JOSEPH PROJECT COMPLETE, SO THE LORD’S CHILDREN CAN EAT!

The Joseph Project is the Lord’s name for our food buy­ing pro­gram that has fed orphans in north­ern Mozam­bique since 2004. The Joseph Project (stor­ing food for the time of hunger) expand­ed to Meluco’s 520 orphans in 2006 after a cholera epi­dem­ic wiped out the par­ents of many children.

Buy­ing 5 sacks of rice from this farmer gave him a much need­ed help­ing hand.

This week, 40 tons of rice and 2 tons of peanuts are in our barn, com­plet­ing the Joseph Project buy­ing time for 2019! When the barns are full, peace reigns,  but also know that it means the hard work has just begun.

FOR WHAT COMES IN, MUST GO OUT! The SECOND dis­tri­b­u­tion to Meluco’s orphans is already under­way as I write. Bala­ma dis­tri­b­u­tions begin Aug. 1st.

Team of 10 “sew­ers” pre­pare to “over-sew” 100 of the 800 sacks received.  The field cords used by farm­ers are too weak to last dur­ing storage.

The Lord has pro­vid­ed abun­dant­ly, even in a time of cri­sis, for we had were blessed with the fund­ing to locate and buy extra tons of each item we need (corn, beans, rice, and peanuts).

Because of the heavy rains/winds from the cyclone (hur­ri­cane) in April, we knew that there will be many new chil­dren need­ing our life-sav­ing food in the fol­low­ing months. Crops were ruined by heavy rains or destroyed by winds, leav­ing even the ele­phants of Melu­co with lim­it­ed food sources.

All are brac­ing for a lean year in north­ern Mozambique.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVE GIFTS THAT FILLED OUR BARNS SO 1,500+ INNOCENT ONES CAN STAY HEALTHY.

4 NEW BABIES, AND MORE EXPECTED

SICK MOTHERS with deplet­ed bod­ies from lack of prop­er food, can­not pro­duce breast milk for their babies. An infant under 90-days-old can­not sur­vive with­out milk for­mu­la if the moth­er has no breast milk.

THREE ILL MOTHERS with tiny infants (1 set of twins) under 6 weeks walked into our mis­sion this week  beg­ging milk to save their babies. NO ONE is ever turned away. Social Ser­vices is noti­fied, and the moth­ers are admit­ted into our milk for­mu­la program.

These 3 women are suf­fer­ing the back­lash from the April cyclone’s destruc­tion. JESUS FILLED OUR BARNS WITH FOOD so that these children’s moth­ers can live to raise them.

FORMULA SPONSORS ARE NEEDED $25/MONTH pro­vides an infant with life-sav­ing milk, a bot­tle, and a few pieces of clothing.

Two of these young moth­ers were aban­doned by their hus­bands, leav­ing them with no assis­tance and no food. I was very proud of 19 year old Isaura, ill with mas­ti­tis, for she had sold what she could, and did odd jobs for the last 3 weeks to buy for­mu­la for her tiny infant. Bare­ly an adult, and with NO fam­i­ly, she brave­ly “stepped up”, doing what­ev­er she could to save her new­born girl.

When she final­ly real­ized she could not make it alone, we thank the Lord that she reached out for help before the infant was severe­ly mal­nour­ished. We also took her to the hos­pi­tal to get her the med­ical treat­ment she need­ed for her mastitis.

YOUR LOVE GIFTS BRING HOPE TO THOSE WHO HAVE NO WHERE ELSE TO TURN. (I apol­o­gize for not get­ting her pho­to this week, as we were in the mid­dle of rice buy­ing when she came to us.)

OUR TEENS SHOW AMAZING MATURITY

As “par­ents” to the chil­dren who live with us, we are respon­si­ble for prepar­ing them for their adult life. TEEN TALKS pro­vid­ed by Pas­tor Arman­do (teenage dorm father) are pay­ing off, for the 8 young men in his care are learn­ing to be respon­si­ble cit­i­zens of Mozambique.

I’m proud of our teenagers for lis­ten­ing to Bib­li­cal coun­cil, and act­ing on what they are learn­ing. Instead of ask­ing me for mon­ey, they came yes­ter­day to request a JOB today, so they could buy things they want­ed at the market.

Teen boys at work. Amaz­ing how fast they can clear a field when they want something.

I eager­ly agreed, and as I write, our 8 teen boys are clean­ing our Maringa tree “orchard”. Maringa leaves add great nutri­tion­al val­ue to our children’s food. At the same time, these young men are learn­ing the sat­is­fac­tion of a job well done in exchange for what they want.

YOUR LOVE GIFTS ARE PRODUCING RESPONSIBLE ADULTS.

Hap­py team after clean­ing the Moringa field

BLESSINGS,

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF