And the kids—all 40 of them have grown and matured and are more delightful than ever. These are kids whose parents died of AIDS and there was no one left to care for them. They came to New Hope Centre and began to thrive. They dance ballet, they sing in four-part harmony, they play the drums, they compete at swimming and other sports, they excel at their classes, they worship God, they lead Bible studies for their siblings at the home, and they exhibit leadership in leading camps for other children in Swaziland who have not had their advantages. They are truly amazing children.

This time Wendy Weising, my daughter, went with me to share the adventure. I am so glad she did. Now we have so much to talk about. Wendy’s only request was that she get to see some African animals. After all, what is a trip to Africa without seeing lions and giraffes and elephants? And we did! We saw them all including a crocodile, monkeys, zebras, wart hogs, wildebeests, ostriches, lions, a giraffe, hippos, and so much more. Swaziland is a treasure trove of wildlife and when you get off the main roads and back into the country just a little bit, it is beautiful. There are mountains and deep grasslands and trees. It wasn’t quite the same as the high valleys of Montana, but it did cause me to think of my childhood home.

Our job at New Hope was to interview 24 kids to get their stories. These stories will become the basis for a book called 24 Extraordinary Children, and extraordinary they are. They are also chosen . . . blessed . . . endowed with talent . . . loved. They are, in short, just great kids. Our interview process took most of our time with the children, but we got to share a Shabbat meal with them on Friday evening, early morning devotions each day, and we went to church on Sunday with them. We heard them singing early in the morning and late in the evening.

Getting to and from Swaziland from the west coast of America is a daunting task. We left LA about midnight and flew all night to JFK in New York. After a couple of hours there (during which I managed to drop my passport and had to pray, retrace my steps, and finally was able to retrieve it) we boarded a jumbo jet headed for Johannesburg. That’s roughly a 15-hour trip and much of the trip happens at night (again). When we landed in South Africa, we still had a ways to go. We climbed on a tiny jet to fly 500 miles over the mountains to land in Manzini in the Kingdom of Swaziland. It took about an hour. Of course, there was a lost bag—mine—and before we left the airport, we had to make sure it was tracked down and would be on the plane in the morning. It was late when we left the tiny Matsapha airport and went to a grocery store to get supplies for the week. Then down through the dark we drove and at last climbed the mountain that is home to New Hope Centre. We were quickly surrounded by children who greeted us with joy.

How thrilling to hear the shofar blow at 6 A.M. in the morning to awaken the children. Then there is a padding of feet as the children go to the washhouse to bathe and get ready for the day. And always there is music, singing and recorded music, and sometimes both at once. By 8 A.M. the kids are in the tabernacle to greet the day with praise. First they sing and then they kneel on the hard concrete floor to pray and finally they find a scrap of cardboard to sit on on the floor while they hear a devotion led by one of the children. Then they memorize the verse for the day. At 9 A.M. the kids are off to class to study for most of the day. Teatime is at 11, and lunch served one to two hours later. There is playtime after school, then an evening meal and a time when they can watch a DVD or some other restful activity. Bedtime comes early at about 9 P.M. and by 10, it is very quiet.

And now to the work at hand. I will begin to figure out what this book should be. I would appreciate your prayers and interest as I go forward with this project. I feel called to do this book and I need God’s help in putting it together.

I came away from this trip with a renewed faith and a determination to live the rest of my life on the edge. I’m not going to play safe anymore. Time is short and there is much to be done for the kingdom of heaven. I keep thinking of the phrase, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates uttered it at his heresy trial that was held for encouraging his students to challenge the accepted beliefs of the time. He wanted them to think for themselves. Socrates believed that without examining life, there is no point in living. He died for his beliefs. That’s living on the edge. I wonder what we could do if we all decided to move just a little closer to the “edge” of our life and live with just a little more faith and courage.

O.K., so I’m not Meryl Streep or Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) and no the farm did not belong to me, but Out of Africa was a great movie. I did go to a farm in Africa (Swaziland) that was situated at the top of a small mountain or a very large hill—depending on your view. Also located on this spot was a bright beehive of houses, filled with African children breaking into song or dance for the sheer joy they felt or the sound of laughter as they made a game of folding their own laundry that they had just brought down the hill from the clothes lines in an old wheelbarrow.

My mother, Gwen Ellis and I (Wendy Weising) arrived at New Hope Centre on August the 2^nd of this year. We had just flown what felt like a billion hours from Los Angeles. The last leg of our journey had been on a small plane that took us to a small airport. There we met a small woman with the heart of a lion, who would change our lives forever. Dr. Elizabeth Hynd was there to meet us. She was and is the director of New Hope Centre—not an orphanage, but a home where a very large family lives.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with books. Well, I will just tell you. One business of books is to tell a story. I will be sharing some very interesting stories over the next few weeks with those who choose to keep reading and to come back for more.  I hope that when I am through you will see something that is working in this world where barely anything does. The children in this family are confident, happy, and full of hope for not only their own futures, but the future of Swaziland.

So this is my introduction with many more stories to come. I leave you with this story-

Have you ever been fumigated on a flight?

Well, this was definitely a first for me. We actually got it twice. The first time was really unfair. We were on a tiny 29 seat prop plane. As the propellers whirled, we heard the captain’s voice, but could not understand his words. I turned to my mom and said, “Did he say something about covering our faces?” She shrugged her shoulders. Then the plane lurched forward as it began its short trek down the runway for take-off. I could hear a faint “sssssssssssssss” sound as the flight attendant walked quickly from the back of the plane to the front. I wondered for about two seconds what she had in her hand before the smell of baby powder and Old Spice penetrated my sinuses…and then we took off into the air—with all 29 of us gagging and grabbing anything to hold over our faces.

The second time it happened was on the way back home on the big plane. This time when the announcement was made, we thought that we were prepared. We pulled the fronts of our shirts above our noses, over this we packed the airlines pillows, and then we hid under the airlines blankets. That flight attendant knew what she was doing. She had a huuuuuuugggge can of spray. She started on the other side of the plane. She knew how to spray that disinfectant behind her back as she almost jogged ahead of it. Kind of like a weird Olympic torch runner. Then she started down our aisle. I kept peeking out of my barricade to see where she was. What I saw made me giggle—hundreds of passengers with blankets over their heads. We looked like a ghost convention. I tucked my head back in for the flight attendant was near now. She passed by. Whew! Then it hit. That same baby powder Old Spice nastiness. Now in retrospect, I don’t believe that anything we did would have stopped the pungent aroma that hit us full force. I don’t know what the stuff was, but I do believe it was created to seek and destroy—I’m not sure exactly what, but everyone was gagging and coughing. I have been asked several times what they were fumigating. I have no idea, but I think it probably kept people from getting anyone else’s germs, due to the fact that we spent part of the trip wrapped up like mummies.

Anyway, we survived. End of first story. Please feel free to ask me questions or to post a comment about your own experiences or the answer to the fumigating question.  More stories to come. In the meantime, here is a topic-

What do you do when you have a panic attack over the Atlantic Ocean, 7 hours into a 15 hour trip?

Discuss.

–Wendy Weising

Lady Jayne Books and Collectibles

by Gwen Ellis

The Read and Share Toddler Bible provides the perfect tool for bonding with your little one, while creating a lifelong love of God’s Word.

In the tradition of the best-selling Read and Share Bible comes the Read and Share Toddler Bible. This book and DVD combination offers two entertaining ways for child to begin learning about God and His Word.  Inside are 40 short Bible stories, just the right length for toddlers’ attention spans, a 60-minute DVD with animated Bible characters your children will love, Old and New Testament stories, including the Creation, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and many more.  Also included are interactive learning suggestions that not only reinforce biblical stories and concepts, but also encourage parent/child together time.  The colorful illustrations and animation are designed to engage your toddler’s interest.

To purchase this book, please go to the Gwen's Wisdom and Books Page

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, NIV).

Okay, okay, we all know we should get our kids together for a family time around the Word of God and prayer. When my kids were small, I knew it was important. Sometimes we did it . . . for a while and then our resolve petered out and soon the only thing going on was guilt that we should be doing more. Now, why is this? The reasons are numerous. Let’s see:

•  We are too busy.
•  The kids have so many activities.
• I can’t find anything simple enough for my young kids.
• I can’t find anything to keep the kids attention. They don’t want to just sit and listen.
• I guess I’ve never considered a family Bible time all that important.

In a nation where we have dozens of good Bible translations and where you can buy a Bible at any store from K-Mart to Barnes and Noble, Bible illiteracy among kids raised in Christian homes is pretty shocking.

We say we are basing our Christian life on the Word of God because we believe it is the truth. If that’s the case, then we must believe the Deuteronomy scripture is true. Hmm. If it is our job as parents and grandparents to teach the next generation about the love of God and about his ability to help us in any situation of life, maybe, just maybe, we should take having a family Bible time a little more seriously—perhaps as seriously as a T-Ball game or ballet lessons. We make sure the kids don’t miss those.

I agree with you that it’s tough to find good material for families and young kids. I agree with you so much that I wrote such a book. It’s called Our Together-Time Bible, and it is based on the increasingly popular Read and Share Bible storybook. Here’s how it works:

•  There are 52 Bible topics in the book written to involve young children.
• Every “lesson” has a modern day story about a kid’s life at home, or a recipe that you to make together, or a poem, or some other fun information or activity.
• Next comes a short and simple Bible story that features an underlying idea such as prayer, honesty, or God’s love.
• Then in the “Our Together Time” part of the lesson, kids have a chance to participate by answering questions about the story they have just heard.
• In the “Share God’s Love” section of the lesson, there are fun ideas for ways to apply the lesson—a game, an experiment, or a craft.
• Last there is a simple prayer the family can pray together.

Now, here’s the important part for time-challenged parents and kids. You can do one lesson a week and go through all the sections of that lesson at one time. Or, you can split up the sections (activities, story, poems, etc.) and do one section a day. The Read and Share, Our Together-Time Bible is the perfect tool to use at the dinner table before everyone scatters to play and get ready for bed. The book is flexible and the way you use it is up to you. But please, use it and help our kids learn important lessons from the Word of God that they can begin to put into their lives right away.

Please click here to get more info on Gwen’s book,

Click here for more info on this book

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been around for a while and have been addicted to reading my whole life, and have read a lot, but I’m struggling to find books I want to read. The non-fiction books seem kind of grim right now, and the fiction books are hardly believable. I like to learn something when I read a fiction book. Those are the books that seem to be hard to find.

I’ve gone back to some of the classics and I know why they are classics. The stories still have appeal a hundred years of more after they were written.
I read Anna Karenina for the first time a couple of years ago. There is something about that story that is haunting. Why do people throw away what they have grasping for more or something different. I felt that way after I had read Gone with the Wind for the first time.

I want to read  The Brothers Karamazov. It’s a tough read–like Karenina. I think I’ll build a character reference list so that I can keep track of who is doing what. I did that for Anna Karenina and it was tremendously helpful. Of course, in that book, Russian names were daunting enough, but then the writer added nicknames and variations on the names to help confuse the reader. I’ve been told that the Brothers may be one of the best books ever written. If that’s true, I surely don’t want to miss it.

About the rest of them–the books that just don’t pull their weight. They stare me in the face and dare me to do better. I want to. I want to write books that move people deeply–where they live. Right now I’m spending time helping a lot of other writers tell their story by editing their work and making suggestions and asking questions.

I’ve written probably 25 books of my own, but someday soon I want to write that one book that comes right out of the center of my soul. I’ll let you know when I do.

Gwen Ellis

Owner of Seaside Creative Services, Inc.