July 18, 2010 BLOG

NEW ROAD WILL DESTROY 9 ORPHAN HOMES!
 
On Wed., July 14th, the Bala­ma gov­ern­ment informed me that the new high­way com­ing through Bala­ma till take out 9 of our 18 orphan houses.
This includes the con­crete brick dorm that hous­es our Jr. High and High School orphans. (A $10,000 loss)
 
This SHOCK WAVE rocked our mis­sion station.
I expect­ed to only lose 3 orphan homes and not until next year!
The Road Crew will be com­ing this week, July 19th, to tell us when we have to vacate.
More than 300 mud huts will be destroyed, so speed is of the essence if hous­ing or land is to be found before prices sky rocket.
 
Tak­ing imme­di­ate action, I sent 2 pas­tors into the neigh­bor­hood to find out what mud huts were for sale.
 
MIRACLES NEVER CEASE! J
 8 MUD HUTS are for sale with­in 300 yards of our mis­sion sta­tion. ($550-$600/hut)
Thanks to sev­er­al extra love gifts giv­en last month, we have enough to pur­chase these buy drugs with­out a pre­scrip­tion huts this week.
God is nev­er late.  He knew what was com­ing and pro­vid­ed before we even knew the need.
We PRAISE THE LORD and send our thanks to the donors who gave those gifts last month.
Your funds are at work.
 
As if this news wasn’t enough, anoth­er shock wave hits…
 
10 ORPHANS NEED IMMEDIATE HOUSING WITH US!
On Thurs­day, July 15th, Social Ser­vices sent us a grand­moth­er with 10 ORPHANS (includ­ed 8 day old twins).
With no food, no help, and only one small mud hut, she can’t cope.
One look at the twins, and we rushed them to the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal. The male twin was near death with diar­rhea and a res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion.  The female twin was look­ing ill also.
With no house to put them in, Cape­na, our project man­ag­er, orga­nized food for the 8 orphans, (7 under age 5 and one teenage boy), and then drove them back to their home vil­lage.  The vil­lage chief orga­nized neigh­bors to care for the chil­dren until we could pro­vide them a new home in Balama.
Grand­moth­er and a 2nd neigh­bor woman stayed to care for the twins in the hos­pi­tal.  As I write this, both twins are recov­er­ing in the hos­pi­tal and look­ing much perkier.
 
How did this happen?
A man with 2 wives had a total of 8 kids and the 2nd wife was preg­nant.  Late in 2009, the man and his first wife died, leav­ing the orphaned teenage boy and 4 chil­dren under age 5 with the grandmother.
Being a strong woman, she coped, but then the 2nd wife, preg­nant with twins, died the same day she gave birth.  This left grand­moth­er with new born twins and 3 more toddlers!
The hus­band was mus­lim, so the vil­lage mosque took up an offer­ing to buy a can of baby for­mu­la ($6) and a baby bot­tle ($1).  This was a BIG ges­ture from a vil­lage that has lit­tle income.
Grand­ma lacked edu­ca­tion in how to pre­pare the for­mu­la, so the male twin picked up a dead­ly type of diar­rhea that kills infants in less than a day.
It was a mir­a­cle that they both didn’t have diar­rhea as they ate from the same bottle.
By God’s grace, the twins were saved because neigh­bors brought them to us the same day the twins got sick.
 
MIRACLE HOUSING:   A lot with 2 mud huts and a $700 tag, was locat­ed with­in 200 yards of our mis­sion station.
With the emer­gency reserve funds which your love gifts pro­vide, we pur­chased these 2 huts that day.  With a few improve­ments, the 7 tod­dlers will be able to move in with a fos­ter moth­er this week.
Spon­sors are need­ed to help us care for these 7 lit­tle ones at $30/month/child.
Pho­tos will be pro­vid­ed to each sponsor.
The twins will need milk for­mu­la and an addi­tion­al fos­ter mother’s care for the next year.  TWO spon­sors are need­ed at $50/month.
 
Please feel free too write.
I’ll keep every­one updat­ed and answer ques­tions via this blog.
Blessings,
Bush Bun­ny Brenda