| FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“ DATE: APRIL 15, 2023 A PASSLE OF PRESCHOOLERS! What do you get when making 7:30 a.m. visits to the children’s homes? A PASSLE OF PRE-SCHOOLERS wanting a ride!  A Passle of Happy Preschoolers! To these little ones, there is nothing better than asking Mama Brenda for a ride in her King Cab. It’s a short 400 yards/meters to the pre-school, and I go very slowly, so they enjoyed a whole 5 minutes of “riding the road” before their daily fun time. They are growing up quickly, as every one of these children came here as infants. Our Bakers Dozen (13), the fast-growing 1‑year-olds, will soon be taking their place. Heaven only knows how I will get all of them into my double cab when they start pre-school. Guess they will have to learn to take turns! That will be a challenge for sure. HOW DO YOU FORGET A 4 YEAR OLD? Seems it’s not difficult when the responsible person doesn’t double check the area. Tomacina, age 4, was forgotten by her Uncle at our Thursday food give out this week. In the 15 years we have been distributing food at our mission base, we have never had a family member forget a child they brought with them. With a hungry little girl on our hands, I presented her with food and a water bottle, which put a big smile on her face. We waited for 2 hours before taking action, as we thought surely the Uncle would return for her. When he didn’t, we took her to our office where she finally remembered she was from Namara Village. Capena called those in Namara whom he knew but found no one who knew the little girl. She didn’t know any family member’s names, so that added to the problem. Fortunately, the village chiefs were in town for a meeting, so Social Services used their influence to get the Namara Chiefs out of the meeting, hoping they could identify her. Praise the Lord that one of the chiefs knew her! He gladly went with our staff in our Land Cruiser to show our driver the way to her mud hut. Our driver reported upon his return that the Uncle thought she had left with a friend from the same village who had brought his children with him. The Uncle never thought to check the area, so the result was one little girl in tears when she realized she had been left behind.  Tomacina back with her Granny and siblings in Namara Village. Praise Jesus, it all ended well! Tomacina was reunited with her family after 6 hours of turmoil. Our staff will do their best in future to be more watchful of the little ones, making sure they all leave with whom they came with. FIX-IT TIME, AS THE RAINY SEASON FADES OUT We’ve had more sunny days in the last week than we’ve had all rainy season, put together. It was a JOY! So on Friday the 14th, I closed the playground, and had our carpenters and brick layers do all the small fix it jobs that were needed to keep the playground equipment safe. The major job was the 2 swing sets that years of swinging kids and weather had worn out. It now has new supporting beams that in 7 days will be ready for use. Have to give the cement pillars a chance to dry and harden before they receive the stress of lots of happy kids swinging to their hearts delight!  Bricklayers cement-in the new swing mounting beams. WE LIVE AS A BLESSED FAMILY BECAUSE YOU CARE. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO SO THAT WE CAN BE THE LORD’S HELPERS TO THE CHILDREN OF THIS AREA. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF |
