DAVE LEAVES MANY SMILES IN BALAMA

Hard to believe this year is half over, but know that Bush Bun­ny and her friend Dave DeBoer, made the most of his 27 days in Bala­ma! By reor­ga­niz­ing many of our evan­gel­i­cal and children’s mate­ri­als (a God giv­en tal­ent for sure) Dave made it eas­i­er for me to find what I need with­out delay.

Dave flew back to the USA on the 27th, and is hope­ful­ly rest­ing after the long 48 hours of travel.

IN HIS HONOR, we send our thanks for the fun fel­low­ship he brought to our chil­dren and staff by ded­i­cat­ing this blog’s pho­tos to DAVE and all the smiles he put on kid’s faces.

Last Tues­day, at our ear­ly morn­ing devo­tions, he told every­one that his great­est plea­sure was see­ing their smil­ing faces each day.

Dave and this lit­tle boy enjoyed a game of soc­cer with this home­made ball made from plas­tic bags that the boy brought with him.

Dave and Eva tak­ing a “self­ie”.  Eva is our old­est “spe­cial needs” child and she strug­gles to smile.  But DAVE made it hap­pen when he pulled out his camera!

Ques­tion: How many faces can you get into a selfie?
Answer:  Depends on how long your arm is!

Dave has a hot air “bal­loon” par­ty after Sun­day school. The kids’ faces tell it all.

DAVE, WE ALL MISS YOU AND SEND TO YOU OUR LOVE AND GRATITUDE! YOUR SMILING FACE TRULY RADIATES THE LOVE OF JESUS!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF

DAVE’S BALLOON PARTY

Since Dave didn’t arrive in time for the June 1st children’s par­ty, he treat­ed the Sun­day School chil­dren to a bal­loon par­ty last week­end. They had a blast, and there were a few “popped bal­loons” before it was all over. I am most grate­ful for Dave’s vis­it, and the chil­dren love him for sure!

Every­one hav­ing fun cel­e­brat­ing at Dav­e’s bal­loon party!

BELATED BIRTHDAY BASH!

My friends, the 4 Catholic Sis­ters of Bala­ma, invit­ed Dave DeBoer and I for lunch last Sun­day. We had NO IDEA they were plan­ning a belat­ed birth­day bash for this Bun­ny! They served up a great meal of grilled rab­bit and roast pork (a super treat, hard to get in our area). The Sis­ters grow their own rab­bits, but the pork came from a neigh­bor­hood farmer they know.

BBB and the Sis­ters with Birth­day Cake.

The Sis­ters topped off the cel­e­bra­tion with a home­made cake, and while I was dis­tract­ed with pho­to tak­ing, they set a tub of ICE CREAM next to me! I couldn’t believe my eyes!!! Ice Cream is only sold in Pem­ba, so this took plan­ning! These sneaky par­ty lovers bought the ice cream a week before the din­ner, cold packed it, and drove it FOUR HOURS to get it to their home freez­er! NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL “GOING THE EXTRA MILE”!

BBB total­ly sur­prised to see the ice cream treat!

I AM MOST GRATEFUL TO THEM ALL, FOR A GREAT DAY OF FUN WRAPPED UP WITH A FEW HANDS OF “RUMMIKUB” AND MANY LAUGHS.

CHILDREN’S PARLIAMENT

Ten of our youth, ages 10 to 16, were invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the Bala­ma Children’s Par­lia­ment last Sat­ur­day. The kids lis­ten to speak­ers, vote on issues of inter­est to chil­dren in our area, and end the day with a great lunch pro­vid­ed by our local hos­pi­tal. They enjoyed it and it gave them a sense of com­mu­ni­ty responsibility.

Our respon­si­ble youth about to enter Chil­dren’s Parliament.

Our lit­tle ones hav­ing a “sit in” for they were not invit­ed to the par­lia­ment with their old­er sis­ters and broth­ers. So they decid­ed to have their own meet­ing! To break their sad mood, I dis­tract­ed them with home­made build­ing blocks which “made their day” and brought smiles back to their faces.

The ‘sit in’ by our younger crew.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU, THESE CHILDREN ARE GROWING UP TO BECOME RESPONSIBLE MEMBERS OF THEIR COMMUNITY.

BLESSINGS,

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF

NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY:

A HUGE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR BALAMA’S ORPHANS

OVER 150 orphans and street chil­dren enjoyed a day of soc­cer, jump rope, and oth­er games on June 1st. The fun was fol­lowed by a great feast with 70 kg (154 lbs.) of goat meat served over 80 kg (176 lbs.) of rice, a bar­rel of Man­go fla­vored Koolaid, and box­es of can­dy and cook­ies for dessert.

Our Bala­ma family.

THANKS TO YOUR LOVE GIFTS, WE WERE ABLE TO PROVIDE THIS PARTY FOR THE CHILDREN.

Orphans enjoy­ing a goat goat and rice feast.

It was a great day as all the chil­dren left with full tum­mies, a big smile, and a hand­ful of cook­ies and candy.

Kids give com­plete atten­tion to eat­ing lunch!

5 DAY CORN MIRACLE!

Our mag­nif­i­cent team of 123 very pow­er­ful men broke all records this week thanks to trans­port help from 8 Vil­lage Asso­ci­a­tions. ALL 2,800 CORN SACKS for June were in the barn in 5 days!!!

WHY THE SUPER SHORT TIME FRAME? Our sack­ing teams are very fast and at their best can move 650 sacks/day.  (39 TONS/day)

Build­ing a 100 ton stack of corn. (Day 2)

NOTE:  BEAN SACKING was done in 2 days because the teams moved 95 tons (1,584 sacks) in 2 days to get it done. Beans flow through the chutes much faster than corn which tends to STICK, and has to be pushed.

In pre­vi­ous years our dai­ly lim­i­ta­tion on corn buy­ing was due to the long dis­tance our 2 trucks had to trav­el. Some of the best areas for corn buy­ing are 15 to 20 miles from our base with some of the roads being noth­ing more than a path.

If our sack­ing teams ran out of corn, we had to “skip a day” of sack­ing to let the trucks get ahead of us. TEN DAYS was the norm for 2016 and ’17. This year, 8 Vil­lage Asso­ci­a­tions offered to bring in their own corn if we would buy from them.

Much has changed in Bala­ma over the last 2 years, and the Vil­lage Co-ops are now able to hire trucks to trans­port their corn. For this help, we are tru­ly grateful!

BUSH BUNNY HOPPING FOR JOY THAT 6 MONTHS OF THE ORPHAN’S CORN IS NOW SAFE IN THE BARN!

The oth­er 6 months of corn will be bought in ear­ly JULY from our Pas­tors who “super dry” their corn for long term storage.

THANK YOU TO ALL THE DONORS AND PRAYER PARTNERS WHO BACKED US TO MAKE SURE THAT 2,000+ ORPHANS AND WIDOWS DO NOT GO HUNGRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS.

DAVE DEBOER OF MICHIGAN, HAS NOW ARRIVED WITH ALL HIS LUGGAGE, AND IS VERY MUCH ENJOYING HIS TIME PLAYING WITH OUR YOUNGER CHILDREN.

Dave Deboer and Momadi.

BLESSINGS, 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 

AND THE BALAMA FAMILY OF GREAT HELPERS