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What We’ll Cover

Today, we’re joined by Janine Maxwell, cofounder of Heart for Africa. Janine began her professional career in marketing, starting her own company in Canada at a young age. She quickly found success in the business world and rose to be one of the first female CEOs of a major marketing company in the world, with all the status and lifestyle that came with it. However, God had a radically different purpose for her life.

After a series of life-changing events, God led Janine to abruptly shut down her successful company in order to better hear his voice in her life. And that initial step of faith allowed Janine and her husband Ian to eventually found Heart for Africa, a faith-based humanitarian aid organization.

Unlike a number of organizations we’ve spoken to which try to tackle a specific problem across multiple regions and people groups, Heart for Africa is completely dedicated to systematically and sustainably serving the Eswatini people in Southern Africa. They use the acronym HOPE to define their mission addressing hunger, orphans, poverty, and education through project canaan, a 2500 acre land development project.

Janine has an incredible personal story as well as some fantastic insight on sustainability in faith-based humanitarian aid that you won’t want to miss, so stay tuned.

Quotes to Remember

• “And I explained to God why it would be better if I sold my business, because then I would have more money to give him… but the need was immediate, and He was calling me immediately.”
• “So many Americans need to get out of the little bubble that they live in, to get out of the reality that they live in and see what’s happening in the rest of the world.”
• “We love them back to life.”
• “If it wasn’t us, it would have been someone else. Someone else would have had the blessing of rescuing that child. I would have missed out on a lifetime of blessing.”

Links from the Show

• Heart for Africa
• Project Canaan Farm Flyover Tour
• The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren
• Janine’s new book, Hope Lives Here
• Heart for Africa’s online artisan shop, Khutsala.com
• Heart for Africa on Facebook
• Heart for Africa on Instagram
• The Finish Line Community Facebook Group
• The Finish Line Forum

We Want to Hear from You!

If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our Facebook Group and our online forums.