JOSEPH PROGRAM GOES INTO OVERDRIVE… Last week when I thought we were fin­ished buy­ing rice, I received word that Mozam­bique is expect­ing even less rain­fall than we had this year with some areas going into drought! YIKES! That’s why we call this food pro­gram ‘the Joseph Pro­gram’, sav­ing up food for the time of hunger. The rice crops bare­ly made it to har­vest this year, as the rains were spo­radic and in low­er quan­ti­ty than what we are use too. So, con­sult­ing our rice donor, he agreed to help us buy more rice so we could stack rice sacks into every cor­ner we could find.

4,800 rice sacks that will feed the hun­gry children.

Our team imme­di­ate­ly dis­trib­uted 1,500 more sacks to the rice grow­ing vil­lages in Bala­ma, mak­ing them very hap­py. This lit­er­al­ly stripped this area of home grown rice. Not just tasty, but very nutri­tious as it nev­er goes through all the pol­ish­ing process that com­mer­cial rice does. RICE IN THE HULL, God’s nat­ur­al pre­serv­er, allows a per­son to store it for 2 years with­out prob­lems. Our team relo­cat­ed the Juko Beans and Peanuts into our guest house which is guard­ed, well ven­ti­lat­ed, bur­glar barred, and dry dur­ing the rainy season.

Mov­ing peanuts and Juko beans to their tem­po­rary home in our guest house.

This is only a tem­po­rary relo­ca­tion until we use up some of the food, mak­ing space for these sacks in our main barns.So as you can see from the pho­tos, we are full to the brim with rice sacks!

2nd week of rice buy­ing and stor­age in our largest barn. Love how well they bal­ance 60 kgs or 132 lbs. on their heads. Look! No hands!

HELPING WOMEN THROUGH FOOD BUYING Many abandoned/widowed women got togeth­er and formed their own rice grow­ing co-op. Grow­ing rice by hand is hard work, so the team approach light­ens the load on everyone.

Wom­en’s Rice Grow­ing Asso­ci­a­tion receiv­ing their reward for a job well done.

Dur­ing our first rice buy­ing, we had to give equal num­ber of sacks to each co-op, which includ­ed the women. Once we learned we could buy more, this woman’s group was the first on the list to receive all the sacks they could fill! These women are quite excit­ed to be earn­ing a bet­ter life through a tal­ent they know well. Their chil­dren will have new clothes, and school mate­ri­als. CIS TEAM BRINGS GOODIES FOR THE CHILDREN Cup­cakes and sip­py Yoghurt were the desserts this week, caus­ing lots of excite­ment among our big fam­i­ly of chil­dren! The high pro­tein meal was deli­cious as usu­al and full of fin­ger foods. The pho­to shows one of our lit­tle ones try­ing to get a bet­ter look at the cup­cakes, as he couldn’t wait his turn to get one! This par­ty was tru­ly a fun time, with full tum­mies all around!

This wee tyke couldn’t wait to get a cup­cake, so tried to take one from the pan.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS DURING THIS VERY BUSY TIME! We are still acci­dent free, and I am so grate­ful this big job of food buy­ing is behind us. Now onward to help­ing the hun­gry orphans in the vil­lages. Dis­tri­b­u­tion begins in August. FYI: Baby Alberti­na gained 500 gms (1.1 lbs.) this week! We are so excit­ed about this! BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF