name), and I am one of the 3 interns here at One Heart Africa this summer! I’m the youngest of the crew; I’m 18 and just finished high school! I will be attending Lee University in the fall to pursue a degree in journalism and a minor in intercultural studies. I have a huge passion for missions, and loving people – and I’m so excited to be here this summer to truly live and learn all about One Heart Africa and the difference they are making here!

Living in Swaziland so far is incomparable to any place I’ve ever ventured to. I’ve been on several mission trips to Haiti and traveled to many countries in the world, but there’s something different about this place! Living here has really helped me appreciate the beauty of their culture. The people here are so genuine and honest – the love here is simply awe-inspiring. With that comes the desperate need, and that is where One Heart Africa comes in to play. Being here over 3 weeks now, I can already see the huge impact that OHA is making on this community. OHA does more than just farm or feed, they are truly educating, empowering, and equipping the community. It’s hard to really see that when it’s not right in front of you, but let me tell you – big things are happening here and I can’t wait to help communicate that in these next few weeks!

I will be writing to you occasionally, as well as the other interns, as we all take part in heading up the media for OHA these next few months!

As for now, it was so nice to meet you!

Until next time,

Jabu

The following blog is by summer 2017 OHA Media Intern, Emma Welborn. 

As I think about the past couple of weeks, one thing that comes to my mind is overcoming. The days here are a much slower pace than the days back home, and through this slower pace of life we learn efficiency and priority. But, there are some things that cannot be helped and they never cease to get in the way. We have overcome Wi-Fi difficulties, which is tough considering all of us interns are here for media related purposes. Nonetheless, we battled around that and found ways to make use of our time through helping with the farm, teaching us things we would have never thought of otherwise, like aquaponics (basically using fish poop to grow plants). We also had the opportunity to go to a Care Point, a school for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs), and were able to see the workings of a 14-year volunteer who sacrifices her life to help these children. Having no Wi-Fi gave us time to delve into the Word, and figure out our purpose for this trip and to form deeper bonds with one another.

In case you didn’t know, the food in Africa is different than that of the United States. Though we have been careful (drinking only filtered water), we have battled food poisoning, and are working to overcome a stomach bug. Combine this with homesickness and lack of sleep, one can see where it’s easy for us to lose focus of our mission. But, through many pep talks and forced joy, we have learnt to be there for each other and to work together to overcome the curse of bad health.

So, three weeks in and we are realizing how imperfect the human is, but how perfect our God is. We are able to form lesson plans for teenage girls, take photos to narrate the lives of the local workers, spend days running errands all over Swaziland to fuel a nonprofit, and grow deeper in faith and friendship with one another.

While it is easy to look back and only see the hard things we would not have had to face in the comforts of our own homes, it is refreshing to know how much God works in His own ways, and to see just how strong we are as a team. One Heart Africa is doing amazing things, but it is not without difficulty. I have been able to see the work Anna and Ryan put in every day, and trust me, the payoff is beautiful. Families clothed and fed, children going to school, a light in a world of darkness, oh the things we have overcome.

For the past two months, we’ve had this gem of an intern. It’s about time we get to introduce her to you! Presenting… Intern Won the Swan.  🙂

Hey there OHA followers!

So good to finally meet you. I’m Yee Won, your first official One Heart Africa intern! I’m so excited to be here on the ground in Swaziland serving with Ryan and Anna. For the next three months I’ll be working as OHA’s multimedia intern, taking care of social media, blogging, and some administrative things. So what brought me here? The thrill. Jesus. And the internship requirements for my degree.

I’m a senior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where I’m a double major in communication & Spanish. At UTC, I fell in love with photojournalism after taking a class with my most favorite professor, Billy Weeks. He taught me that making images can produce change in a way that guns or knives can never do. I’m excited to use media as an avenue for storytelling because it’s one of the best ways I know. Telling people’s stories through images is powerful, and allows others to see people and places they may never. It sparks change, shows growth, and connects people. OHA has such an amazing story to tell, and I truly am honored to be a part of telling it.

I hope this summer will be a time of growth for me! I’m in a totally new place, with a new culture, and a new community. I’ve never really done anything like this before. My prayer is that God will allow me to see people the way He sees them. From each little Mozambaby’s hand I hold, to the kokos we will pray with during home visits, I hope that God uses this summer to shape me to look more like Him.

When I go home, I want to be able to show people my work—images and videos that can clearly represent what OHA is doing. I want to have created beautiful, meaningful things, and have helped the CEO’s out in a noticeable way. I hope this summer is something that will stretch me, and test me, and grow me for the better.

Africa, I am here for you.

Leggo!

You may have recently seen some pictures on our various social media pages about our vegetable gardens and greenhouses making progress over in Swaziland. But what exactly is the significance of this sustainable farming you’re hearing so much about?

Sustainability is a word that has surfaced in the past 30 or so years to address ecological, economic, political and cultural development, and it basically means the endurance of systems and processes.

In the case of One Heart Africa’s farm in Swaziland, sustainability means the change of livelihood of those living in poverty. It’s easy to ask for money to provide food and resources for those in need, but the aid only helps as long as it takes to expend it. So what can be done?

Thanks to a partnership with Harvests of Hope, we’ve developed a farm using organic seeds, pine dust, and animal manure that will yield crops for years to come! We’ve also built custom shade gardens that house 800 plants each. Since the plants aren’t getting as much sun as they typically would if they were out in the open, they try harder to get to the sun, which means they grow faster. Our crops are in individual seedling bags filled with very nutrient-rich soil, which means they require little water. This is also a plus, since the area we plant in can experience drought. We don’t use pesticides, and the greenhouses cut down on soil erosion and protect the soil’s nutrients.

HIV affects many families in the village, and one way to keep them healthy is by providing healthy food to keep them strong. Even if an HIV-positive individual takes the proper medication, it means very little if they do not receive proper nutrition. The OHA farm seeks to be an avenue where these families can get the food they need for free.

Not only does the farm support impoverished families, but it provides jobs for them. Poverty rips families apart by forcing one or both of the parents to leave their homes to seek work in different cities or even different countries. The children are then left in the care of a friend or relative, they don’t get the care they need, and the poverty cycle continues.

OHA believes that families should be together. Period. We seek to break this cycle by providing on-the-job training and steady, ethical employment through the profits from a portion of the crops. Our goal is to build guesthouses on the property so that each family that works with us can stay together.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for your continued interest and support in the work happening in Africa. We are so excited about everything going on, and look forward to sharing all the great developments in the villages there that have stolen our hearts!

Wow, let me first start off by saying that this year has been a banner year in the life and times of One Heart Africa!  We are continually blown away by the things that have happened and wanted to do a quick recap so that we can celebrate 2013’s accomplishments and start dreaming about the upcoming year.  Here we gooooo!!

I’m going to call this section: Sweet Stuff that Happened Last Year

January 15 – One Heart Africa (OHA) hired two local mothers as teachers and one young adult to cook lunch for the students at Sharing Hope Preschool.  These ladies previously had no opportunity for employment prior to Sharing Hope.   Now, they are able to provide for their families in a way that betters themselves and others!

January 28 – Sharing Hope Preschool opened its doors to 18 students to provide free, quality education for children ages 4-6(ish).

Sometime in March – OHA purchased a 22-acre piece of land (which we call “the farm”) in Siteki, Swaziland.  As of now, the land has been cleared, water lines have been run, and five acres of potatoes are growing! Yeee-haw!

April 1 – You guys helped us raise $1,800 to bring the story of Licilo and One Heart Africa to life – documentary style.  Thank you thank you thank you!

May 6 – Alice Lee, a fellow Tennessean studying in Botswana, shared her AMAZING photography skills with us while vising the school in Licilo.  Y’all, just look at how amazing she is! This is only a very small selection of her work.

Side note: I may or may not have cried a little when I saw these.  Again, amazing. Alice, you are such a blessing!

July – Two brave young travelers ventured with us to South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique to visit the OHA sites and film for the documentary.  While we were there, a new classroom for the school was completed and we were given about four acres in Licilo for farming.  The land was such an unexpected blessing!

Accepting the farm land in Licilo

November 9 – The One Heart Africa Film debuted along with our shiny new website! (You can click on the underlined stuff to check them both out.) Special thanks to Max Mospanyuk of Nine Line Productions for the documentary, Rusty Clanton for the film’s music, and Jesse Poteet for the website design! You all are so talented!

If I had a dollar for every time Ryan and I get asked the question, “Why do you go to Africa when we have so many people here who need help?” we would never have to fundraise again.  It is the classic inquiry that we can depend on hearing during any speaking arrangement, interview, coffee date, or impromptu conversation we may stumble upon.  The first time I was asked this question, I froze.  So, in order to safe guard myself against such embarrassment I came up with a plan: Rehearsal.  I practiced my answers over and over in my head searching for that perfect “zinger” to speak with such conviction that everyone who hears it weeps and flings roses at me – a practical response for such wisdom.  Here’s what I came up with:

Get your tissues ready.
1. They need it more. (Horrible answer)
2. There are opportunities to get help in America (food stamps, gov’t housing, disability, unemployment, etc.)
3. We feel called to Africa. (This answer is often met by confused looks, eye rolls, and “Good for you’s”)
4. What if Mother Theresa had not gone to Calcutta, or Lottie Moon to China, or Madonna to….? oh wait. Bad example. JK.

moving on…

5. They need people like me. (Ha!)
6. The Bible tells us to. (True… but it also tells us to “love our neighbors”)
7. Telling my life story. Not the best, or most time sensitive option.
8. I mean… The better question is, “Why not Africa?”
9. The Lion King is my favorite movie.
10. Crying.

Profound, right?  Hardly.  I can assure you, no one is going to go home, sell everything they have, and buy a one-way ticket to [insert third-world country of choice here] because of these gut-wrenching answers.

Then, lies creep into my head like…
“These people have lived in grass huts for years – that’s just how it is and they’re doing just fine.  We don’t need to barge in and disrupt their culture or way of life.  I don’t want to be ‘those white people’ who hurt more than they help.  No one cares about your stories. Education isn’t necessary if you don’t know the difference anyways. You can’t do this, you’re too young and inexperienced.”

And if I were to be completely honest with you, more often than not my answer ends up being a big, ego-crushing

Ouch.

This issue is an ongoing struggle for me. We are currently in the middle of planning a trip to Mozambique with a few others (including a videographer) and the process is not fun.  Plane tickets are ridiculously expensive, I can’t find dependable lodging prices, we need to apply for visas soon, I hate fundraising, blah blah blah – problem here problem there – whine whine whine.  I’ve now started asking myself, “Why Africa? WHYYY MEEE?!” I told you I was whining.

Thank God for my co-workers, though.  They are such an encouragement without even knowing it.  While eating lunch with some staff and volunteers, we were talking about our spouses and the chores each of us take on (or don’t).  One man started talking about how much he enjoys serving his wife.  He makes coffee for her in the morning, fixes her lunch, heats her car up when it’s cold, irons her clothes, prays with her before work, and does all of this hours before he even has to be awake. When another co-worker asked what she does to deserve such special treatment, his reply was, “Ya know what?  I just really love my wife. It’s an honor to be married to her, and that’s all there is to it.” There were no strings attached. No “because she does this and that for me.”  Not even a “because that’s what husbands do.”  He was compelled to serve because of the pure love that Christ had put in his heart for her.

Why do I always think that my answers have to be earth-shattering?  That every person I talk to needs to nod their head and say, “Yeah, I totally agree.” Or, that there even has to be an answer to begin with? Let’s get real here, shall we?

Here’s why Ryan and I wake up every morning thinking of our “Mozambabies,” the teachers, their families, Mancoba, and Liclo. Why we sacrifice to send support. Why we would move tomorrow if we were given the chance – We really love these people.  Like really, really, REALLY love these people.  We want them to succeed.  We want the little boys and girls to live past the age of seven and be able to write their names.  We want to see households with moms and dads living without HIV/AIDS. We want them to know the grace, freedom, acceptance, and hope that Jesus brings. And you know why we are able to love them so much?  Because Christ loved us first. That’s it.  It is only because He has put that love in our hearts.

Even though this answer doesn’t completely satisfy the question, it gives me such encouragement.  I pray that daily we will strive to see others how Christ sees them – as his masterpieces – and that that love within us will leave others questioning. And then, when we are asked the famous question of “Why?” our only response is, “Because we love them.”

Hello Friends!

Well… We’re back from our African Adventure! I am sorry its taken me so long to give an update.  Ryan and I were both almost immediately thrown into a whirlwind of school, work, and life in general when we  got back.  I actually just unpacked a few days ago… a little behind, yes. But, better late than never, right? Right!

We had a great trip and were very encouraged by the things we heard, saw, and experienced while traveling. This might be a little lengthy, but I hope you hang with me.  There is A LOT to cover with such little space! So, with all that said… lets just dive right in!

Before getting to Africa, we had a layover in Dubai for one night.  That place is AWESOME! Everything is so sleek and clean.  Even the train stations are immaculate.  As soon as we arrived in the airport, I had a game plan going in my head.  Get through customs, find a taxi, explain where we were going, don’t get lost.  However, as soon as we were in sight of taxis, there was a man approach us and offer us a ride.  My initial reaction: He’s going to kidnap us and kill us.  That feeling was further strengthened when he led us to his sparkly infinity SUV with tinted windows.  BUT I was wrong (thankfully) and he was probably the best thing that could have happened to us.  He gave us a tour of the city (we got to see the world’s tallest building!) and told us places we needed to hit since we only had a few short hours in Dubai.  Here’s a picture of us in front of the Dubai Marina and some camels on the beach.

Ryan with the train station

After our little middle eastern adventure, we landed in Durban, South Africa where one of Ryan’s friends picked us up from the airport.  That night we had a South African style BBQ and rested up for the long ride to Swaziland.  We went to the taxi rink in the morning and found a kombi headed to Manzini.  It felt unreal riding through the mysteriously beautiful African landscapes… I kept having to pinch myself.  Was I really back again? Africa just feels like home.  Let me just paint a picture here: Ryan and I were filthy, drenched in sweat, shoved in the backseat of a non air conditioned van between complete strangers with the sun pounding in on us and the ladies refusing to open the windows for some airflow, but so excited and at peace about the next weeks that it was hard not to laugh at the current situation.

Manzini is a scary place.  This place is a little notorious for theft and muggings so you can imagine how relieved we were to see Mancoba and the crowd of friends he brought with him.  He took us to Logoba which is the town where he lives and also where we would be staying for the next few days. We stayed with the family who had given Mancoba the land in Mozambique to build the school.  This family is so precious and selfless.  It was an honor to be around such great people in Swaziland.

Our view from the front porch

Mancoba and Ryan Education and HIV are huge issues in Swaziland.  While we were there, we were able to feed around 100 children (many of which were orphans) in a nearby town.  One woman in this town, Mage Bhembe (MAH-geh BIM-beh), runs a program where she uses her own money to feed these kids and teach them about the Bible.  They can also play soccer, play, and just be kids.  Mage was expressing to us that these kids are now able to go to school from first to third grade for free.  However, many of them have not had any kind of preschool so they fall behind quickly.  They are also so hungry when they get to school that they can’t concentrate, are falling asleep in class, and then failing their exams.  It is her vision to build a preschool in this town and expand the feeding program.  The land has been given to Mage, she just needs to give a cow (yes, this is real life) to secure ownership of it.  We are working with Mancoba in figuring out what our role will be in the building of this school in years to come.

The children waiting to perform their Bible verses and songs for us

Little ones first!

Okay… now on to the main point of this here blog: MOZAMBIQUE!

We packed up (again), headed to the taxi rink (again), waited for it to fill up and headed to Maputo! The trip went like this – drive, walk through the border, drive, get to Maputo, exchange money, find another taxi, cram in there with 20 other people, get to another taxi rink to find another taxi going to Macia, wait for it to “fill up” meaning 30 passengers instead of the 15 the van was made to hold, arrive in Macia, eat dinner at bedtime, bathe in bug spray, and go to bed.  Travel days were quite eventful.

 The next day we picked up building supplies for the school and headed to Licilo which is the village the school is actually in.  Its about a hour away from Macia.  As we pulled up to the school, we could see kids playing in the schoolyard.  My heart skipped a beat.  Yay! I was going to get to play with some sweet little children! Nope – wrong.  They were absolutely terrified of us.  I had to whip out the old camera trick to get them to even come close to me.  But after snapping a few pictures and showing them what they looked like, the kids were less stand-offish.

They’re still scared of me at this point…

…but not anymore!

Sweet Reuben

Mancoba told us a little bit about the village.  The majority of men go to South Africa to work leaving the women and children kind of on their own. When the men do return, they bring back diseases like HIV.  There are a lot of sick kids in this community Literacy is not very present… when I showed the kids my pen to have them write their names they jumped back and looked at it like they had never seen one before.  Of the four teenage boys helping us build, two could write their names. Portuguese, the national language of Mozambique, isn’t spoken in this village.  Only the tribal language is known.  Witchcraft is also widely practiced in the area.  In fact, while we were there they were holding some kind of ceremony multiple times a day  two huts down from us.  These people need to know the name of Jesus and the love, hope, and freedom He gives.

In addition to the lack of education, the water in this village is filthy! It is white-ish brown and smells like fish. It is the only water for the whole community and they still have to walk about a mile to get it. What??? They drink this stuff??? Not okay. This conversation just confirmed to us that God had led us in the right direction.  We are where we should be.

Before…

Above is a picture of the school! I know that in the last blog there was a picture of what we thought was the school… we misunderstood.  This is thereal school made of real bricks, steel, and tin.  There was still quite a bit of work to get done when we arrived.  The roof needed to be completed, windows installed, floor poured, walls plastered and outhouse dug.  By the time we left, this is what the school looked like! OH! And… we got to name it.  Presenting Sharing Hope School of Licilo

…After!

Plaster and Windows Done

Concrete Floor Poured

Outhouse Dug

In addition to working on the school, we also got to feed the village one day.  As I said earlier… these kids are sick and their bellies prove it.  It could be HIV, malnutrition, or a number of other things, but all I know is that I saw the biggest bellies I had ever seen on these precious little kids.  One little girl who was no older than two had stretch marks on her stomach because it was so big.  That’s simply not okay with us.  Instead of feeding them lettuce, tomato, and bread that day we were able to give them a more substantial meal of pop (a boiled corn flour mixture) and beans.

So, what now? I’m home in America. I wake up everyday to a really nice alarm on a really nice phone.  Then I take a hot shower with water that I can drink right out of the faucet and put on really nice clothes to go to my really nice school to learn about really nice and useful things. But I can’t get these faces out of my mind.  Everyday I see Reuben’s sweet smile and know that it is our responsibility to give him clean water.  I can hear the teenage boys laughing as they try to learn English for the first time and replay their request for night classes so that they can learn in my mind.  Ryan and I are burdened for these people.

As of about a week ago Mancoba called us to tell us that many of the homes in the village had been destroyed by storms/flooding in the days after we left.  They are actually using the school as shelter while they rebuild.  God’s timing never ceases to amaze me.  Yes, Ryan and I certainly feel like we are in this place for a specific reason.  Here are the goals we have for the next year:

– Get clean water to this community!!!!!

– Paint the school orange (to represent Tennessee, of course) and provide the desks, kitchen supplies, chalkboard, curriculum, and school supplies for the students.

– Purchase a car for Mancoba so that he doesn’t have to keep taking buses across the border and can also use it as a taxi service to make money.

– Register the school with the government and get a full-time teacher.

– Officiate ourselves as a non-profit organization

– Have monthly supporters who contribute the the building of the well, furnishing the desks, providing school supplies, etc.

We could not do this without your prayers and support. To everyone that has prayed, sent money, offered supplies, advice, or encouragement – Seriously, thank you guys SO MUCH from the bottom of our hearts.  We simply cannot do this alone but we know that we can do this.  We were born for this purpose.  We were born to share hope with people who haven’t heard the name of Jesus and don’t know what it means to be called his child.

If you would like to commit to being one of the monthly supporters of this project, have connections you think would be useful for the village, or would like more information regarding the school, feel free to contact us at sharinghopemozambique@hotmail.com.

Until ALL Know,

Anna

oh… one more thing.  Ryan is no longer my boyfriend – he’s now my fiance! We’re getting married August 5 and can’t wait! Now…. enjoy some pictures 🙂

The Perfect Gift

At this time last year, Ryan and I were preparing for our first African adventure together.  We had put together our flight schedules, packing lists, domestic travel arrangements, and accommodations.  However, we were not quite prepared for the encounters with poverty that we were about to come face-to-face with.  After traveling through Dubai, South Africa, and Swaziland, we finally arrived in Licilo, Mozambique.  We quickly realized that a school, which we had started construction on, was only one item on a long list of basic needs for this community.  They desperately needed access to clean water as well.

Previously, the village had been walking around a mile to fetch dirty, smelly, contaminated water which leads to water-borne illnesses and malnutrition.  To put it into perspective, lets “play pretend” for a minute.  Image that you’re at the beach on a hot summer day.  The sand is scorching and you’ve been sweating all day due to the heat.  Needless to say, you’re thirsty.  You hear there’s a water fountain nearby, so you start walking. When you finally get there, the water you thought was going to be refreshing, ends up tasting horrible and even makes you sick.  Ridiculous, right? That’s exactly what we thought.

Immediately upon returning, we started praying specifically for a well for a few reasons:

• First: We feel like it is an unnecessary tragedy for people to get sick due a lack of access to clean water, which is a basic need that we take for granted.
• Second: The school would be incomplete and inefficient without water.
• Third: Ryan and I are 23 and 22 respectively.  I just graduated from college {Hallelujah!}.  We are certainly not in any financial position to pay for the construction of a well.

Now, on December 21, 2012, we can confidently say that God is faithful!  We received a donation in October for the entire well project, our partner, Mancoba, bought supplies, construction was started last week, and today the village officially has clean water! YAY! Now, enjoy some pictures.

The well had to be dug by hand and is around 30 meters deep! Those are some brave men, y’all.

In this picture you can see the completed well with the water tank and the completed school in the background.

The women of the village started collecting water immediately.

You can’t tell it by their faces, but they’re excited – I promise!

Word spreads fast!

Check it out – you can see through the water!

As we enter this Christmas season, it is so easy to get distracted by packed schedules, parties, tacky sweaters, and the “perfect gift.”  This is something that I am definitely guilty of.  Let me just encourage you guys… Jesus is better.  His story is SO much better than an iPad (again, guilty). It is better than a fried turkey or cute cards or a game of Dirty Santa.  That’s humbling.  God sent His son to be born of ordinary, young, and seemingly unfit parents.  How cool is it that he wants to do great things like that through us? Again, humbling.

A few reminders – we are still accepting applications for the July trip to Mozambique and would love for you to join us!  You can email oneheartafrica@gmail.com to request a trip application form or to request more information.  Make sure you “like” our Facebook page for the most recent pictures and updates. Also, our IRS paper work is SO CLOSE to being prepared for filing.  So, that means that in 2013, your donations will be tax deductible! Would you be willing to partner with us in the new year?  We would love to be able to provide more opportunities for this village.

We want to say a HUGE thanks to all who have prayed along with us, listened to us, and partnered along with us.  Really, we are so thankful for you all.  We hope your holiday season is filled with the hope and joy of Christ!

Peace and Love,
Ryan and Anna Carmichael