From: Brenda Lange, Date: September 7, 2013

MANY SMILING FACES THANKS TO YOUR LOVE GIFTS!

Melis­sa and one of the old­est wid­ows in the pro­gram at the Man­go Tree Church give out.

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin! Get those trucks a rollin! The old “Rawhide” theme song was our team’s jin­gle these last 3 days as we car­ried 18.3 TONS of corn and beans to 433 hun­gry orphans and the 252 wid­ows in 3 major areas of Bala­ma Dis­trict. We have nev­er missed an August give out before, but many sched­ul­ing inter­rup­tions, caused the delay, mak­ing us all very unhap­py. So once we found a 3 days spot, we loaded up both our big trucks and moved’em out! As you can see by the pho­tos, there are many smil­ing faces, as it was great fun see­ing all the famil­iar faces dur­ing this time of bless­ing those in need.

KWE KWE HAND OUT STILL TO COME NEXT WEEK

Our largest sin­gle food hand out will be this Tues­day, Aug. 10th. These 9 vil­lages are so spread out that we dis­trib­ute 12.7 TONS of corn and beans in one morn­ing at 2 main loca­tions over 30 min­utes dri­ve apart. 447 chil­dren and 211 grand­moth­ers who care for the chil­dren are served through this give out. This group is our most “vul­ner­a­ble” since the orphans are most­ly under 8 years old with many in the 3–5 age range. They received a food drop in late July, so this will be #2 for them.

WE CAN’T THANK YOU ALL ENOUGH FOR MAKING THESE GIFTS POSSIBLE SO THAT THESE CHILDREN CAN HAVE A FUTURE.

Mea­sur­ing the corn, while the croud from the sev­en Man­go Tree Vil­lages wait to hear their names called. 

Bean dis­tri­b­u­tion, with salt and soap being hand­ed out in the background. 

THREE NEW BABIES ADMITTED TO OUR FORMULA PROGRAM

this week with one of them look­ing like an ema­ci­at­ed female ver­sion of Dixon when he first came to us. I don’t have a pho­to of lit­tle Sara, as we were too busy try­ing to save her life. (she could bare­ly suck a bot­tle she was so weak when we got her yes­ter­day) Baby Sara was born Aug. 16 and nev­er tast­ed milk until yes­ter­day! How she sur­vived the three weeks with only water in a baby bot­tle, only God knows. She was noth­ing more than loose skin over bones due to her severe weight loss. Her moth­er is only 15 and has severe mas­ti­tis in both breasts. Her hus­band is also very young. They were accom­pa­nied by the girl’s moth­er, who final­ly got them to bring the baby to us for help, and hoped it wasn’t too late. Grand­ma seems quite sharp and learned quick­ly how to mix the baby for­mu­la. Seems the young cou­ple, who live in a small remote vil­lage about 6 miles away, didn’t know of our baby for­mu­la pro­gram, and thought the mother’s mas­ti­tis would go away on its own.

So it seems we have anoth­er lit­tle fight­er on our hands for sure! The fam­i­ly went home after moth­er and baby were treat­ed at the hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day. When they come in next Thurs­day for their for­mu­la, I’ll be able to snap a pho­to for you. Sara is quite cute for sure!

We’ve been told to expect com­pa­ny from Pem­ba Social Ser­vices this week, so keep us in prayer. All is ready, and we look for­ward to show­ing off our won­der­ful chil­dren and the great homes they live in, thanks to your generosity.

Bless­ings, Bush Bun­ny Brenda

Melis­sa Olmesdahl

And the Bala­ma Staff