BBB BODY GUARD SAVES DE BUNNY

Mario “BIG” is the tallest, strongest, Jesus Lov­ing man on our staff.  As my body­guard and a qual­i­fied dri­ver, Mario trav­els with me when I go out of Bala­ma Dis­trict. Yes­ter­day,  he was help­ing me pick up extra beds for the” soon to arrive” fam­i­ly of 9 orphaned/ mal­nour­ished chil­dren from a remote village.

As I walked towards the “bed” ware­house, Mario sud­den­ly jogged up behind me, tak­ing the ware­house keys from my hand as he went.  I was sur­prised, for this was out of char­ac­ter. All our work­ers usu­al­ly walk with me so I can unlock the door for them.

I was about 11 feet (a lit­tle over 3 meters) behind Mario when sud­den­ly he JUMPED STRAIGHT UP, stum­bling onto the con­crete land­ing in front of the ware­house. I thought he had tripped and the jump was to save him­self from falling, but then he yelled” SNAKE”.   I froze, for I saw nothing!

About 6 feet in front of me, I saw what looked like a piece of thick string in the dirt.  It wasn’t mov­ing, and I asked “Where? Are you sure?”

“YES!  IT JUST STRUCK MY JEANS!”  That was enough for me, so I remained still while he ran for a bam­boo rod. After whack­ing the snake, Mario stat­ed that this is one of Mozambique’s dead­liest.  The locals have a tongue twist­ing name for it that means, “1 bite, you dead” in the Makua lan­guage. It’s hard to believe that such a small mouth could bite and deliv­er enough ven­om to kill.

Mario Big and I tak­ing a “Hap­py to be alive!” selfie.

I didn’t even get a pho­to for Mario picked it up with his bam­boo rod and tossed it into a hole after giv­ing it a 2nd whack to make sure it was dead. He want­ed it out of his sight ASAP for he knows of oth­ers who have died from it. If not for his thick jeans, he might have joined them!

Mario told me that this very thin snake hides well in the dirt, and IT JUMPS with its mouth open, hit­ting its tar­get on the soft part of the low­er leg with its tiny fangs.  Seems 30cm is a full grown adult, for they stay small for easy hid­ing in dirt and leaves.

I PRAISE JESUS THAT MARIO FELT A “QUICKENING IN HIS SPIRIT” TO TAKE THE KEYS, AND MOVE OUT AHEAD OF ME! I doubt I would have seen the snake before it jumped, and my bare, low­er leg below my skirt, would have been an easy target. 

JESUS SENDS ANGELS IN ALL SIZES AND SHAPES, INCLUDING THE MARIO “BIG” KIND. And for that, I am tru­ly grateful!

“SALLY’S HOUSE” NOW HOME FOR 9 VERY GRATEFUL CHILDREN

Hav­ing suf­fered much hunger since their moth­er died, 5 mal­nour­ished orphans went to live with their aunt, Car­oli­na, in Kwe Kwe Vil­lage (32 km/19 miles from us). Car­oli­na, aban­doned by her hus­band, is a bit slow men­tal­ly, but she has a lov­ing heart. She took in her 5 orphaned nieces and nephews even when she didn’t have enough food to feed her own 4 children.

We met this fam­i­ly a while back when the youngest was brought to the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal in a severe­ly mal­nour­ished state. It was soon evi­dent that reg­u­lar food drops to them would­n’t be enough. This fam­i­ly was liv­ing in a very remote area not acces­si­ble in the rainy sea­son which begins in November.

Car­oli­na’s only fam­i­ly is an Uncle who lives near our mis­sion in Bala­ma.  Car­oli­na asked her Uncle for help, but he had no place for 10 more people.

Moth­er Car­oli­na (far right) and her fam­i­ly of 9.

Since the 10 orphans liv­ing in “Sally’s House” were about to move to their new home , the deci­sion was made to offer Carolina’s fam­i­ly that home. They grate­ful­ly moved in Oct. 5th, with only the clothes on their backs and 4 small bun­dles of cook­ing items.

YOUR LOVE GIFTS PROVIDED THEM WITH LOCAL BEDS, BLANKETS, COOKING ITEMS, CLOTHING, and hygiene items.

Their faces were radi­ant when they real­ized that each of them got their OWN PLATE when we served them a hot lunch!

Open­ing the minds of these chil­dren to a new life which includes going to SCHOOL, will bring JOY to all of us on the Bala­ma Staff. Anna, our Children’s Direc­tor, spent the morn­ing teach­ing them how to use a tooth­brush, and then they were tak­en to cut their tan­gled hair. What we take for grant­ed is total­ly UNKNOWN to those who have nev­er had it.

THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR LOVE WITH THESE CHILDREN SO THEY CAN EXPERIENCE THE LOVE OF JESUS.

MORE FUN STORIES COMING NEXT WEEK, AS “THE LION HOUSE KIDS” SHOW OFF THEIR NEW HOME!

DELIVERIES GET THROUGH ALTERNATE ROUTE

Trucks drove the new route with­out prob­lems mak­ing many orphans and grannies very happy.

Hap­py granny fetch­es food and soap for her orphans.

BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF