Bush Bunny Brenda
Date: November 2, 2013
JORGINA JOINS OUR FAMILY
JORGINA JOINS OUR FAMILY
Baby Jorgina, born May 17th, lost her mother from surgical complications 2 months ago. Weighing only 7.2 lbs (3.3kg) at 5.5 months of age, she is in a severely malnourished condition called “failure to thrive”. Her father and aunt walked in from 12 miles away to ask help in early September. (Due to the wife’s illness/surgery their corn/bean fields were neglected and the harvest was poor.) So the father as well as the other 4 children in the family, are severely malnourished and were admitted into our feeding program immediately. All are recovering well except Baby Jorgina.
Meet Baby Jorgina, our newest family member.
Jorgina has been sick with diarrhea and respiratory infections most of October. The father is overwhelmed with his new responsibility of being both mother and father to his 4 older children, and the aunt has failed to properly care for Jorgina.
The father realized Thursday that Jorgina would not survive without better care, and agreed to allow us to accept Jorgina into our family for a year. Our girl’s home is full with 4 of the 6 girls being under 6, so church member Fatima, agreed to love and care for Jorgina.
She’s doing an excellent job. Jorgina is on antibiotics for her respiratory infection, and eating like there is no tomorrow. She is so TINY, that everyone mistakes her for being only a month old, UNTIL SHE GRABS FOR HER BOTTLE! Just try taking it away from her, and you quickly find out she can be VERY persistent in getting it back! She’s quite the cutie and is getting loads of attention from our entire staff.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU, JORGINA, NOW HAS A CHANCE TO BE ALL THAT GOD PLANNED FOR HER TO BE.
Our little Jorgina needs a $30/month sponsor to provide her with baby food/formula, clothing, and the love of her substitute mother.
THE STARVING WIDOW AND ELIJAH STORY COME TO LIFE
Unknown to me and our Pastors, Fatima, (story above) and her 4 children had just run out of food in their home on the day we contacted her! When I asked Dominica, our Woman’s Pastor, to find me a widow who would love Jorgina as her own, Fatima’s name immediately came to mind.
Coincidence? Hardly, as Fatima had told no one but God of her need for food, and HE answered her prayer by telling her to give what she had to Baby Jorgina.
When we did the house inspection, the lack of food was immediately evident. Without hesitation, we organized food for this family. Fatima also needs her roof fixed, as the grass has mostly blown away and she has no latrine. Rainy season is upon us later this month, so we have no time to lose.
Grass to fix the roof will costs $60.
Building her a latrine/bathing area from local materials: $55.
GEARING UP FOR AWANA GAMES
With only 1 set of bean bags, track batons, and tug-o-war rope, we needed to go shopping before we could outfit all our teams with what they needed. As Larry Friend from AWANA Int. left for the airport, Eric took him to our hardware store in Pemba where they fetched plastic pipe for making the batons and colored cloth for the bean bags. Last weekend, I was able to buy the large tug-o-war rope that the kids love so much.
The pipes are now painted the famous 4 colors (blue, red, yellow, and green), and the bean bags are being made on our pedal sewing machine as I write this.
With 3 major food distributions to the orphans in remote villages keeping our small staff super busy this week, our goal is to get the materials ready so that the AWANA programs can begin by Nov. 15th.
Bean Bags Becoming Big Business in our sewing shop.
The kids can hardly wait, as they love playing the games and hearing the Jesus stories in the TRUTH SEEKERS curriculum.
AWANA games provide us many alternative ways to attract children of ALL AGES to Jesus, where soccer limits us to mostly the older children.
Everyone can play these games, with no practice needed.
THANK YOU LARRY FRIEND, and THANK YOU JESUS for such a wonderful program.
SNAKE HUNT INSIDE ERIC’S HOUSE
Eric calmly walks into breakfast yesterday saying he needed our help as a 1 ft. (30cm) black snake had confronted him as he sat in his reading chair in his bedroom on Thursday night. He whacked it with his snake stick, breaking it’s back near the tail, but the snake zipped behind Eric’s very heavy bookcase before Eric could kill it. So after breakfast, our guard put on leather gloves, grabbed his snake killing bamboo rod, and off we went to Eric’s bedroom. The guard carefully began pulling on a board that held a heavy stack of magazines on the floor, under the first shelf of the bookcase. I was stationed at the end of the bookcase with a “slasher” (sharp metal grass cutter with a long handle) to prevent the snake from escaping on that side. As our guard carefully pulled the board out containing the magazines, I was poised ready to strike if the snake was there. Much to our surprise, the snake was there alright, but DEAD, as the weight of the sliding board with the magazines on it had rolled him, crushing him in the process. It appears to be a baby black mamba that slipped through Eric’s septic system into the house via his bathroom.
So “THE BEAR” slept better last night knowing he wouldn’t have a bed partner joining him.
We encounter many snakes but thanks to Jesus’ angels, who are ALWAYS on duty, none have ever been able to strike us.
We keep our eyes open, but when the inevitable encounter happens, we know that JESUS IS STILL OUR MIRACLE SAVIOR WHO KEEPS US UNDER HIS WINGS OF PROTECTION.
WORDS OF WISDOM
AWANA games provide us many alternative ways to attract children of ALL AGES to Jesus, where soccer limits us to mostly the older children.
Everyone can play these games, with no practice needed.
THANK YOU LARRY FRIEND, and THANK YOU JESUS for such a wonderful program.
SNAKE HUNT INSIDE ERIC’S HOUSE
Eric calmly walks into breakfast yesterday saying he needed our help as a 1 ft. (30cm) black snake had confronted him as he sat in his reading chair in his bedroom on Thursday night. He whacked it with his snake stick, breaking it’s back near the tail, but the snake zipped behind Eric’s very heavy bookcase before Eric could kill it. So after breakfast, our guard put on leather gloves, grabbed his snake killing bamboo rod, and off we went to Eric’s bedroom. The guard carefully began pulling on a board that held a heavy stack of magazines on the floor, under the first shelf of the bookcase. I was stationed at the end of the bookcase with a “slasher” (sharp metal grass cutter with a long handle) to prevent the snake from escaping on that side. As our guard carefully pulled the board out containing the magazines, I was poised ready to strike if the snake was there. Much to our surprise, the snake was there alright, but DEAD, as the weight of the sliding board with the magazines on it had rolled him, crushing him in the process. It appears to be a baby black mamba that slipped through Eric’s septic system into the house via his bathroom.
So “THE BEAR” slept better last night knowing he wouldn’t have a bed partner joining him.
We encounter many snakes but thanks to Jesus’ angels, who are ALWAYS on duty, none have ever been able to strike us.
We keep our eyes open, but when the inevitable encounter happens, we know that JESUS IS STILL OUR MIRACLE SAVIOR WHO KEEPS US UNDER HIS WINGS OF PROTECTION.
WORDS OF WISDOM
Never let a bad situation bring out the worst in you.
CHOOSE to stay Positive and BE the STRONG PERSON that GOD created you to be!
With all of our challenges lately, I posted this on my bedroom wall to help keep me focused on JESUS’ WILL and not mine!
Blessings,
Bush Bunny Brenda Lange and the Balama staff
Eric Dry
Melissa Olmesdahl
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