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GOD’S MIGHTY HAND SAVES 3 LIVES
 
On Tues­day, the MAF (Mis­sions Avi­a­tion Fel­low­ship) pilot took off from their base in a sin­gle engine Cess­na to fetch our vis­it­ing Bish­ops from Tete, a 3‑hour flight away.  Just 10 min­utes out of the air­port, the pilot, Ryan, noticed an oil leak com­ing from the engine. Doing a quick turn-around, he head­ed back to their base.
 
Oil leaks in plane engines caus­es the engine to “seize” if the oil lev­el drops below a cer­tain point.  If you are in the air when the engine stops, down you go with lit­tle con­trol! Ryan’s super alert­ness and lots of prayer for this trip, saved his life!  
 

Pilot Ryan of MAF. A man of God who lis­tens when the Holy Spir­it speaks​
 
After receiv­ing the call (I had left at 3:30a.m. and was just 15 miles/33 kms from Pem­ba), I noti­fied the Bish­ops that the plane wasn’t com­ing. They would have to resched­ule. I was just super thank­ful that the Lord showed Ryan the leak at the ONLY pos­si­ble moment when a crash could be avoid­ed!
 
So Bush Bun­ny and her faith­ful side­kick, Mario, a 2nd dri­ver who always trav­els with me, changed plans and went on a shop­ping spree! Flex­i­bil­i­ty is a key item every mis­sion­ary needs if they are to make the most of rapid­ly chang­ing plans.
 
I hadn’t been in Pem­ba since Decem­ber 15th due to the rainy sea­son road con­di­tions, so much need­ed gro­ceries and oth­er sup­plies which are only avail­able in Pem­ba were pur­chased. The local children’s cloth­ing store sur­prised us with the ear­ly arrival of win­ter sweat­pants, so an hour lat­er, we left $200 lighter, but with most of the need­ed sizes for our 58 chil­dren.  
 
Our Vis­i­tors should arrive on May 10th, as that is the next date that both they and a dif­fer­ent plane are avail­able.
 
 
BABY FRANCIANO JOINS OUR FAMILY
 
AT 5 MONTHS, this orphaned tyke had the high fever of malar­ia, was super ane­mic (blood count of 4), and only weighed 2.6 kgs/5.7 lbs! His very ancient grand­moth­er and a mid­dle age Uncle had brought him to us, request­ing baby for­mu­la.  
 
In crit­i­cal con­di­tion, this lit­tle boy need­ed more care than they could pro­vide. I rushed him off to the hos­pi­tal, where he was imme­di­ate­ly admit­ted and a blood analy­sis with blood type was ordered. By a mir­a­cle, a B+ donor was quick­ly locat­ed. By 5pm, he was receiv­ing a life-sav­ing trans­fu­sion. Still in a frag­ile state 2 days lat­er, he received a 2nd trans­fu­sion bring­ing his blood count up to a safe 10. 
 

Tiny Fran­ciano with Fos­ter Moth­er Este­va­nia, hap­py to be home from the hospital​
 
Released from the hos­pi­tal on Mon­day, April 18th with no resid­ual malar­ia, every­one is now hope­ful that he will sur­vive after such over­whelm­ing chal­lenges. Fran­ciano is way too frag­ile to live in the bush, so with Social Service’s assis­tance, his fam­i­ly agreed to leave him in our care on April 22nd.
 
GOD’S PLANS ARE ALWAYS THE BEST PLANS!
Thank YOU, for your Love Gifts saved the life of this lit­tle boy.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF