Making hair bows

After spending way too much on professionally made hair bows for my granddaughter I decided to try my hand at making some.  They are sure harder to make then I thought.  I did get fairly good at a couple of simple designs.  I will keep trying and  I will get better.  These are my first tries.

Missionary update

MUD HUT COLLAPSES DURING MASSIVE RAINS LAST SATURDAY NIGHT—ALL CHILDREN SAFE!

 

 

Last week, on Saturday, I told you that the Provincial (State) Social Service Director had notified us of the 5 member “Child Headed Household” who needed full support from our program as their mud hut was in poor condition.  We received the request late Friday afternoon, just as a heavy rain storm hit.

 

Rain poured down causing massive flooding for the next 36 hours dumping 6.5 INCHES (163mm) of rain on Balama.

I spent the night praying for all our orphans, their homes, our food warehouses, and other buildings, for water ran 6 inches deep everywhere I looked.

 

The already compromised mud hut of these orphans collapsed on Saturday night.  NO ONE WAS HURT thanks to quick thinking Emelia, the 19 year old young lady who heads this household.  She was able to get the kids out BEFORE their hut collapsed.  They spent a miserable night in their neighbors kitchen, as many mud huts all over Balama went down during this storm.

 

 

 

EMILIA and her family just arrived at our house last Sunday morning.

 

Sunday, at 5 a.m., I sent AWANA Youth Pastor Carlitos Jorge by bicycle to their house to check on these children.  When he came back saying their house was totally destroyed, I organized a group of men to help them carry what they could salvage to the main road.  Our driver, Genito, fetched this family and their belongings with our 4 wheel drive Land Cruiser.  We gave them emergency refuge in a large empty room in our Foster Father’s home next to the Boy’s Dorm.  On Monday, Feb. 8th, Emelia, her 2 small children, and her 3 orphan brothers, will move in with one of our foster mothers who has a large vacant room at her house.

 

  (NOTE:  A teenage girl without parents can easily be seduced by a man, for she has no one to guide her.  Such is the sad case of Emilia.  This week, she began receiving daily counseling from Anna, our Orphan/Foster Mother Supervisor.  By living with a responsible Foster mother, Emilia will learn what her mother would have taught her about child care, and we will add to that how to become a righteous woman in the eyes of our Lord.)

 

It will take a few months, but our building team is collecting huge fence posts and bundles of bamboo in order to build Emilia’s family a house on the only remaining vacant lot the church owns.  We looked all week, trying to buy a mud hut in our area, but none exists.  The “Pao Peeky” type building (sinking fence posts deep in the ground at 1 foot/30cm intervals, then tying them together with bamboo and mud) makes stronger walls than mud brick, and is the only type of housing that can be constructed in the rainy season.

 

Our big family is growing!  We give thanks to JESUS for answering our prayers to keep these children safe.  

 

Emelia’s 3 brothers are super excited about getting to go to school with uniforms, books and a new back pack!  Even with all Emelia has endured, she has qualified to enter into the 6th grade.  At 19, she will now get to continue her education for the foster mother will be able to watch over the children while she is in school each afternoon from 12 noon to 5pm.

 

Again we extend our thanks to our friends in Wichita, KS for their generous gift that is making possible this

construction of a new mud hut in the rainy season!

 

SCHOOL STARTS ON FEB. 8TH!

 

 

 

FERNANDO is so proud and happy to have his own new school supplies. THANK YOU to his faithful sponsor church. That happy, healthy smile is so beautiful.

 

 

Staff handing out school supplies to our 60 school-aged orphans.

 

 

 

 

ATUMANE (R), and assistant LUIS (L) complete the last of the 60  school uniforms on their pedal powered Singer Sewing machines. Fabrication begins in November, as it is time consuming work.

 

 

 

Today broke with a beautiful sunrise, and found our team organizing 2  tables full of school supplies, back packs, school uniforms (made at our base on foot pedal Singer Sewing machines by our sewing team of Atumane and Luis).  It was a busy 3 hours, but all 60 school age orphans received everything from notebooks to pencil sharpeners THANKS TO YOUR GENEROUS LOVE GIFTS!

 

AUSTRALIAN MOM SENDS SCHOOL SHOES TO OUR CHILDREN

 

 

Down the road, about 6 miles from our Balama Mission Base, an Australian company is setting up a huge graphite mine.  Their management staff dropped by this week, surprising us with a suitcase full of shoes!

 

  Alex, wife of Peter, the health and environment manager at the mine, has taken us under her wing.  The mine staff from Australia works on a rotation schedule, so as they fly from Australia to Balama, Alex has the men bring a suitcase full of nice shoes and clothing for our orphans as part of their baggage. 

 

The bag we received 2 days ago contained shoes for 16 of our orphans!  Those children were so excited!  The 48 children who didn’t receive shoes were taken immediately to buy shoes at the Balama market by 5 members of our staff. They just returned overflowing with joyous laughter, for I could hear them coming long before they arrived at my house to show me their new shoes. 

 

 

 

"CUTE SHOES", THE UNIVERSAL COMMENT WHEN GIRLS GO SHOPPING... Our girls and boys were sooo excited.

 

 

 GOD IS GREAT, ALL THE TIME!

 

Thank you Alex and family for all your hard work!  We also thank your special “Courier Service” for bringing the gifts to our doorstep.

 

Blessings and Hugs,

Bush Bunny Brenda Lange

Wait, what happened to January?

     Today is February 1st and I can hardly believe it.  January flew by with sickness and a long trip. 

        I  started off January with being sick.  Then we drove 17 hours to Arizona to see Jeff's family.  Both of his brothers were there and his sister lives there so he got to spend a lot of time with all of them.  It was an eventful trip with a few exciting things that happened.

     I got to meet a dear facebook friend who is also an author and her husband.  We figured we had been online friends for at least 6 years.  We went out to eat and I don't think we ever stopped talking from the moment we met.  When I was ready to leave she gave me an autographed copy of her book, A Deadly Habit.

http://www.andreasisco.com/

    On Monday after we returned home I got a tooth pulled that turned out to have a large abscess on the root.  I was fine until about 24 hours later when I began to get sick.  I think some of the infection from the tooth got in my sinuses and caused a problem.  I have been sick ever since.  I put in a call today to the dentist and am waiting on a call back.  This morning it seems to of moved into my ears.  I'm not good at being sick so this is pure torture for me.  I rarely get sick so this is hard for me.

     Last evening we drained two number ten cans of diced tomatoes and spread them on dehydrator trays.  They will be finished soon.  I think they will fit in a sandwich baggie.  We saved the juice to drink.  It felt good on my throat.  The dehydrated tomatoes will be much easier to store and take up much less space than two large number ten cans.  I'm going to go through my pantry and see if there are things that are close to their expiration date that I need to dehydrate.  I might as well put my new 9 tray Excalibur to work.  I still have my 4 tray Excalibur so I can put both of them to work.

     I hope you are all well and staying warm this crazy winter.