NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY:
A HUGE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR BALAMA’S ORPHANS
OVER 150 orphans and street children enjoyed a day of soccer, jump rope, and other games on June 1st. The fun was followed by a great feast with 70 kg (154 lbs.) of goat meat served over 80 kg (176 lbs.) of rice, a barrel of Mango flavored Koolaid, and boxes of candy and cookies for dessert.
Our Balama family.
THANKS TO YOUR LOVE GIFTS, WE WERE ABLE TO PROVIDE THIS PARTY FOR THE CHILDREN.
Orphans enjoying a goat goat and rice feast.
It was a great day as all the children left with full tummies, a big smile, and a handful of cookies and candy.
Kids give complete attention to eating lunch!
5 DAY CORN MIRACLE!
Our magnificent team of 123 very powerful men broke all records this week thanks to transport help from 8 Village Associations. ALL 2,800 CORN SACKS for June were in the barn in 5 days!!!
WHY THE SUPER SHORT TIME FRAME? Our sacking teams are very fast and at their best can move 650 sacks/day. (39 TONS/day)
Building a 100 ton stack of corn. (Day 2)
NOTE: BEAN SACKING was done in 2 days because the teams moved 95 tons (1,584 sacks) in 2 days to get it done. Beans flow through the chutes much faster than corn which tends to STICK, and has to be pushed.
In previous years our daily limitation on corn buying was due to the long distance our 2 trucks had to travel. Some of the best areas for corn buying are 15 to 20 miles from our base with some of the roads being nothing more than a path.
If our sacking teams ran out of corn, we had to “skip a day” of sacking to let the trucks get ahead of us. TEN DAYS was the norm for 2016 and ’17. This year, 8 Village Associations offered to bring in their own corn if we would buy from them.
Much has changed in Balama over the last 2 years, and the Village Co-ops are now able to hire trucks to transport their corn. For this help, we are truly grateful!
BUSH BUNNY HOPPING FOR JOY THAT 6 MONTHS OF THE ORPHAN’S CORN IS NOW SAFE IN THE BARN!
The other 6 months of corn will be bought in early JULY from our Pastors who “super dry” their corn for long term storage.
THANK YOU TO ALL THE DONORS AND PRAYER PARTNERS WHO BACKED US TO MAKE SURE THAT 2,000+ ORPHANS AND WIDOWS DO NOT GO HUNGRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS.
DAVE DEBOER OF MICHIGAN, HAS NOW ARRIVED WITH ALL HIS LUGGAGE, AND IS VERY MUCH ENJOYING HIS TIME PLAYING WITH OUR YOUNGER CHILDREN.
Dave Deboer and Momadi.
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA FAMILY OF GREAT HELPERS