URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FOR BABY DINO Baby Dino, a new­ly orphaned baby, was admit­ted to our milk pro­gram 2 weeks ago with severe mal­nu­tri­tion and a weight of only 3kg/6.6lb at 5 months of age. His Aunt was car­ing for him. We knew it would be a long haul to get him back to a nor­mal weight, but the fam­i­ly has first say in the child’s care.

Baby Dino on Thurs­day at the hospital.

Thanks to the cold weath­er, he devel­oped pneu­mo­nia in his weak­ened con­di­tion. He was in severe res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­tress when his fam­i­ly brought him in for his week­ly check-up and weigh-in on Thurs­day. We rushed him to the hos­pi­tal, where he was admit­ted. The fam­i­ly agreed they could not care for him prop­er­ly at their home, so he will go home with us. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS LITTLE ONE, AS HIS MALNUTRITION IS BEYOND SEVERE, AND THE PNEUMONIA HAS HIM IN CRITICAL CONDITION. NOTE: He is doing slight­ly bet­ter after 24 hours of med­ica­tions, but we have a long way to go to get him healthy. I will keep you updat­ed.   CHILDREN’S PARLIAMENT LEADERS VISIT AGUAS VIVAS  The whole month of June holds many pro­grams for chil­dren to learn how to become good lead­ers as they grow up.The 10 chil­dren who were cho­sen as Group Lead­ers in the Par­lia­ment this year came to our class­room to share ideas with our 10 to 14 year old chil­dren. Three adult lead­ers from both Social Ser­vices and oth­er Children’s Safe­ty Depart­ments came on Wednes­day as well to teach child safe­ty in the home, and many oth­er child relat­ed items. It was an hour well spent, as our chil­dren and moth­ers seemed to have absorbed many new ideas that prob­a­bly nev­er crossed their minds.

Chil­dren’s Par­lia­ment vis­it. Those in School Uni­forms are the Par­lia­ment leaders

Our chil­dren are grow­ing up, and learn­ing how to be a good leader is an impor­tant part of their edu­ca­tion. We are grate­ful that Social Ser­vices orga­nized this pro­gram so our chil­dren could open their eyes to new infor­ma­tion.  CORN PROCESSING TEAM DOING DOUBLE DUTY IN MELUCO   Manuel, our head truck dri­ver, took 4 car­pen­ters with him on Tues­day to Melu­co. While at our Melu­co base, they will first spend 3 days orga­niz­ing and stor­ing 800 sacks of corn into the Melu­co orphan’s ware­house that feeds 513 wid­ows and orphans. Weath­er per­mit­ting, the car­pen­ter team will then remove the old tin roof on that same ware­house, and quick­ly place the new roof­ing sheets onto the roof before any bad weath­er hits. Not ide­al, but it has to be done.

Our Melu­co Team prepar­ing the truck and all equip­ment for a 3:30a.m. depar­ture on Tuesday.

The 4x4 beams are strong, but the old tin sheets have rust­ed in many areas, mak­ing for a leaky time this last rainy sea­son. June and July are known for freak rain storms. Bala­ma had a 90-minute storm last Sun­day that left water stand­ing in pud­dles on our dirt roads. These weath­er fronts move in quick­ly with­out warning.Thankfully, Melu­co doesn’t have as much rain­fall as Bala­ma, so we are pray­ing for a DRY WEEKEND so they can get the job done. The corn will be com­plet­ed on Thurs­day after­noon, and the car­pen­ters will waste no time in get­ting the new roof in place by Sat­ur­day. THANK YOU FOR CONTINUING TO PRAY FOR ALL OF US, AS THE COLD WEATHER IS EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE THIS YEAR.  BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF