Safe­ty of the chil­dren and our mis­sion­ary staff must come first, as we are fac­ing a volatile sit­u­a­tion at the moment with many post storm challenges.

A cyclone (hur­ri­cane) fol­lowed by a 2nd cyclone that down­grad­ed to a severe trop­i­cal storm, hit our area all with­in the last 2 weeks.

1. The first storm knocked over 10 met­al tow­ers that car­ry elec­tric­i­ty to all of north­ern Moz. Over 9 mil­lion peo­ple have been with­out elec­tric­i­ty and many with­out run­ning water since Jan. 12th.  Esti­mat­ed time of repair is first week of Feb., IF the rains hold off.  (could be longer as Feb is our great­est rain fall month).

2. Sec­ond­ly, these storms com­plete­ly destroyed 2 major bridges on the ONLY ROAD between south­ern and north­ern Moz.

This means NO SUPPLIES can reach us except by ship or air.

No esti­ma­tion on when this road will open, which pro­vides vital food sup­plies for these same 9 mil­lion peo­ple.  I’ve man­aged to buy 6  weeks of salt, canned fish, soap, sug­ar, and cook­ing oil from a Bala­ma busi­ness­man this week.  Our kids are pret­ty much “safe” as long as they fix this road in the next 30 days.

Foods we depend on from oth­er areas have sky­rock­et­ed in price, and frozen or cold foods are non-existent.

Nam­pu­la, the largest sup­ply cen­ter in the north, has already sold out of most of its supplies.

Pem­ba, our cap­i­tal city, is low on sup­plies as well as the towns of Mon­tepuez and Bala­ma.  (We bought the last of the soap and most of the salt, when we pur­chased sup­plies 2 days ago.)

Pray for PEACE TO REIGN, (no food riots), and for the road and elec­tric crews to work with GOD’S DEVINE FORCE, allow­ing them to restore ser­vices in the next 30 days.

Our kids are thrilled with the new playground.

3.  We are expect­ing an air ship­ment via MAF of vital life-sav­ing sup­plies for our orphans (com­ing in from RSA in between Feb. 15th and 28th).  This was delayed from last Nov. , and I have to be here to receive it.

MONKEY BAR FUN.

4.  IMPACT OF FLOODING ON OUR FOOD SUPPLY IN BALAMA

The floods caused by the cyclone destroyed many acres of  beans and corn in parts of Bala­ma as well as 1000’s of acres in the area just south of us.  That means that many ille­gal buy­ers will swarm the Bala­ma area by April 1st, look­ing for beans and corn to buy.  We had favor last year with the gov­ern­ment, who allowed us to buy ear­ly, and we expect to receive that same favor this year.

KATIE DANCING WITH ORPHANS.

5. IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH CHALLENGES, PEMBA SOCIAL SERVICES IS COMING FOR OUR PERMANENT LICENSING EVALUATION IN NEXT 14 DAYS!

Our Awana leader arriv­ing on his bike. Nei­ther rain, nor storm will keep this devot­ed man of God from his appoint­ed task.   

This is the FINAL, and most impor­tant of all the inspec­tions so far.

We are ready, but it does mean we will have to fetch them in Pem­ba (8 hour dri­ve round trip), host them for 2 days, then return them to Pemba.

Going the extra mile is essen­tial if you want to raise orphans in any African country.

Keep your prayers com­ing!  We sure need them.

Bless­ings,

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

Bala­ma Blazers:

Katie Pol­cyn

Ash­lynn Grabill