MANUEL took the final 5 tons of corn to Meluco last Friday as the first 2 day rain of the season caught us by surprise. On Saturday, the team delivered planting corn as well as the final food supplies to the 120 Elephant Village orphans. Now everyone (children and adults alike) in all Districts are busy preparing their fields for planting. Around here, they take the Bible very seriously, for those who do not plant will not reap a harvest. No harvest means your family will go hungry.
More than 250 children at the Elephant Village showed up for the BAWANA games and Bible lesson. (They started with 67.) We will continue the Bawana Games once a month at the Elephant Village during the rainy season when our team takes basic food supplies to the Meluco orphans.
The team plans to expand the games to once a week when the rainy season is over end of March. WHY wait? Our Meluco-based BBC team must travel over 42 miles (70 km) to get to the Elephant Village. Even motorbikes struggle to get there on muddy roads. Those that try risk a serious accident.
DOUBLEPAYLOADS
Our truck team stretches God’s gifts to us by organizing “double pay loads” whenever Manuel takes the 7 ton truck to Meluco.
With the construction of the new orphan complex for the 14 abandoned children, there is always a need for sacks of cement which can be bought in the town of Montepuez upon his return.
Building in concrete allows our construction team to work most days throughout the rainy season.
Unloading sacks of cement after last food give out at the Elephant Village.
THEKEY: the foundation of the building must be dug and poured and cemented in before the ground gets soft. Our plan is to complete the orphan house we are now building as soon as possible. But first we must interrupt our present construction to dig and pour the foundation for the kitchen and the 2nd orphan home by the end of November.
One of our mountains of sand for rainy season building.
Our tractor team began stock piling tons of sand and rocks in October to make this possible BEFORE the our dirt roads become a muddy mess.
GODEXPECTSUSTO “BEPREPAREDINALLTHINGS”. Be watchful for HISCOMING, for no man knows the day or hour of Jesus’ return, BUT continue to move forth with the vision I have given you. Those are our marching orders.
Rocks for construction.
SHALLOWWATERWELLSNOWDRY
When I returned from my RSA trip, I immediately noticed the longer lines at the water well near our church. October and November is when the local hand dug wells dry up.
Woman at the well, Balama style.
Only the deeper “bore holes”, like our church well (110 feet or 34 meters), have an abundance of water. That well provides for our 23 homes of orphans as well as any neighborhood families who wish to use it. God Blessed us (Living Waters Church of Mozambique) with a large reservoir of water underneath our mission station. FORCLEANWATERISLIFETOOURBODIESASJESUSISLIFETOOURSPIRITS.
BUSHBUNNYFUNPHOTOOFTHEWEEK
My riding buddy Mohsem (Mo-seem), on a horseback tour that took us within 21 feet (7 meters) of the 8 year old bull Giraffe and his Water Buck buddies that reside at Horseback Africa. Mohsem loves to do the “sitting trot”. He could hardly stay in the saddle for laughing himself to tears for he loved the bouncing.
Mohsem and I on horseback.
Mohsem’s parents are both Pediatricians working the last 11 years in Malawi with Baylor University to stop the spread of AIDS from the mother to her newborn baby.
FACTS told to me by these Doctors. TENYEARSAGO over 60,000 babies in Malawi contracted AIDS from their mothers. LASTYEAR, only an estimated 4,000 babies were detected with AIDS. NOWTHATISANIMPACT! FACT: Babies born with AIDS live only a few years even with proper care.
