BEANS, BEANS, AND MORE BEANS! On Mon­day, we received and weighed the final 700 sacks of beans for 2026. With the fuel short­age, our inno­v­a­tive Vil­lage Church­es, Employ­ees, and Grow­ing Asso­ci­a­tions used every means to get the beans to us. No joke, the beans came in via wheel­bar­row, bicy­cle, with only a few by motor­bike or small truck. The amaz­ing thing was that they met their quo­tas so the orphans would not go hun­gry! After a quick day of prepa­ra­tion on Tues­day, we com­plet­ed the stor­age of the beans by Thurs­day noon. It was a gru­el­ing week to say the least, but our team of 77 men made it look easy. Those bags weigh 60kg/132 lbs. EACH!

Bean barn fill­ing up. That bag is heavy, but these pow­er­ful men make it look easy.

It’s always brings a big smile to my face, know­ing that once again, we have the beans need­ed to feed the 1,500+ orphans and wid­ows in 2 counties/districts. THANKS YOU FOR HELPING US THROUGH PRAYER AND LOVE GIFTS TO MAKE THIS FEEDING PROGRAM A REALITY FOR 2026–27.COOL SEASON CLOTHES SHOPPING FOR OUR CHILDREN Our “cool” sea­son start­ed ear­ly this year as the tem­per­a­tures con­tin­ue to stay around 59F/17C at night. That is VERY COLD for our chil­dren, as our hous­es have no tem­per­a­ture con­trol except shut­ting the win­dows to keep the heat in. Each May, we eager­ly wait for the sweat­suits to arrive in a store called PEP, which is the only one that car­ries sweat­suits for chil­dren. This year the suits arrived just before bean buy­ing was to start.   Sim­ba, our mechan­ic and long dis­tance dri­ver, had to go to Pem­ba for oth­er rea­sons on May 22nd, so he offered to help by buy­ing what he could find.

Anna and Fred sort­ing the sweat­suits by size. It’s a mas­sive job.

The pile of sweat­suits in the pho­to are the result of his shop­ping. He man­aged hood­ed sweat­shirts for all the small chil­dren, and sweat­pants for most.Our Children’s Direc­tor, Anna, and her assis­tant, Fred, (shown in the pho­to), made a list and are present­ly search­ing for warm sweat­suit type pants at our local mar­ket for those who need them. It’s a chal­lenge shop­ping for 66 chil­dren, but they seem to enjoy it.

Our 2- and 3‑year-olds show­ing off their new clothes, thanks to your love gifts.

THANKS TO YOUR LOVE GIFTS, OUR CHILDREN WILL BE WARM THROUGHOUT THIS COOL SEASON WHICH IS EXPECTED TO LAST INTO AUGUST. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF