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BUSH BEAT: June/July 2008 (view pdf version with photos)JOSEPH PROJECT COMPLETED OUR BARNS ARE FULL!Thanks to your prayers and 3 very generous donors who paid this year's $40,000 food and fuel price increases, our "Joseph Project" will be able to feed up to 2,200 hungry orphans for another year. Our Moz. team of 80 men and women worked very hard to complete the food buying by mid-July. GOD GAVE US the needed food in record time, when many said it could not be done. What's in our barns?
The price of beans and corn doubled since last year, but God provided! With diesel selling at $6.68/gallon (R13,36/liter), the transport costs were out of sight! Filling our barns takes the joint effort of ALL OUR SUPPORTERS. Your heartfelt prayers and obedience to a MIGHTY GOD brought forth these results. THANK YOU for bringing God's abundance to the orphans in Balama and Meluco Counties for another year. At present, we have 1,941 orphans in the program and enough reserve to feed an additional 259 children. Know that a child in true need will never be turned away. We believe that "What we have will be multiplied to meet the needs". WATER WELL DRILLING IN PROGRESSEric's team of Alejandro, Callum and 5 Mozambicans dug a "training well" on July 15th that would water our new Medicinal Plants Garden at the Balama mission base. The drilling goes very fast with the powerful LS 200 drilling machine. All was going GREAT until the bit hit solid rock at 32 feet. This well's water level was within 3 yards/meters of the surface, meaning it could easily supply the water needed for the new garden, so the casing pipe was installed. The trouble began when the packing gravel was sent down the hole. The Mozambican casing pipe was not strong enough to withstand the pressure of the rock packing and collapsed, destroying the well. The team was stunned into silence as they realized 3 days of hard work was gone. Our staff called every major hardware store in northern Moz., to discover that NOT ONE OF THEM sells good quality casing pipe. Eric called his friend, Rudy, a construction boss in Pemba. Rudy was presently in South Africa buying construction supplies to fill a container and he told Eric he had plenty of room to bring us 100 proper casing pipes. We were ECSTATIC at this "timing miracle" and immediately realized that God was making a way to meet our need. Then we discovered WHY no one sells the proper pipe in Mozambique. THE PRICE: $73 for EACH 17 foot pipe! (R585/6 meters) After swallowing our shock, Eric and I realized we had no choice. NO CASING means NO WATER WELLS. Rudy is saving us many dollars by buying, loading and shipping it in his container for only a small transport fee. Thanks to a new trade agreement between Moz. And S. Africa, we no longer pay import tax, (only sales tax) on items manufactured in S. Africa. THAT has saved us a bundle! The CONTAINER is due to arrive Aug. 30th. In the meantime, drilling goes on to provide a strong water source for our Medicinal Plant Garden. The weaker pipe (without packing) can provide temporary stability for a water well until the quality casing arrives. Once the garden well is in, we will begin drilling a water well for the Mavala Mango 100 CASING PIPES WILL SUPPORT MORE THAN 20 WATER WELLS TO BE DRILLED BY 2010 The 2008 COST for water well drilling will range from $2,632 to $3,032 per 120 ft. or 40 meter water well. Price per well includes:
BECAUSE OF YOUR GENEROSITY, clean water will soon be flowing to 1000's of children. THE MAVALA MAGNET(How to attract 15,000 kids with a few soccer balls.) God sent me a very powerful message earlier this year in Isaiah 43:18-21. (forget the former things, see, I am doing a NEW THING). We now realize that the "new thing" is Youth Centers in remote areas. In verse 20, God speaks of "providing water in the desert...to give drink to my people...that they may proclaim my praise". The Lord has mandated us to do this both physically and spiritually, as our water wells provide clean drinking water and bring the "Living Water" (Jesus Christ) to a thirsty people. THE TIME IS SHORT to complete the harvest and Jesus desires that we "call in the children" so that they may know Him. These magnetic youth centers with be located in large central villages that serve the thousands of children and widows in as many as 8 surrounding villages. DONATIONS ARE COMPLETE FOR THE FIRST YOUTH CENTER TO BE BUILT IN MAVALA. When the total funds come in quickly, that says to us that God expects us to move out in force! EACH center will include:
OBJECTIVE: Sports Evangelism. By inviting boys’ and girls’ sports teams from surrounding villages for weekend tournaments, we can use the large soccer fields as outdoor movie theaters at dark. The kids will learn who Jesus is by viewing the Jesus Film, as well as Eric's many discipleship films in the Makua language that he has produced in our Balama film studio. Our hope is to put together teams of CHRISTIAN ATHLETES who will travel and witness to kids in other villages. When a teenager catches the "fire of God", their fire becomes a powerful force that melts the hearts of their peers. Construction will begin in August 2008 with completion by late 2009. Drilling a water well is first priority, as no water or sand is available for construction in this area. Construction will be slower than usual due to these "material challenges", but we hope to have the church/pre-school and food distribution warehouse operational by November 2008. TO MAKE A FAST IMPACT WITH THIS PROGRAM IN 2009, we need athletic, mature Christians to volunteer for 3-6 months of coaching soccer and basketball. If you are the "outdoors type" with these qualifications, then please pray about serving the Lord with us between May and November 2009. For further information, please contact Linda Ferguson at our Texas office. BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS1. ANOTHER "MANGO TREE" CHURCH has been planted in the village of Impire (say “M-peer-y”) (5,000+population). Pastor Agusto's family moved into their renovated mud hut in early July. The new church members are currently meeting under a mango tree, but hope to soon have a simple church built from local materials. They are busy gathering fence posts, bamboo and grass to build a small temporary church in Pastor Agusto's back yard. 2. Capena, our program director who helped us bring in the harvest that filled our barns, lost his home to fire in early July. No one was hurt, but he and his wife lost everything but the clothes on their backs. They are temporarily living in my old mud brick house at our first mission station until their house can be rebuilt. One of the items lost was his laptop which he'd saved for 4 years to buy. THANKS to two generous donors, his laptop has been replaced, and has just arrived in Balama via a visitor. Still needed are $800 in materials and labor to rebuild his house. 3. Visitors Sara and Pastor Ardie Nelson from Eagle Lake, TX have now returned to the USA. Sara heads off in August to college to get her missions degree. Ardie loves to write puppet scripts and left behind many new stories that Eric hopes to turn into discipleship films. Ardie will continue to send scripts as Eric needs them. 4. DAN KASPAR, businessman and avid O.U. supporter from Shiner, TX is here for 3 weeks of "hands on work" to get a real feel for our mission's needs. Water well drilling and brick making with our Hydroform brick machine for the new Mavala Youth Center Church are just some of his "experiences" so far. 5. Our MELUCO ORPHAN'S HOME now hosts 10 children under the age of 12 (6 boys, 4 girls). Tears were in their eyes with smiles on their faces as I visited them for the first time in late June. They had told their foster mother that I must not love them since I hadn't come to visit them when I first returned in late April. That brought tears to my eyes! With a reassuring talk and a fun hugging session (they didn't know how to hug, so I had to teach them) all was put right. My 2nd visit was greeted with many smiles as they automatically LINED UP for their hugs! Dan K. was with me on the 2nd visit, bringing balloons and candy that "made their day!" 6. Our MAXGXL TEAM has now donated $5,000 to our orphans since April, 2008. After 5 months on MAXGXL, Eric and I have both noticed that we are less frustrated due to a decrease in our "forgetfulness". It's great to be able to remember WHERE I put something when I walk into a room. Other benefits noted are greater stamina and more daily energy that we both need in order to work 12-14 hour days trying to meet the needs of 1,941 kids. To find out how YOU can improve your health & sponsor an orphan at the same time, look at the videos on our MAX website: www.maxgxl.com/orphansunlimited GOD'S BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU! Bush Bunny Brenda Send LOVE GIFTS to: Or donate online now. *Brenda in Balama: BB01 (at) bushmail (dot) net. SHORT, SIMPLE TEXT MESSAGES ONLY due to HAM RADIO e-mail. NO FORWARDS, ATTACHMENTS, OR PHOTOS AS BUSHMAIL CANNOT ACCEPT THEM. |
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