"Now, don't you end up coming home from Africa with a baby!" This was the rather joshing advice I received as I prepared to visit the New Hope Centre in Swaziland, advice perhaps predicated on my tendency to hog the babies at church on Sunday. (In my defence, I don't believe I actually hog the babies, but when they come through the lineup after worship to meet the pastor, somehow or other they tend to end up in my arms. Maybe it's because I need to practice for when our first grandchild arrives this November.)

My response to the gentle teasing was a firm "Oh, no, don't you worry about me bringing home a little one. We are enjoying the empty nest far too much for any of that. There are lots of things I might want to bring home from a trip, but a baby is far down the list."

That teasing was more justified than I could possibly have imagined, based on the actual lived experience of two weeks at the New Hope Centre. I travelled in a team of 11 from my congregation, Pelham Community Church. Over the course of the summer three teams, a total of 32 people (each of whom paid, or raised funds for, their travel costs) will have made the long, long journey to Swaziland to volunteer at the New Hope Centre.

The partnership between the congregation and the NHC is a little over a year old. In August 2006 the director of the NHC, Dr. Elizabeth Hynd came to speak at our church while in Canada for an AIDS conference. She described the home, and the children, and captured our hearts. That's when we committed to a major project: raising the money to build a much-needed preschool building and primary school building for the children at the Centre and in the surrounding community.

In less than a year our congregation of 119 supporting households has raised over $150 000: $100 000 to build the schools and a further $50 000 to furnish and finish. The money came in from a variety of sources such as direct donations by individuals from within the congregation and from outside. (A local businessman from a neighbouring United Church donated $20,000.) Memorial donations were also directed to the project. Fundraising events included a benefit concert featuring all the music groups within the congregation, a murder mystery dinner, a trivia night, golf tournaments, a jewellery sale, a dance with live band and a 40th anniversary party in which the happy couple (Don and Nancy Harris of Fonthill, ON) asked for any gifts be directed to support for the project. Other congregations who made donations included Balfour Street United in Brantford Ontario, and Bethany United, Attercliffe, Ontario. Christ Church (Anglican) in Oshawa, Ontario conducted a major campaign in support of building of the schools. Pelham Community Church absorbed all of the administrative costs so that 100% of monies donated were sent directly to the project.

We transmitted the money in instalments, as it came in, and were gratified to receive pictures of the school construction as it progressed. At our Sunday worship services we would find great encouragement in our efforts as we saw walls going up, floors being poured, roofs going on. The preschool was finished enough to be used prior to our arrival and the grand opening was held on the last day of the visit of Team One. The primary school construction proceeds apace, and during our visit we could see the walls go up another row or more of blocks each day.

The NHC is home to children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic that is devastating Swaziland. As part of their new family, and new life, each child receives a new given name, prayerfully chosen from the Bible, and the surname Abraham, because they are all "children of Abraham."

It's a home filled with love, respect, affection and guidance. The kids get all the necessities: clothing, plenty to eat, education, and health care. They also get the extras: music lessons, swim class, birthday celebrations, special family meals. And even some extras that are not made available to many Canadian children: twice daily sessions of prayer, praise songs and Bible stories, and regular attendance at Sunday worship.

We were welcomed into the daily life of the home, arriving to work, and work we did. We shared in meals, worship and play time with the kids, but when they went to school we went to work. Two of our team members are engineers, and they spent their time sorting out a design problem with a roof. A teacher on our team spent some of her time subbing in at the preschool while other team members (a preacher, an occupational therapist and a teacher) slogged away at the endless task of painting security gates and window frames. Two university students designed and painted a colour block wall down a long corridor. As for me, I spent all my time at the sewing machine working on curtains, bed sheets and naptime mats. I counted up the empty thread spools and I had used more than 1.6 kms of thread!

It was indeed a working vacation, but we did have a great time. There was plenty of opportunity to get to know the kids, play, act silly, sing, pray, laugh and learn. Colin Heikkela, age 16, got a chance to give some drum lessons (especially gratifying since he had raised the money to buy the drum kit.) We visited a craft market, had a meal in a restaurant and went to a game reserve where we all learned exactly what a large bull elephant looks like when he is a little annoyed by the tourists. And we devised some interesting get ups for staying warm when the sun went down and the temperature dropped near zero. (And to think I was actually mocked for bringing along my winter coat to Africa in July!)

The warmth of the family completely counteracted the effects of the air temperature. Anna (age 14) took us on a tour when we arrived, Caleb (age 15) showed us how to work the temperamental stove when we took a turn making supper, little ones like Jedidah and Titus climbed up into laps for cuddles. Debrah and Noah were reliable translators when our Si Swati proved less than adequate. Miriam, Tirzah, Zipporah and Susanna were my constant companions around the sewing machine, fascinated by the machine and entertained by my jokes (or maybe it was the custom-made teddy bear sleeping bags I was producing.) When I was getting frustrated with a recurring thread breakage problem, Miriam's automatic response was to pray for me, and for the machine, which, by the way, started to behave in a much more acceptable manner after the prayer.

It's a home that runs on prayer and on love, because you sure couldn't count on something as unreliable as money to keep a place like the New Hope Centre going. It's love that motivates the staff: short and long term volunteers from Canada, Britain, Australia and very modestly paid staff drawn from the community. We may have worked hard when we were there but the warmth and generosity extended to us by the entire household blessed us many, many times over what we had given. As a congregation we have received a huge wave of gratitude from the New Hope Centre and the Swazi government. But once again, we know we are receiving much more than we are giving in our support for the Centre and its work. Turns out Jesus was right, as usual, when he talked about the blessedness of giving eclipsing the blessedness of receiving.

When we went to the Centre each of us carried two big suitcases: one with our own necessaries and one with things to leave at the Centre, everything from picture books to gauze pads, work gloves to drumsticks. Even though we had bought a few souvenirs most of us had plenty of extra room in our suitcases on the journey home. Again we had to suffer a little gentle teasing, that maybe we needed to have our suitcases searched to guarantee that we weren't trying to sneak off with one or two of the children. I know I could have easily squeezed one or even two of the little ones in my own big bag!

But the Abraham children, while they have all been orphaned, aren't orphans any more. They aren't available to be adopted, because they have been adopted into a loving home where they grow and flourish and learn and are being groomed to provide the next generation of leadership in a country where an entire generation of leadership has been wiped out.

Rev. Dr. Diane Walker is the Senior Editor of Fellowship Magazine.