From: “Brenda Lange” Subject: Blog, Oct. 12, 2013

CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER!

Means “DE BEAR” IS BACK! Eric Dry, bet­ter known as the “Bush Bear” by his chil­dren, arrived late Wednes­day with a truck and trail­er loaded with “impos­si­ble to get” sup­plies. His jour­ney from Johan­nes­burg, S. Africa to Bala­ma took 6 days. It’s only 1,500 miles (2,500km) by road, but “the only road that comes here” has more holes than Swiss cheese in some areas. The mil­i­tary con­voy is still func­tion­ing in the mid­dle of Moz. due to ban­dit attacks in that area. That caus­es a delay, as they only have 2 con­voys a day. Eric caught it at the right time this trip so only had a short delay. How­ev­er, the con­voy of trucks and pick-ups was 7.2 miles/12 km long, and moved very slowly.

We are very hap­py to have him back, and have spent 3 days unload­ing, unpack­ing, sort­ing, and orga­niz­ing the sup­plies in the after­noons after com­ple­tion of our dai­ly pro­grams with the kids. Does tend to help one sleep bet­ter at night since we all fell into bed last night, total­ly exhausted.

EVA GETS A DOLL

 

Our lit­tle Eva is very hap­py with her new “baby doll”.

EVA, now 14, has been a mem­ber of our fam­i­ly since she was 2 years old. Due to a dif­fi­cult birth, she had many seizures as well as cere­bral pal­sy. By the time she was 3, God super­nat­u­ral­ly healed her and the seizures have nev­er returned. Because of her brain dam­age, no one thought she would ever talk, much less sing, lead in the children’s choir at church, attend pre-school, learn TWO lan­guages, jump, run, and play!

Last week, while dri­ving past Eva’s mud hut, I saw her play­ing with a LARGE stuffed doll that belonged to a neigh­bour­hood girl. I imme­di­ate­ly told our sewing mas­ter, who made her one just like it. It’s twice the size of the oth­er dolls, and just right for Eva to car­ry around. She hap­pi­ly pos­es with her new “baby”.

BABY CHITO GETS HELPING HAND

 

Baby Chi­to took to a baby bot­tle with­out hesitation.

Baby Chi­to is 2 months old, and only weighs 1.8 kg (3.96 lbs). That’s .5 lbs (.2kg) LESS than his birth weight. This being a first time moth­er moth­er, Lau­rin­da didn’t under­stand that her breasts were dry­ing up. A neigh­bour in Rovu­ma final­ly brought her to us so she could receive life-sav­ing baby for­mu­la for Chi­to. Chi­to took to a baby bot­tle with­out hes­i­ta­tion, as he’d already fig­ured out the “oth­er sys­tem” wasn’t work­ing any­more. Lau­rin­da, is also severe­ly mal­nour­ished, as she was try­ing to sur­vive on local roots and leaves. She left with a smile on her face, and her hands full of high pro­tein food for her and Chito.

YOUR LOVE GIFTS SAVE LIVES EACH WEEK HERE, as we are now in the severe dry sea­son when very lit­tle grows, and water becomes a high­ly val­ued com­mod­i­ty. THANK YOU for allow­ing us to be Jesus’ hands and feet here in Mozam­bique. Only through spread­ing HIS LOVE, will the world ever change.

MANGO TREE CHURCH–FOOD DISTRIBUTION

 

This group from Mavala are a spe­cial bunch…

We had a great time on Fri­day giv­ing out food to over 400 orphans and wid­ows from 7 remote vil­lages. Just want­ed you to see some of the wid­ows who receive your love gifts. This group in front of me are a tough bunch, who sur­vived the civ­il war which start­ed in Mozam­bique in the ear­ly 1960’s. To have sur­vived a 32 year war takes a lot of “know how”. I take my hat off to these coura­geous men and women. They were also some of the first to respond when we brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to “THE MANGO TREE CHURCH”.

Off to a busy week, as all our kids are tak­ing SCHOOL FINALS! Our school year starts in late Jan­u­ary and ends Oct. 28th.

Next 6 weeks is prepa­ra­tion time for the “rainy sea­son” in Novem­ber, as we still have 5 food dis­tri­b­u­tions in Bala­ma Dis­trict, as well as 3 left in Melu­co Dis­trict. Our truck team leaves Mon­day for Melu­co with anoth­er load of life sav­ing corn, and they will also be repair­ing 2 water wells that are out of order. Water is so scarce in Melu­co Dis­trict, that most wells are pumped 24 hours a day dur­ing the 6 dry months each year. HIGH main­te­nance is need­ed to keep them all func­tion­ing. THANKS TO DALE MEINDERTSMA’s Min­istry, Eric was able to pur­chase the need­ed water well parts as he passed through Nam­pu­la this week.

JESUS IS THE LIVING WATER, and with­out HIS SACRIFICE ON THE CROSS, NO ONE WOULD RECEIVE HIS GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE. It is an hon­or and a priv­i­lege to serve Him dai­ly here among the won­der­ful peo­ple of Mozambique.

THANK YOU FOR HELPING US TO SPREAD HIS LOVE TO THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD.

 

Bless­ings to all of you!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA AND THE BALAMA TEAM ERIC DRY MELISSA OLMESDAHL