FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA” DATE: MAY 31, 2014
ORERA RELEASED FROM REGIONAL HOSPITAL, FORCING US TO HIDE THE CHILDREN
With Orera released after only 24 hours in psych care last week, we had no choice but to secure the 2 little boys at the home of one of our pastor’s in a remote village where she couldn’t find them. The week before her hospitalization, it was a nightmare trying to keep her from kidnapping the children. The trauma to the 2 little boys, as well as the other orphans and the foster mothers had to considered, and was the best solution.
We were given permission to take the boys elsewhere until their SOS transfer could come through. (Paperwork took this whole week to organize, as the boys didn’t have birth certificates.) Papers were finally in order as of 7pm Saturday, May 30th. The little ones, accompanied by Social Services and our 2 Children’s Leaders will be driven by Eric Dry to Pemba on Monday for admittance into the SOS home for children. This is a secure orphanage where the boys will meet their little brother and sister for the first time, as they were removed from this same mother over 3 years ago. So we are hoping it will be a very happy family reunion. Without our help, these little ones might not even be alive today, so we are very grateful that God brought them across our path. They will be missed as they are both very loving children, but we are able to visit when we go to Pemba.
NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY PARTY
June 1st is National Children’s Day here in Mozambique, so we celebrate it as the annual birthday party for all 95 of the orphans living with us!
AAWANA GAMES WERE FUN FOR ALL THE CHILDREN
OUR NEW PLAYGROUNG IS A UNIVERSAL JOY
We had a great party this morning. AWANA GAMES, playing on the swings, and slide, as well as playing chase and all the other fun things kids enjoy, was the program of the day.
OUR KIDS LOVE KOOLADE SERVED AS A SPECIAL PARTY TREAT
Activities ended when lunch was ready, as the goat from our herd, who was our guest of honor, should not be kept waiting. Best eaten while hot on top of a big bowl of locally grown rice. With over 140 children and their foster mothers in attendance, it was truly a blast! The kids were lined up on top of the slide ramp, going down our new slide as fast as they could manage. The swings never stop swinging, and that playground is now the most popular spot in all of Balama!
CORN BUYING STARTS MONDAY
Our churches are coming through by providing 1,900 of the 2,700 bags of corn we need for June, and 100% (1,200 bags) of what we need in July (the super dry corn). Our barn is now EMPTY, as the 300 TONS of corn from 2013 is finished. Our 2 large trucks will begin rolling in with the first 400 sacks of corn on Monday morning. Each sack weighs around 140 lbs (70kg). Tuesday, our team of 3 visiting missionaries, George, Katie, and Hanna will help us begin the storage processing of the corn.
KATIE POLCYN AND HANNA GILMAN ARRIVED THIS WEEK
Katie has committed a year of her life to helping us in Mozambique. From Seguin, TX, Katie learned of us when I spoke at her church in recent years. She has taken to Moz. village life very well, and all we hear now are the kids yelling “KATIE, KATIE” when we pass by the playground.
Hannah Gilman, from Washington State, has completed 18 months of her RN training, and is the “adopted granddaughter” of my good friend and Christian Author, Lauraine Snelling. Hanna loves children and wants to learn all she can about treating African diseases while helping out this summer. She’ll return to school in late August.
We’ll be up to our ears in CORN this week, so keep us in prayer as it is a BIG JOB working with 100 Mozambican men who will be moving 25 to 40 TONS of corn a day. THE JOSEPH PROJECT (filling the barns for the time of hunger), officially opens Monday at 6 a.m. As the rooster crows, the work begins!
Blessings to all of you! Bush Bunny Brenda Eric Dry George Barkes Katie Polcyn Hannah Gilman