200 TONS of corn in the barn.
When the whole team is focused on corn buying for 9 days straight, it can seem like an eternity.
For this Bunny, here’s my daily time line:
Getting up at 3:30a.m., get the office work done before weight teams arrive.
5a.m. our 2 trucks and weight teams (28 men) leave for the bush villages where the corn co-op groups eagerly await our arrival.
I organize breakfast and lunch for these teams as well as make sure they are fuelled, have drinking water, etc.
Sort of like getting a massive group of kids off to summer camp each day.
5:30a.m. the missionary team and I leave for the barns.
5:35a.m. singing, prayer, and an evangelical message is given to the 65 workers (most who don’t know Christ).
Got to have our spiritual food so we can start out day.
6a.m. the work begins.
The 65 man crew moves up to 500 sacks of corn/day, unloading the trucks, running it through the sacking chutes, and stacking it 13 rows high (14 ft. or 5.5 meters) in our barns. It must be done PERFECTLY or that 100 ton mountain of corn WILL come tumbling down.
Our missionary team operate the chutes making sure all the bugs are eradicated before it goes into the sacks.
EACH of those 500 sacks (140 lbs. or 70kg) is lifted at least 6 times between the weighing process and being stacked in our barn.
That is one reason we need so many men, as that is an average of picking up 2,500 sacks in a 5 hours! (about 50 sacks/person so it’s not an overload). But climbing a “ladder” made of stacked corn to get it up to that 13th row IS A CHALLENGE for all of the men and is very tiring.
I organize extra men to help on the 2 days we have to “take it to the top”.
Lots of prayer goes on before each day’s work for protection from accidents.
I personally saw 3 men fall off the “ladder” trying to get the bags to the 13th row.
NO ONE was harmed in these falls as the bags fell to the side instead of crushing bones.
Our angels are “on guard” so that even the unbelievers go unharmed.
I thanked JESUS every day as we completed the work in record time, with no injuries.
FRIDAY YOUTH NIGHT OPENED LAST NIGHT
What we loving call our “Dream Team”, consists of Emma Clifford, Danielle Van Zyl, and Melissa Olmsdahl. All these girls have youth ministry experience. With Eric’s and Linda’s help they did a great job of organizing their first “Youth Night”, showing the movie: THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE (in Portuguese). The church was packed out! We plan a 2nd Christian movie next Friday to get draw more young people.
After that, they will organized games and evangelical programs to help these teenagers find Christ and learn to walk according to the Bible.
P.S. Breanne Brammer returned to the USA on Wed. due to a diagnosis of “complicated malaria”. She is now safely back at her home.
We wish her a speedy recovery.
MELISSA FLIES TO RSA TO OBTAIN PERMANENT RESIDENCY STATIS FOR MOZAMBIQUE
Melissa, 25 year old Youth Director from George, S. Africa, is top notch at working with young people. She has committed to a year and will return to us on July 17th, as it will take several weeks to get her police clearance and other required documents in order.
WELCOME ABOARD, Melissa!
DANIELLE AND MELISSA’S ENGLISH LESSONS HAS THEM SPEAKING MAKUA!
Nelson teaching Makua and Portuguese to Emma, Melissa, and Danielle (sitting in our pro-school classroom) cause it has a black board.
Nelson, my wonderful 16 year old orphan interpreter, has now turned language teacher!
Nelson desires to follow in my footsteps as a Preacher/nurse/interpreter.
His first challenge is to learn English, so I asked the girls to teach him.
The Lord impressed on Melissa that she must learn Makua.
Next thing I hear, is that they are swapping languages!
All 3 “student/teachers” are learning at a fast pace.
Our meals are now a mixture of 4 languages, making it a barrel of laughs.
You’ll hear English, Africaans, Portuguese, and Makua. But Emma and I don’t stop there, as we usually throw in a bit of Texan when we sing the “HEE HAW TV THEME SONG”. Now the whole team knows it. Linda even does the HEE HAW shout with a fancy leg kick!
P.S. Linda’s birthday is June 22.
WHY LEARN MAKUA? Because it’s the local language spoken by EVERYONE in the villages.
What better way to teach the Word of God, than to learn it so you don’t depend on an interpreter like I do.
Both these young ladies and Emma, who speaks Spanish, are also studying Portuguese from our computer taught coarse.
BIBLE SCHOOL FOR THE MISSIONARIES
Our International Victory Bible School has been in session for several years, teaching God’s Word to new converts in the villages.
This week our energetic young people have now started an informal Bible School via DVD for our missionaries.
Each person can take it at their own pace to enhance their understanding of God’s Word.
THANK YOU VICTORY CHRISTIAN CENTER for providing us with these classes.
OUR DREAM TEAM IS DEFINENTLY AN ENERGETIC ONE!
They remind me of intellectual sponges, with the speed at which they are learning.
Emma and Danielle just completed 30 days in Moz., and Melissa just joined us on June 1st!
No grass grows under their feet for sure!
Danielle and I weighing Toto on our baby scale. He got in a dog fight and needed an injection (dosage by weight) and this was the only scale that would weigh him.
Love and Hugs,
Bush Bunny Brenda
Eric Dry
Linda Stanley
Emma Clifford
Danielle Van Zyl
Melissa Olmsdahl
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