THE PITTER PATTER OF “HAPPY FEET” DANCING TO BAWANA GAMES

 

Every­thing needs sun­shine to stay healthy! Chil­dren, crops, and goats alike! Spots of dai­ly sun­shine “lit up” our chil­dren this week as the rains became more “nor­mal”.  After­noon or night show­ers are nor­mal for our rainy sea­son, and very good for the crops and the kids who seri­ous­ly need their morn­ing play time. (So say the fos­ter mothers!)

 

Bawana Games — bean bag toss

 

Today our chil­dren eager­ly played Bawana games on our bas­ket­ball court after 3 weeks of con­stant rain that can­celed most out­door activ­i­ties. Our teenage boys were busy hoe­ing up the grass on the soc­cer field. Can’t have grass slow­ing down the ball dur­ing the “After Church Soc­cer Game” on Sun­day! Over 200 peo­ple from the com­mu­ni­ty come to cheer on the teams dur­ing these soc­cer games pro­vid­ing fun and laugh­ter for every­one. It’s a great “fam­i­ly time” for all of us.

 

Now I hear that the Twigg (graphite mine) Team has chal­lenged us to a bas­ket­ball game. One prob­lem. We need a new bas­ket­ball so the boys can prac­tice. ($34 in Pemba.)

 

 

SCHOOL DAYS ARE ALMOST HERE

 

Bush Bunny’s liv­ing room is full to the brim with all the “school sup­plies” donat­ed by our friends at the Syrah/Twigg Graphite Mine. The “elves” from the Christ­mas Par­ty will join us this Fri­day to dis­trib­ute this moun­tain of school sup­plies to the 87 school age orphans liv­ing with us.

 

My over­flow­ing activ­i­ty room

 

The back packs are bright­ly print­ed with fun kid designs, as well as the zip up pen­cil hold­ers, and the easy to grip pen­cil sharpeners.

The items we can buy local­ly are pret­ty dull in com­par­i­son.  Our chil­dren saw these gifts at the Christ­mas Par­ty, and eager­ly await our Fri­day “fun time” when we out­fit them with every­thing they need for this school year.  It takes about 4 hours to out­fit this gang with  every­thing from uni­forms to pen­cil sharp­en­ers.  More next week as we gear up for the school year start­ing Feb. 5th.

 

 

PASTOR JOAQUIM’S HOME NOW ROOFED

 

Our sin­cere THANKS! goes out to those who gave spe­cial gifts to help us rebuild Pas­tor Joaquim’s home. By re-using some old tin sheets, we stretched those gifts to com­plete his roof this week for we didn’t have enough new tin sheets.

 

Pas­tor’s house with new roof

 

A team of 3 teens and 1 woman vol­un­teered to plas­ter the “pao-peeky” walls with mud this week to pro­vide secu­ri­ty and pri­va­cy. The fin­ish­ing work (final plas­ter­ing and water­proof­ing with oil paint) will be delayed until more funds are available.

 

Teen pow­er mud­ding Pas­tor’s house

 

BBC TEAMS ARE ON THE MOVE!

  (Our motor­bike and bicy­cle teams)

 

Because the heavy mud and rains kept the teams from going out the last 3 weeks, the vil­lage chil­dren thought they had been aban­doned for good (their tes­ti­mo­ny to the team). They went WILD with lots of scream­ing and danc­ing when the teams showed up this week. It’s nice to know that the chil­dren tru­ly appre­ci­ate the fun, atten­tion, and Jesus Love Lessons our teams pro­vide for them.

 

 

PASTOR FRED UPDATE

   (motor­cy­cle acci­dent victim)

 

Fred’s bro­ken leg received a new cast yes­ter­day as he com­plet­ed week 5 of his recov­ery.  Sad­ly, he will be anoth­er 3 weeks in the cast as his bones are still soft at the break site. (Both low­er leg bones were bro­ken just above the ankle). Please keep him in prayer for a com­plete and expe­dit­ed healing.

 

 

BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU AS WE WALK DAY BY DAY WITH OUR LORD JESUS!

 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF