Two hearts for Africa

~Sub-Saharan Africa, circa now. Every three seconds, a child dies of hunger or malnutrition. Every 14 seconds, a child is orphaned by AIDS. 6,400 people die of AIDS every day, leaving behind thousands of orphan-headed households. Children are literally raising children, and at this rate, there will be no more adults by 2020. No adults. No grandparents. No caretakers for the children.

The African country Swaziland has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world -- 29 -- and the highest HIV infection rate -- 42.6 percent. The children in Swaziland are living in the streets, eating garbage, doing horrible, horrible things in order to survive. Is that OK with you?

What if it was your child, your niece or nephew? What if you had been born into this country? It's not OK with Raelenna Ferguson and Teresa Birk. They've seen it with their own eyes, and they're doing everything they can to stop it. After meeting on a Heart for Africa mission trip in July 2009, the two Southeast Missouri women teamed up to create Celebrate H.O.P.E. (Hunger, Orphans, Poverty, Education), a local group raising money for a second mission trip to Africa. This summer, Raelenna will take 47 Cape Girardeau-area residents to Swaziland, Africa, to build a children's home in memory of Teresa's son, Jared Birk.

It all started 18 months ago when Raelenna read the book "It's Not OK with Me" by Janine Maxwell. In the book, Maxwell shares how she went from being a high-powered marketing guru to co-leader of Heart for Africa after traveling to Africa with the not-for-profit organization. Maxwell shares the life stories of children in Africa who are living on the streets and starving to death, victims and orphans of AIDS. Says Raelenna, reading Maxwell's book opened her eyes to what was really going on in Africa.

"I'd heard about it and seen it on TV, but the book made it real," says Raelenna. "I knew I was going to Africa and I was taking my husband with me." Still, she admits she had her doubts. Raelenna -- a Cape Girardeau real estate agent and mom of four -- had never done a mission trip before, and the idea of taking a 16-hour flight overseas, leaving her children at home, was incomprehensible to her.

"I thought, 'You would never catch me on a plane that long,'" says Raelenna. "It was never on my radar. I still think, 'Why do I have to leave my kids? Why does it have to be Africa? Why can't it be Guatemala? That's only a three and a half-hour flight.'"

But Africa needed her, and she knew it, and her pastor, Ron Watts of La Croix United Methodist Church, had faith in her. After much speaking, planning and fundraising with friends and church members, Raelenna and 12 others traveled to Swaziland, Africa, in July 2009, where they spent just over a week painting, cleaning, gardening and caring for children ages six months to 18 years. This is where Raelenna got to know Teresa, one of two MedAssets employees on the trip. John Bardis, CEO of MedAssets, is a major supporter of Heart for Africa, and Teresa had picked up a copy of Maxwell's book at her workplace.

"What really struck me was the older kids taking care of the younger kids. I had a 12-year-old and a 1-year-old at the time," says Teresa, who lives in Jackson and now works for the Alzheimer's Association. She couldn't imagine her two sons taking care of one another with no power, no money, no place to live and no parents -- but it happens in Africa every day. Teresa's older son Austin, looking at the cover of Maxwell's book, pointed out, "Mom, they don't even have GOOD trash to build their houses." Teresa knew she had to do something.

So Teresa, who was no stranger to volunteer work but had always wanted to travel for a mission trip, found herself painting a caregivers' home in Swaziland. It was wintertime there, and as she perched on the concrete to reach the lowest parts of the building, she remarked on how cold the concrete felt. This seemingly minute detail became Teresa's hardest-hitting revelation yet.

"I thought, 'Someone will sleep on this tonight, if they are lucky,'" says Teresa. "If they even have a place to sleep, they probably don't have a blanket. I was complaining about the cold, but someone else would be lucky just to have a structure."

For Teresa, going to Swaziland was like switching off everything about life in Southeast Missouri and realizing that, for the people of Africa, this is what life is like every single day.

"It's a fine line to poverty," she says. "It's not low-income -- it's no income." She adds, "It's not a matter of not wanting to eat the leftovers in the refrigerator. It's that there's no food in the house to have."

Raelenna's big moment came while traveling up a mountain to a different children's home. She was feeling carsick -- until she noticed a tiny boy, probably only a year and a half old, standing in the mud at the side of the road. He was naked except for a scrap of t-shirt. He was alone.

"There was this little baby standing in the middle of nowhere. There were no huts, no nothing. That stuck with me because I had a 14-month-old at home," says Raelenna. "I had no idea who his parents were or where he was going."

When Raelenna returned from Africa, she tried to absorb what she had seen -- the things she had always heard about, but never thought truly existed. "I tried to process what I saw. I didn't know what my plans were, but God laid it on my heart to build another orphanage," she says.

Raelenna and Teresa soon began fundraising and finding others willing to volunteer in Africa. It wasn't hard to find the volunteers -- they had a limited number of slots, but could have taken 100 if they had the space. Once Raelenna and Teresa spread the word about their own trip to Africa, it wasn't hard to find the money, either. Though the women thought it would take at least a year, maybe two, to raise the money, they had all they needed and more in only four months, starting in October 2009 and ending with the Celebrate H.O.P.E. fundraising banquet in February 2010.

Raelenna and 47 other Cape Girardeau residents traveled to Africa in July, where they held a dedication ceremony and began building a home for orphaned babies on Project Canaan, a 2,500-acre tract of land in Swaziland set aside for children's homes, schools, fish farms, churches and HIV/AIDS clinics. The baby home, to be called El Roi Baby Home (mentioned in the Bible, "the God who sees me") will be built in memory of Jared Birk, Teresa's 2-year-old son, who drowned in a pool accident just days after Teresa returned from Africa last summer. Though Teresa cannot go to Africa this year, she and her son Austin are already planning to go next summer. Raelenna's husband, Jeremy, and 15-year-old daughter, Riley, will go with her this summer.

Raelenna knows little about what the group will do once they arrive in Africa -- only that they will split into groups and disperse throughout the country.

"We'll be the hands and feet of Jesus," says Raelenna, whether that means fixing a roof, painting a house, praying with someone, or playing with the kids. "We're just going to serve," she says.

Raelenna says her dream is to go back to Africa every year, bring others from Southeast Missouri, and eventually share her Celebrate H.O.P.E. fundraising plan with cities throughout the United States.

"See the need and act on it ... It can only happen if you're willing," she says.

And while some argue, why spend all the time and money to go to Africa? Why not just send them the money? Raelenna and Teresa say that while money is needed in Africa, the actual volunteer experience cannot be replaced. If it weren't for volunteers going to Africa, we in America would never hear their stories, contribute to their fundraisers, and maybe, just maybe, consider taking a mission trip of our own.

"You have to see it, feel it, touch it to have that connection," says Teresa.

UPDATE: Read an update on Ferguson's most recent trip to Africa in our October issue of the Flourish e-zine.