3rd February 2012
Back home in Madagascar! It's so nice to see all our lovely kids!! I was literally buried under a whole pile of kids who were all trying to hug me all at once!! Then bombarded with 'Mama look, my tooth fell out' 'Mama look I hurt my finger' 'Mama look my shoe is broken' 'Mama look at the pictures we drew this week'.... I love my kids!!!
23rd December 2011
Happy Christmas to you all!!!!!! We are having a Christmas Bonanza here this week! We did Christmas for all our Iris kids on monday, christmas on the streets with about 80 street kids last night, and today we have christmas for all our lunch feeding kids.... we are expecting between 250 to 300 kids!!! Our house looks like Santa's workshop! We are loving the awesome Pemba outreach team who make all this feel so easy!! they are amazing!!!!
16th December 2011
27th November 2011
We are still so totally in love with baby Noah who arrived 2 weeks ago... the police found him abandoned in the street at 6 days old......but now he is loved and adored and kissed all the time and he just smiles and smiles!!! He is a really content baby who loved to be held talked too.... he's not like any other newborn I've ever met.... it's like he understands everything!!
30th October 2011
TOBY IS HOME!!!!! Our little miracle baby is home from hospital and doing really well!!!!! Thank you Jesus!!!! I am still so amazed looking at him that he is here and well!! That really was a miracle!!!!
27th October 2011
Crazy day today! No water or electricity all day, and 2 of our babies had bad reactions to their vaccinations this morning and have been crying and vomitting this afternoon! I managed to cook dinner for us and baby food for the babies in the dark with a candle! and the good news is that Tina and Gerard (house parents) had a lovely baby boy today! And Toby is doing AMAZINGLY and should be home SOON!!!!!
24th October 2011
We are so proud of our little man cub, who is one of the strongest little fighters I have ever seen!! He was so close to dying on thursday night and is doing so well now!! They're reducing his adrenaline today and he's much more alert and awake, he enjoys being cuddled and trying as hard as he can to rip the oxygen tubes out of his nose!! What a little super star!!!!
22nd October 2011
Latest news.... Toby does seem better than yesterday but still finding it really hard to breath... he's now on steroids as well as oxygen and adrenaline and he has a bad lung infection... they say he'll be in hospital for 3 weeks!! Please keep praying for him, that his lungs clear and that he improves so much faster than they expect!!21st October 2011
News post to the world!!! Our little baby is so much better this afternoon!! He is finally breathing without grunting and sucking in his little chest! He is still nil by mouth and on O2 but he really seems SOOOO much better! Yeay!!!!!!! I am so happy!! I have been so worried about this little monkey!!!
20th October 2011
Emergency prayer request please for our latest little baby... 6 days old, his mum died during the birth. He has terrible diarrea, is really dehydrated, struggling to breath, we took him to hospital tonight, he's in ITU, he is on oxygen, IV antibiotics, really struggling poor little lamb.... please please fight for him with us... he is supposed to live and grow up to be an amazing little person.
9th October 2011
I am wondering if you can actually overdose on endorphines?! We have another perfect little baby boy this week, 8 days old when he arrived. I am wondering how it's possible to fall so completely in love with a beautiful little baby, so much that I want to spend my life just staring at him in amazement, and never want to put him down, and then we get another and I feel just the same all over again!!! I think I'm hundreds of times over the legal limit of endorphins!!!15th September 2011
Beautiful new girl arrived yesterday, about 9 years old, doesn't speak and has been rescued from a horrific situation. We're calling her Nadia Lily. Means Hope and Beauty. She is gorgeous.13th September 2011
31 children!!! And 2 more supposed to be coming on Thursday!! It's like it's raining babies!!!!!
Introducing Faly:
He's not a tiny little sweet newborn baby, he's not a helpless little bundle in a moses basket, he's not a little person who loves to be hugged and kissed and snuggled, he's not a child who chats away and tells me all his funny child-news....
This one is different.
He doen't talk, he doesn't like to be held, he hates to be bathed, we don't know his name, we don't know his age, we don't know his story because he can't tell us. He was found on the street by the police, no one has looked for him so we can only assume it was deliberate that he was abandoned.
He has epileptic fits, he had 4 of them yesterday... he likes to line up lego bricks and spends hours doing so.
This one is different, but this one too is chosen, this one is one of our precious treasures. He is a busy little chap and he is hilariously funny. He loves to make people laugh and thinks that we are the funniest people that he's met! He loves it when we make silly noises, he loves it when we chase him, he even lets me kiss him all over his cheeks! He's chosen, he's adorable and he's so so so loved. We've named him Faly which means Happy, and he likes his new name and answers to it already. He makes us laugh so many times throughout the day and we're really enjoying having him here.
Different, precious, loved, chosen, adored, a blessing.... this is our new gift from God!
10th September 2011
We got the results of Evie's MRI scan today. They gave her Valium to sedate her! poor baby! her brain looks normal (after a horrific few mins where the Dr said part of her brain was missing! I freaked out totally, he called other Dr's into look, then he said 'oh no I found it, it's all normal!) I almost had a coronary! Her back tho is not completely normal, her lower spine is not closed properly so looks like some kind of spinal abnormality... so keep praying for her. She's such a lovely baby!8th September 2011
We are really busy at the moment looking after a new little boy with special needs who got brought to us by the police. They found him abandoned. He's about 10. He can't speak so we don't know his name but we're calling him Faly (Happy!) because he is very happy and laughs so much! He is busy busy busy and so we're all a bit shell shocked at the amount of energy we have to summon up to keep up with him!!
5th September 2011
Dear all,
I'm sorry that it's been a long time since my last email update… it's been busy as ever! …such a lot has happened, but I will try to fill you in with all the new events of the past few months!
Staff:Patty and Julio and their beautiful baby Nancy attended the Iris Ministries mission school in Pemba Mozambique this summer and loved it so much! They spent 2 ½ months there and learned a lot. It was great for them to be exposed to the real heart of Iris Ministries, to meet Heidi and to spend time in such a great spiritual environment. They have come back really on fire for God and to see His kingdom come in Madagascar!
There has been a new addition to our team, a lovely girl called Jessica who did the Iris school a couple of years ago. We went to Sudan together on outreach and got to know each other there. She is a nurse and has come out to join the team for at least 6 months but is thinking about long term. She is such a blessing and has been such a huge help even in her first month here. We have had some sick kids and some nasty injuries, such as a long nail going all the way through Fifi's foot and out at the top! So it's been great to have Jessica here, she has been giving out medicine and doing numerous dressings on lots of little injuries and is helping me a lot looking after our new babies!
Kids:
There are currently 28 children at the center!! and 7 of them are babies under a year old! So we are usually pretty busy! Our youngest are 2 little baby girls who are now 4 weeks old, Esther and Anjelica.
Esther arrived to us at just 1 day old, still with her umbilical cord on and brand new. Her mum had abandoned her the day that she was born. She was tiny and I think about 4 weeks premature. She weighed 2040g (4 ½ pounds) She is doing really well and is putting on weight really fast. Today she weighed 2930g (6 ½ pounds). She loves to be held and cuddled and for the first 2 weeks of her life she would only sleep lying on someone's chest! so Jessica and I have taken turns to have her at night!
We got to name her, so we've called 'Razanakniavo Finaritra Esther' which means 'Child of the Most High, Content, Esther'. She is totally adorable and extremely cute!
Anjelica's story:
Anjelica's story is amazing! 2 weeks ago my friend Anri-Louise who is also a missionary here and who was staying at my house at that time had a dream. She dreamed that at night a mother ran to a skip and threw a little baby girl inside. As she threw her in the babies back broke and the baby died. She dreamed that the court phoned me to tell me the news and I cried and cried that the baby had died.
We were both so moved by the dream and couldn't shake it off, we were sure that the dream was from God and so we prayed and prayed for this baby. Anri and I went out that night in the car and drove all over the city looking in all the skips that we could see. We prayed that God would spare the life of this little baby. We looked until 4 am when we eventually decided that we had peace enough to go home. Unknown to us that night Jessica woke up at midnight and although she had no idea that we had gone out she felt like God was calling her to pray. She stayed awake and prayed until 4 am that same time that we returned!
Then a few days after we had a phone call to say that a lady had died that day leaving a baby girl behind. The lady had been homeless and living on the street, she hadn't wanted the baby and had been trying to sell her for about $150. Her partner had been very violent and abusive and had beaten her severely… 4 days after this beating she died. As soon as we met this little girl we knew that she was the one from the dream. That God has spared her life one time and stopped her mother from throwing her away, and that again He spared her life by letting us find her. She was very sick when we found her and I spent 3 days in a Malagasy hospital with her. She was very weak but is now doing very well and getting stronger every day. She is gaining weight and really starting to thrive. She has a deep dimple at the bottom of her spine which the Dr's are concerned about and wonder if it could be some kind of Spina Bifida. We have to see a neurologist this coming week for x rays and ultrasounds to see what her back looks like. She is an incredibly lovely baby and it's such a joy to know that she is safe and that God has fought for her and saved her life twice already! Her family have not yet decided whether she can stay with us long term or if they want to take her back… so we are waiting for their decision and asking God to keep her safe and to have His way with her! The attached photo's are one of the first day we got Anjelica, when she was so sick, and just a week later when she looks so much better! It is amazing to see the difference!
Thank you so much for all your prayers and all your support, it's so encouraging! May God bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you His peace.
Caroline
1st September 2011
Went to see the Dr with Evie today for check up but they are not happy with the deep dimple she has on the base of her spine... they said 'Ahhh Spina Bifida!' Which kinda freaked me out! It's a closed dimple but still deep so they're sending us to a neurologist for ultrasound and x rays to see how it looks inside...also for ultrasound of her stomach as she vomits out of her nose and mouth at the same time! Apart from that she smiles a lot and is very content and incredibly beautiful!!
31st August 2011
Evie is so much better today and is getting stonger every day! She can't hold her head up yet but I think soon she'll be able too.... she is incredibly cute! Baby Esther is getting really chunky and gaining an incredible amount of weight! She's gone from 2040 kg birth weight to 2855 kg today at 21 days old! She's incredible!
30th August 2011
Beautiful Evie today looking so much better!! I am in love all over again!!!!!!
28th August 2011
We're home from hospital!! Baby Evie is snoring in my arms! She's not 100% yet but is getting better and stronger!! Yeah!!!
27th August 2011
Staying in a Malagasy Children's Hospital with Evie our latest baby girl who arrived yesterday really sick. Me and her are sleeping in the hospital until she gets better! Please pray for her, her mum died yesterday of a postnatal infection, Evie is only 3 weeks old and also was pretty unwell and is on IV antibiotics etc.... Please pray she gets well soon!!
24th August 2011
Just been to hospital with poor Fifi who managed to step on a BIG nail in a piece of wood which went ALL the way through his foot and came out at the top!! Yuck!! Poor little guy!!! He's been tenanus-ed and antibiotic-ed and I think he'll be ok..... but ouch!!!
23rd August 2011
Planning on taking all our 27 kids to the rainforest for a 4 day holiday! Maybe we're crazy!! Ha ha!!
20th August 2011
Totally in love with my Baby Esther who arrived here last week at 1 day old! She is teeny tiny at 2kg but is putting on weight really well.... she is the sweetest little thing in the world!!
9th August 2011
Kids were supposed to be making signs for their vegatable gardens with oil paint...the boys decided they wanted red mohecnas and painted a red stripe in the middle of their heads..... which dried well and refused to move! so instread of red mohecans I now have a little tribe of baldies!! all shaved!! daft things!!
25th July 2011
Taking all the kids to the lemur park today!! Have hired a mini bus and we are going to learn about lemurs today!
7th July 2011
There are now 24 of them!!!!! I went out for coffee and cake with #24 who arrived today...street boy aged 12 ish... He told me he is good at maths... I asked him what is 15 plus 15....He made me laugh so much as he has to count all the fingers on both his hands and all the toes on one foot twice over to find out!! Very cute!!
4th July 2011
We have 2 new beautiful baby girls who are incredibly gorgeous and sweet!! They are both living with me until we find house mums for them! I am TIRED!!!!! but happy!!!
13th June 2011
I am now the Mama of Dora the explorer, Ben 10 and Spiderman!! ....wot a tribe of funny little superheroes....!!!
4th June 2011
Enjoying some rare peace and quiet!!! I escaped to a cafe for a few hours!! Why Mr President did you make bank holidays for 2 days running before a weekend! 4 days of no school and a tribe of kids needing entertaining!!
29th May 2011
It's mothers day tomorrow in Madagascar and the kids have been making cards for me in secret and then getting so excited that they have to show me and then hide them again for tomorrow!! How fun!! We're hiring a minibus and having a day out at the zoo!! Me and all 19 of my kids!!!
19th May 2011
There's a little girl asleep at the bottom of my bed tonight as she doesnt feel very well... but she is enjoying lots of attention!
7th May 2011
Had a very funny day today. We went to court to collect some paperwork and ended up leaving with 3 boys!! They are totally un-related and all 3 were found abandoned in different streets and ended up being brought in by police officers during our 30 min slot in the court social workers office!!! probably not coincidence I think!
10th April 2011
Dear friends,
Wow well a lot has happened since my last update!! I'm sorry it's been so long! It has been an incredibly busy but amazing few months and since it's birth Iris Madagascar has been growing and developing like a real baby that changes and grows a little more every day! It's amazing to see it all coming together in God's beautiful plan and to see him provide an amazing house and incredible staff just exactly when we need them!
We are now renting 2 houses, one our original house which is now the staff house and one a children's center. This has meant that we as staff have a place to rest and have time out, and also that we now have a children's house big enough to house 50 children!
The new house is a 5 minute walk from our original house and in mid February we moved all the children and their house parents into there. They are enjoying their new house and we are enjoying getting it furnished. We have had the new house inspected by the government, we have also had to submit photo's of every room of the house and lots of paperwork. We now have formal government approval as a registered children's center to take up to 50 children there. From now on the courts will be able to send us any babies or children who they feel need to come and live with us.
We now have 11 children who are all a joy and a delight! They are very full of life and energy and all love to be hugged and loved and to have as much attention as possible!! At the moment they range from a 10 month old baby (Mika) to a 14 year old boy (Fifi).
Our children in total at the moment are boys: Fifi-14, Koto-13, Kely-11, Miranto-9, Toky-9, Michel-2, and Mika-10 months. Are girls are Rojo-10, Ravaka-7, Maria-6, and Sansia 4.
Mika, the baby, was a real gift from God. He arrived to us a week ago after being found lying in the road with his mother at night and almost got hit by a car. It was amazingly co-ordinated by God that the man who found him there is a fellow missionary from our church and so he was able to bring him and his mum straight to us.
Mika's mother is an alcoholic who lives on the street, who had passed out in the road and was unable to get up again. Mika was also addicted to alcohol as he was breastfeeding. He was very small and malnourished and at 10 months old weighed 5.2 kg. As well as malnutrition he also had worms that stopped him from gaining weight. Mika's mum stayed with us for a couple of days but is at present reluctant to change her life style and so with her permission we obtained legal guardianship of Mika and he is now beginning to thrive! He is eating almost constantly and we are busy making baby food for him! He is starting to grow and has gained 600g in the past week. God was incredible in blessing this little one with peace and much sleep, and he withdrew from alcohol very easily. He really is a joy and he laughs and chuckles all throughout the day!!
In God's awesome planning the man who found Mika is one of the top managers of the Shoprite supermarkets in Madagascar! He had just had a meeting with us and asked us how they can help us! And they are planning to donate any foods that are almost out of date to us every week which is such a great blessing! He is also going to help us to bulk buy baby formula milk as that is something that we use a lot (we have a weekly milk program for mums in the area who are unable to breast feed their babies) and so we are really being blessed by God's favor in that!!
We have started a pre-school for our 4-6 year old kids at home this last week and it is going well. I am also hoping to find a primary school teacher soon and I am planning to start a primary school on the base for our children soon so that they can study at home and have much smaller class sizes so that they can hopefully catch up with their education. They are mostly very behind in their studies as they had almost no education before they came to us, so they are working hard to catch up and they really do love to learn.
Another big blessing this week is that we have met the managers of an orphanage who have been running for 20 years in Madagascar. They have been really kind and encouraging to us and would like to help us learn and grow. They are going to advise our staff in finance and administration and check all our paperwork with us, they will help us to go to court with all the paperwork of our kids next week, they are taking our social worker who we have just employed for 1 months training in their social work department. They have also sent us 6 footballs which our kids are extremely excited about and they are a wealth of information and advice from everything from employment law and child protection issues, to starting your own school on base, to building fuel efficient stoves and knowing where to find the best carpenters in the city! I feel like God is really blessing us in our connection with them and is providing us with a host of incredible experience from them which is more valuable than gold!
They also love to have fun and this last week we have had a lot of fun taking them swimming one day, and to a fair ground another day where all staff and children alike jumped on fair ground rides, bouncy castles and dodgem cars and had a blast! It was really funny to see house parents diving onto bouncy castles and yelling and waving at me from the top of the ferris wheel!! I think it was the first time for any of them to go to anything like that and they all loved it!!
Our lunchtime feeding program continues to go well, we have about 100 children each weekday coming to eat and to hear a bible story. Julio is responsible for that and the garden of the new house is a hive of activity at lunch times with the children there. Although there are a lot of them they are usually very well behaved!
I am writing this in Nairobi airport as I am on my way home to the UK to visit my family and home church for a month. I am looking forward to some time of rest! I am also planning on sending out our container whilst I'm home so that it will arrive when I'm back in Madagascar.
Other news is that Rachel has left the team now and has gone back home to Holland. She really feels that she is called back to Holland now and she is enjoying being back home. We miss her but are trusting God to provide the right team members for us. We currently have a girl called Catherine helping us from another Iris base for a few months which has been a real help.
Thank you so much for your prayers, support and encouragement. I really do value prayers for us and for our children, for myself to get the right balance between work and rest, and to get time to relax and have time out…. And also prayers for wisdom in all day to day decision making and in knowing how to be a good Mama to our beautiful children. They come with a lot of hurts and various kinds of abuse from the past and I really need wisdom in knowing what they need and how to best help them through that. They really do need to know the love of God and to know that they are adopted into his family where only He can restore them and heal all their past hurts and pain.
With love, bless you abundantly. Caroline
3rd March 2011
I cooked soup with alphabet pasta for the kids tonight... I thought it would be fun! turned out I totally under-estimated HOW fun!!! they refused to eat the pasta letters but staff and kids alike all sucked and spat out all the letters and then wrote everyone's names on the floormany times over with tiny pasta letters!! they are apparently way too fun to even think about eating!!!
2nd March 2011
Just met a family where the violent father murdered his wife. They have two kids aged 4 & 8 who will probably come here to live. Slightly overwealming and no idea what to do with kids who have seen that happen...but really feel like we were lead to them so I am pretty sure God has some amazing plans up His sleeve for these little people. GOOD plans, to PROSPER and not to harm them...to give them HOPE and a FUTURE!!!
22nd February 2011
All kids moved to new house today, Rachel gone home on a break, house has gone from 10 people to three all in one day! Very nice and quiet without the kids but that'l change in about 4 mins when I go to sleep tonight at the new house with them for the first night!
18th February 2011
Somethings I'm trying to teach the kids:
1. It is not ok to take your TOY tin oven, fill it with burning charcoal from the real tin oven and boil your snack-time bananas in your TOY saucepan!!
2. It's not ok to find & eat the entire weeks biscuits supply!
3. (a village kid) It is not ok to take the thick bleach toilet cleaner outside and use it to wash your hair under the outside tap!!
11th February 2011
The twins came home yesterday!!! Both of them are now over 2 kg's , sooo proud of them! Their mum is going to stay with us for a while with Olivia and Heritiana to see how things are going. TONGASOA!!! (welcome :) they are simply adorable!
10th February 2011
Marya came to live with us today!! a little girl we've been hoping would come for the past 3 months! so we now have a bunch of very giggly girls in the room next to mine!!!
10th January 2011
Hooray for new life! Sohely, our lovely laundry lady, has just given birth to a very cute baby boy! And I was there... :) in a local little Malagasy clinic, run by 1 midwife, it was amazing!!! So thankful... Rachel
23rd December 2011
Can't wait for Christmas with the kids! As far as I now they've never had one before... the boys say that last year they were living on the street and they begged enough money to buy bread to eat... and the little ones were sleeping rough with their mom... so this year should be so much FUN! They have no idea about getting presents and aren't asking for anything! I think a super amazing Christmas is on it's way!!!
20th December 2011
Dear friends,
Happy Christmas from Madagascar!
I wanted to send an update to just tell you the latest news from us all here. A lot has happened in the last few months and it's exciting to look back and see what God is doing here already!
We (Rachel and I ) arrived here in Madagascar in July this year and found a lovely little house as our first base. Patty and Julio, an amazing Malagasy couple came and joined our team and we live together here.
Patty and Julio had their first baby about 3 weeks ago. Her name is Nancy. She is beautiful and it's great to have a tiny baby in the house and see them just so blown away by how amazing she is! They are great parents and are really enjoying her!
We now have our first 5 kids living here with us!! They are really incredible children and are a pleasure to have here. Fifi and Tiana were street boys, and were living on the streets close to our house. They are 13 and 9 years old. They have been with us for about 3 months now and have adjusted so well. They started school and got their first school reports this week. They are already coming 40 and 46th in their class of 64 children and that's only after 2 months of school! They are happy boys who love to play with lego and connex and are learning more about God and how much He loves them. When one of the children here gets sick Fifi is always the one who says to me 'Caroline we need to pray for them.. can I pray for them?'
Our youngest three children are siblings who were living on the rubbish dump here with their alcoholic mother. She regularly drinks until she passes out, in the middle of the day, her boyfriend beat the children with pieces of wood and they ate only once a day... food that was thrown out in the rubbish dump. Their mother asked us if we could take them and we accepted as we were so concerned for the safety and health of the children. They are girls aged 7 (Ravaka) and 4 ½ (Sansia) and a little boy Michel who was 2 years old this week. They are acutely malnourished and small, Ravaka arrived with Typhoid fever which she has now totally recovered from. Sansia weighed 9 kg is wearing clothes aged 12-18 months at the actual age of 4 ½. Michel weighed 6.9 kg when he arrived and although he is 2 years old he is unable to stand, walk or speak at the moment. They are changing so quickly that it's almost unbelievable. They have been with us for about 4 weeks now and are such different children. God has been fulfilling His promise of Isaiah 61 over them, giving them beauty for ashes, and the oil of gladness for the spirit of despair. They now laugh almost all the time, they play and hug are extremely gorgeous children! They are stacking on weight and Michel can now crawl and pull himself to standing up on furniture. I am constantly amazing at how totally adorable they are and how blessed we are to see them flourish and grow so fast. God is in the transformation business for sure and it's so fun to watch Him work!!
We are looking at renting a new house close to our existing house in the next couple of weeks. We don't have enough space for any more children in our current house and we are wanting to have our current house for staff housing and an office and a separate large house where we can house the children. We have seen a house that we really like close by, which would accommodate 50 children easily and the land lady is very happy that we use her house for this... which is in itself a miracle!! I am meeting with her this week to discuss details and to confirm... so watch this space!!
We currently have a team visiting from the Pemba mission school Mozambique! They are an international team and are here over Christmas to help us! They are an incredible blessing and have been such an encouragement to us. We are planning a fun Christmas celebration with our kids at home, and also some Christmas parties with the children that we work with here.
We are currently having about 100 children a day coming to our lunchtime feeding program! Hey come to our house Monday to Friday lunchtimes for a hot meal and some God teaching. They are the poorest children from our neighbourhood who's parents are not able to feed them 3 times a day. Ruth and George (a couple from my home church) came over to visit for 5 weeks which was great! And George made a great outside shelter for these children in our garden. They love sitting under here to eat with shelter from the hot sun! We are doing a Christmas party with all these kids (catering for 200 kids!!) on 24th December and are giving them all a little gift. The team are preparing the gifts for the kids which is such a huge help as it's a lot of little gift bags to make up!
I am really enjoying going one evening a week to the streets with the street children who live in town and we are also planning a Christmas celebration with them. They usually enjoy eating! (as they're usually hungry!) so we're planning a special evening with them too.
It's been a busy time the past few weeks but I am writing this on a lovely 3 day break in the rain forest with the Pemba team. It's been great to be able to stop and rest and enjoy seeing beautiful lemurs, camelions and birds and be lulled asleep at night by cricket song and woken up in the morning by lemurs calling!! It's really been a amazing few days off!!
Well I hope you all have a amazing Christmas and may God bless you adundantly in 2011.
Lots of love and THANK YOU so much for all your prayers, encouragement and support during this last year. There really have been mountains moved in the spiritual world this year as a result of amazing prayers and intersession for me and for what we're doing here. Thank you so much!!
Love Caroline
19th December 2010
Rachel likes the rainy season, I can really get used to this :) dry & hot during the day, massive thunderstorms, rain and a cool breeze in the evenings... the kids seem to like it a lot too! yesterday Fifi came running through the rain to open the gate for me. So sweet! (and a good excuse to get dirty, boys will be boys :)
5th December 2010
What's on my mind? ... the three tiny, cheeky, beautiful new children who have come to live here now... they are on my mind because they are extra specially adorable!!!! It's such a blessing having them here and see them blossom so fast!! It's incredible to watch God work! I like it a lot!!!
They are 3 little siblings who were sleeping in the rubbish dump close by here.. they are age 7 years, 4 years and 23 months but they are TINY! The 23 month old weighed 6.9 kg when he arrived, he doesn't walk, stand or talk YET but he's learning! The 4 year old wore a 12-18 months dress to church today and it fits perfectly!! crazy!!! They are totally adorable, love to be hugged, very cheeky and giggly and just changing so fast!!!
22nd November 2010
We're all fine, it's very quiet now and things today seem to be returning to normal... we'll see what the next few days are like.
19th November 2010
It is a really quiet day today so far.... the military who say they have taken control are still talking amongst themselves but no more trouble today so far. No one is really sure who is in control of the country at the moment...the military say they are and the president says that he is....we will see!
18th November 2010
Please pray for us... there was a military coup today and the military have aparently taken control of the government. There was fighting pretty close to our house this afternoon but it has all stopped now and the streets are quiet.
8th November 2010
Very nearly cried today taking 4 lovely boys to school who were all sleeping on the street until last week... they were all so smart with their new uniforms and school bags and so excited to be there! They did super well on their first day and all rushed to show us all their 'very clever' work when they got home!!
5th November 2010
We have our first kids here! 2 lovely boys who were sleeping on the streets and who aren't able to live back with their families.....they are SO happy to be HOME!!!!
4th November 2010
Just got school supplies for the 4 boys! Monday they'll start school!!!
2nd November 2010
Yesterday we took the boys and the team out for a picnic in a park! So much fun and a very, very Malagasy thing to do. And guess what was on the menu? Rice & chicken :)
2nd November 2010
2nd November 2010
29th October 2010
First rains of the season... wish you could smell the air right now! Started yesterday with a bang! ....actually with a lot of bangs! crazy thunder storms, monsoon rain, puddles and mud!! it's like a different world to the dry dusty world of last week!
25th October 2010
Back home in Tana! Mauritius was simply perfect, but it's lovely being back. ♥
21st October 2010
Iris Madagascar 's team are having a week's break, rest and time to reflect...and to persue intimacy with our beautiful bridegroom king!
12th October 2010
Very sad day today...our cooking lady's beautiful baby died last night aged 8 weeks old. He was totally gorgeous and not even sick... it sounds like a cot death kind of thing. We've spent the day holding him and praying over him and his mum. Please pray for her, her name is Clarisse.
3rd September 2010
Hello, or mana oana!
Here comes a long awaited update from Madagascar! What has been happening over the last month-and-a-half? A lot, so much I can tell you immediately...
Let's start with our latest news: Iris Madagascar officialy exists as an NGO in Madagascar!!! Thank you all so much for praying. It took about 70 visits to the ministry of foreign affairs by our lovely Malagasy representative Lanto, but after 2 years of preparing, Iris Madagascar has been officially 'born'. We are so glad that we have received this recognition from the government and that we are now allowed to start doing what we came here for.
Not that we've been sitting still since we came in the country. After we (Caroline and Rachel) had spent some time staying with our YWAM friends out of the city, we found an amazing house to rent in Tana. And only 10 days after moving in we ended up with a feeding program for a group of boys that live on the street and kids from our neighborhood who come from very poor families. Why do I say 'ended up with'? Because that's how it feels, in a very positive way. We never planned on starting this way, but we found 4 boys sleeping on the pavement in the end of our street. There was no way that we could ignore them until our paperwork was finished, so we invited them to come for lunch the next day. We had so much fun! Playing football, eating together, getting to know them. And even though they can't live with us yet, we asked them if they'd like to come every weekday for lunch. Of course their answer was a big yes, and that's how our lunch 'program' was born. Over the days, they asked us if they could bring some of their friends. These kids all live close to our home, often from broken families and usually have only one meal a day. So now we offer them a good Malagasy lunch of rice and topping. Yesterday, there were 26 kids, today probably 1 or 2 more and next week? We'll just wait and see :)
Even the smallest things with the kids we could not have done without Julio & Patty. They are a lovely Malagasy couple who are working and living with us. They are completely amazing!! Later on they'll introduce themselves to you, but let me just say they are invaluable to us! Not only are they doing a great job translating, but Julio has a real heart for (street) kids and Patty is very passionate about administration... Hallelujah :) What a great team!!
Also, we have a very nice couple living in the guard house. Gerard works as our guard, and Tiana helps with cooking for the kids, cleaning the house and doing our laundry. They have a very, very cute little girl, Yazna, and we love them a lot. They like the kids that come for lunch a lot, and Gerard spontaneously offered to build a big picnic style table so they could all sit and eat together, so sweet.
Every week we go 1 evening to Analakely, the centre of Antananarivo. It is the place where most of the street-kids and prostitutes live, eat and sleep, right there on the streets. The first time we went, we met a lot of kids, and one of them is Rochelle. He is a funny, slightly naughty boy of about 10 and we love him! We've seen him every week since and give him and his friends a good meal. And they are very, very Malagasy... Who would have thought that they prefer rice & beans over pizza? But they really do! Last week, when we were walking around with them, they shouted to the prostitutes: 'look at us, we are sons and daughters of the vasa (white people), and you are just prostitutes...!' The women laughed a lot! It's a good thing they all look out for each other, and the ladies were not a bit offended. We laughed a lot :) Seems that they understand sonship and adoption pretty fast!
In between organizing, kids, visa, administration etc, we've made our house our home. We're exploring the place we live, going to the market, chatting with the madames who are selling the fruit and vegetables and trying the little Malagasy we know by now.
In our living room we have a box filled with everything we need to take care of babies, so we're ready to take care of these little precious ones. God has proven His timing absolutely perfect throughout the whole process, and we trust Him to give us any kids He wants us to take care of, whenever and wherever.
We are so thankful for your support! We couldn't have done this without your financial help and most of all, your prayers. And we would love to ask you to keep praying. It's really ground-breaking work, getting everything started from nothing and we have our challenges. But none of them are too big! God has provided everything we needed and will continue to do so.
If you want to lift us up in prayer, please pray for:
- Incredible
wisdom! Now that our paperwork is finalized, we are allowed to take in
kids. Please pray for wisdom in how to do that in a good and honoring way
- Good
relationships with the local gouvernment
- Our
team
- Tiana's
family. Tiana is one of the boys that lives on the street close to our
home, and over the past week we've gotten to know his family a little.
They are facing quite a lot of challenges, and we'd love to see this
family restored
With lots of love and greetings,
Team Madagasikara
Caroline, Rachel, Julio, Patty
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from their misery and makes them companions of princes.
Psalm 113:7-8
30th August 2010
We got all our paperwork back today and now have NGO status in Madagascar!!!!!! After 2 years of writing, planning and waiting it's done!!!! Thank you so much for all your prayers! It is so exciting that it's all finalised and that we have NGO status!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!! We are all so happy and all went out for a meal this evening to celebrate!!!! God has once again done it beautifully is His perfect timing!!!
Much love! Caroline
27th August 2010
Had a lovely day taking the boyz (and one girl) to the Tana Zoo! They were most excited about the biby lava (snakes), but the crocodiles and wild pigs scored high too :) Pumpkin soup on the stove, hmmmmm......
19th August 2010
Caroline - just spent the evening on the streets with the street kids....they are such amazing kids.
18th August 2010
Rachel - what to say... we have the best bunch of lunch guests every weekday! Koto, Tiana, Fifi, Kely... those boys rock! Oh, and Madagascar is (slowly) saying goodbye to winter, yay!!!
Manawana! ino vavao? tsi misy? feloma! ... phiew, beginning to learn malagasy!
7th August 2010
Wow...so we now have a sweet house, an awesome team, hopefully a car next week... and a dirty, mischievious and adorable bunch of street kids coming to the house for lunch every day! ...Fun fun fun in the Mad house!!
16th July 2010
Caroline and Rachel are moving to Madagascar to live on Sunday!!! Our flights are booked and we are getting ready to go!!! Iris Madagascar here we come!!!!!!!!!!
21st June 2010
Caroline and Rachel have had an amazing time with Iris Zimbabwe and are sad to leave. Tomorrow we're heading back to Maputo...
10th June 2010
Rachel & I are currently at the Iris Zimbabwe base which is very lovely! We are enjoying it and learning a lot... we are even hoping to get to see Victoria falls whilst we are here too! ...so that's the latest news from us! Caroline
28th May 2010
Zimbabwe!!! What an amazing country :) Staying with the Jourden family in Harare, they are so sweet & full of life! Yesterday afternoon visited Epworth church in the poorest part of the city, beautiful people, can't wait to go back there on sunday. In a nutshell... having a good time! Rachel
23rd May 2010
I had an amazing time this week visiting a Mozambican family in their mud hut... sitting in the dirt... feeling at home, hmm I love this place! Wondering what Zimbabwe is gonna be like... can only be good!! Rachel
12th March 2010
At the moment the paperwork has made it through 6 out of 10 government offices and has almost got through the 7th! So it's going well!!
15th February 2010
Hi all, sorry it has been so long but internet access is very limited.
I came back to Pemba for Christmas which was AWESOME!!! We had a great Christmas here with the children, handing out presents, having a candle light service and eating ice cream! I am still in Pemba and am continuing to learn so much here just from seeing how they do things here. I'm helping in the baby house at the moment which is a lot of fun! It's been a great time to be able to see a baby house up and running and full of sweet little people! It really is so great to be able to be a part of it and to think more about the practicalities of Madagascar, from the layout of the rooms and the whole house, to the activities to do with the children, to the medical care that the children receive and how that can best be achieved in Madagascar. So it's a great time and God is showing me more about the practical side of things, as well as showing me more of his many facets of who He is, how He sees me and others around me, and how his LOVE is bigger than anything and is so healing and so restoring and is so enormous! and that He just loves to love us and to show us how much we mean to Him, so that we can also let Him love other people through us...from the smallest baby to the oldest person. I want to be able to see other people as God sees them and to learn to love them as He does. It's such a process and I'm so not there yet, but it's the cry of my heart right now for God to teach me and show me more and more about His love....how high and how wide and how deep it is. How is casts out all fear, how it transforms people completely and how is brings such complete healing and restoration...and how He just longs to love us. He IS love. Isn't that amazing?!
The Madagascar paperwork is going well and has currently been approved by 5 out of 10 government officers...so I am just waiting for the other 5 to read it too. So it's in process.
Very exciting news is that a lovely girl called Rachel has joined the Madagascar team!! She is a midwife from Holland and she did the last mission school here. She's coming out here to join me for some team training in Pemba before we start in Madagascar together. So that is amazing! God really brought her along just at the right time, and we're so exciting to be going together. It's a real answer to prayer and we have had some lovely talks just dreaming about what we will be able to do and what it might look like!
Thank you so much for your prayers, your support and your encouragement.
God bless you! Caroline
17th November 2009
Hi All, it's been a busy, exciting month!
Madagascar: the paperwork was handed in when I was there in October and I am waiting for it to be processed.
Pemba: I spent 5 days there last week talking to the current mission school students who have an interest in Madagascar and joining the team! At least one of them is interested and is going to talk to the long term committee about joining me! I am now back in South Africa for 2 weeks, back with the babies. Welcome is doing really well at the moment and has been home from hospital now for a week and a half which is awesome! Sibo is teething! hmmm!
I will be going back to Pemba on the 2nd December to lead a team of 6 mission school students to the Iris base in Sudan! I am really looking forward to this, it will be a great experience to see how another Iris base is run, plus a great experience in leading a small team. We are going to be there until 22nd December and then I will return to Pemba for Christmas. I will probably remain in Pemba, helping out in the base until I get into Madagascar at some point next year.
So it's all exciting, and it's more traveling than I've ever done before!!!! This is really teaching me about having my identity in God, and not in any one place! I don't have an address at the moment and I have moved countries 8 times since October already! I went UK-Jo'burg-Madagascar-Jo'burg-Maputo-Nelspruit-Pemba-Nelspruit. I plan to return to Pemba on the 2nd December to spend a week talking and praying with the Sudan team before we leave, we then have 2 days in Uganda and 10 days in Sudan! So much traveling! God is showing me that I have to be rooted in HIM and living in HIM to have the stability to know that WHEREVER I am, I am a daughter of Zion, and that's where my identity is!
6th November 2009
The baby came home from the hospital today!!!!!! And this time he's gonna stay home with his Mama's!!!!!
30th October 2009
Our poorly little baby hasn't been doing very well the last few days, please keep praying for him, we've taken him back to hospital every day this week and think they might admit him again today. He's got fevers almost all the time, not eating, just sleeping. I so want to see this baby doing well!
26th October 2009
OUR BABY IS HOME FROM HOSPITAL TODAY!!!!! He's doing so much better! It took 8 1/2 hours to discharge him, but I've seen a peadiatrician, an ocupational therapist and a dietician and have lots of meds, excercises and plans for baby food that will fatten the boy up! It's so nice to have him home! He knew he was coming home, and he waved bye bye to everyone that walked past him all day!!!!
15th October 2009
Please pray for one of our lovely babies here in South Africa. He's got TB and now maybe some kind of chest infection on top of it. Like his lungs needed that right now! He's been admitted back into hospital. He needs a strong immune system and to get rid of all the nasty bugs in his little body. Thank you. ♥
14th October 2009
Please pray for one of 'my' babies, the one with TB. He's not well right now going to take him to hospital to be checked out.
11th October 2009
I'm in South Africa now for 6 weeks looking after two beautiful little babies! One is pretty sick with TB and needs lots of love and care, but he's doing well! So I'm Mama Carolina now for sure! They live with me! I love South Africa!!!
25th September 2009
Dear Friends,
Hello! I just wanted to give you a quick update on where I am and what's going on with me and Iris Madagascar at the moment.
Me: I've been doing base leaders training with Iris in Pemba Mozambique which has been amazing.
There is so much to learn but it's been a fantastic time. I've learnt a lot from some incredible people and have been so blessed by my time there. I've spent some time helping and learning in the clinic, which was awesome, helping with the kids medicine rounds, spending time in the baby house, watching how God just transforms the little ones, even ones who start off looking pretty miserable, by His amazing love. It sometimes feels like the more I learn, the more I can see that I need to learn! but it's been a great time of learning practically and spiritually and letting God be God! He so know's what I need to learn and He's been so great at putting that all together and making sure that I learn it. It's been an incredibly rich and blessed time.
Madagascar: Things are really coming together which is so exciting to see! The paperwork is all completed and made it into Madagascar about 2 weeks ago. It is being submitted to the Malagasy government and then we just need to wait until it's been approved! (it's supposed to take 4-6 months but one organisation just got their's approved in 3 months!.. it will all happen in God's perfect timing!) We have a 20 foot container now in my hometown which we've bought and it's currently being filled with the most amazing donated equipement, baby clothes, blankets, cots, toys..and furniture for the baby house. It's so exciting to see all the amazing things that will one day make up the baby house! The container will be sent out when we have got NGO status in Madagascar.
The next steps: I've had 6 weeks back home in the UK with friends and family, which has been a great time of resting and catching up with people, and I'm flying back out to Africa again this Sunday to continue with more base leaders training.
I'm going to first spend a week in Madagacsar, looking at land for sale that would be potential sights for the base, ensuring that the paperwork has been submitted sucessfully to the Malagasy government and finding out as much as I can about the potential progress of our NGO status. Then whilst the paperwork is being processed, I'm going back to Mozambique to visit some different Iris bases to learn how they work and to see how different bases are being run.
Thank you all so much for your prayers, your support and your encouragement. It is such an incredible blessing to have such an amazing group of friends around me!
I would love prayer for my time in Madagascar that it would be a blessed time, and that God would really speak to me about the land that He wants this baby house to be built on. That the paperwork would be processed without any obstacles, in His perfect timing. Also for the next 6 months of travelling and learning, that it would be a really enjoyable time of learning, and I would learn all that my Father wants me to learn. Also for a team of His choosing to be called and to hear the call so clearly. I would so love to have a team with me soon!
Thank you, God bless you guys so much! With much love from Caroline
January 26th 2009
Hello! I just thought that I would send you some encouraging news about the baby house! Which should, I hope, make you smile!!
On New Years day I went into Woolworths, a shop in my area that was closing down. They were selling some really cheap children's clothing, so I bought a few things there. As I was looking around, a newspaper reporter from our local paper came up and asked if he could ask me a few questions. He asked me how I felt about Woolworths closing, and why I was buying clothes. So, I told him all about the baby house. He got really excited and wants to do a separate story. He sent a photographer round today to take photos of me surrounded by donated baby clothes. He was going to come too, but then he got called onto another story. So he is hopefully coming over on Friday instead to talk about it.
My amazing church has been doing some awesome fundraising. So far, we have raised £9000 ($13,000 US) !!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!!!
A little girl called Annabel, who is 4 years old, heard about the baby house from my friend Josie who's kids go to the same school. Josie has been collecting donated toys and clothes for me and also doing lots of fundraising for a container to send to Madagascar. She's a
star.
Little Annabel donated lots of her old toys and some musical instrument toys for the children. Then she told her daddy that this wasn't enough. She wanted to give me her money as well to help send the toys to the children. She took her money from her money box. It was 22 pence (about 10 cents). She put this in an envelope for me with a note that she wrote herself in big kiddie writing. It said, "dear josys frend. this is my money, its for the truck. love Annabel." Isn't that just so cute!! That made me cry!!!
Ever since I have been thinking about getting land, I have told everyone that I need about 6000 square meters (one and a half acres) in order to have enough space. So that's the amount for which we been raising money. The YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Madagascar people have been looking for land for me around the area that where they are located, but thought that I was looking for a really big piece of land. I didn't tell them the size that I was thinking of, as I just wanted them to look for anything.
This week, the YWAM base leader, who is Malagasy, emailed me to say that he can't find any really big land for me. He didn't know if I'd be interested, but he is selling a piece of land in the same village, and it's 6000 square meters. It's about a 5 minute walk from the YWAM Base. So, it is in the same village that I have already lived in for 6 months before and where my lovely Malagasy YWAM friends live. On the YWAM base, there is a primary school, a secondary school and medical clinic. A King's Kids Team comes every Wednesday to do Christian singing, games and teaching with the local kids. It sounds pretty perfect. Also because they know me and love the idea of an Iris baby house, they will sell it to me for half price. That's £21,500 instead of £43,000.
Can you believe that? I feel like I can't really take it in. But isn't God awesome and amazing? Isn't He just so funny how He makes things work out like that? So I thought that would make you smile. Thank you so much for all your prayers and all your help. You guys are amazing. Please keep praying for God's perfect team to go with me.
Lots of love to you all!!!
Caroline XXXXXX
November 2008
At present Iris Madagascar is being set up from outside the country. As things in Africa are quite fluid, I do not have a fixed date to be commencing on the ground in Madagascar, but I am aiming for between September and November this year.
I am currently working on getting all the necessary paperwork completed, raising funds for the project and planning the design and layout of all the buildings on the land, in preparation for commencing building work. I will also be doing an internship with Iris Ministries learning more about how to run an Iris base.
I would really appreciate your prayers. For the preparations to go smoothly and well, for all the paperwork to be completed quickly, and for God to put in place the right core team for this project.
Thank you so much!
Caroline
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