BULLDOZERS, BANDITS, AND A RIOT
Challenges never cease around here.
Since I last wrote, we had a bandit break into one of our orphan homes (Mother Assias’ house) for those of you who have been here and know her.
This happened at 4:30 a.m. last Thursday morning.
A guy beat in the door to the house, awakening foster mother Assia, Buy Xenical Online Without Prescription who immediately confronted him.
He whacked her in the face with his flashlight, breaking her nose. Her screams brought the neighbors, and the guy fled.
Both the1 year old orphan baby sleeping next to Assia, and 2 year old Angelica in the next bedroom were terrified, but unharmed.
The 6 orphans sleeping in the 2nd house were also unharmed. Calming words, hugs, and a promise of a night guard helped to restore peace in the kid’s hearts.
Assia spent the day in emergency because of her bleeding nose and mild concussion.
We PTL that she recovered in a record 4 days as her face was quite swollen the first 2 days.
A woman from our church will stay with the kids for the next week, as well as a night guard outside her house.
No one knows why this guy broke in since it wasn’t payday, and Thursday is the day they receive all their food supplies.
There was absolutely nothing of value in the house to take.
The Road Building Bulldozer and crew showed up last week, making a mess of our neighborhood.
Plowing up a 60 yard wide swath to within 100 yards of our teenage boy’s dorm left everyone a bit nervous, since they haven’t officially condemned the houses yet.
The carpenter I was training for roofing had to be pushed into service (with me watching closely over his shoulder), so that Assias’ new 4 house complex can be finished in the next 4 weeks.
We now have 2 complete roofing teams, and 5 brick layer teams working together to get the needed houses ready for occupancy.
Even with all these workers, it will still take another 4 weeks minimum to finish this one complex.
RIOT IN MONTEPUEZ
With 400 orphans living in Meluco county (9 hours north east of us), our 6 ton truck is busy doing weekly food deliveries to fill their barn before the rainy season starts in December.
Meluco County basically lost their harvest this year due to drought, so our food stash is essential to their survival till harvest time next March.
Manuel, a Christian and our 6 ton truck driver, was on his way back from a delivery last Saturday, when I suddenly felt the Holy Spirit urge me to call him.
All I could hear was screaming and yelling when he answered, as he had been stopped by a mob of angry people just outside of Montepuez (the town that is 30 miles from us).
He still doesn’t know what caused the riot, but people were fighting and blocking the road, and Montepuez’s businesses were closed tight!
I began to pray and notified several others to join with me.
We asked the Lord to PART THE SEA OF PEOPLE just as He did for Moses at the Red Sea.
Then the phone service went dead, and I had no contact with Manuel for the next hour.
We were putting together a rescue party of men, when I got a message from Manuel that they had gotten through the crowd and were on their way home.
When the 3 man crew arrived, they were super excited because they said the crowd just opened up and let them through!
No one was hurt and the truck was not damaged.
THAT IS OUR JESUS!
He never fails us, and all we have to do is ASK and we SHALL RECEIVE!
DUST DEVIL HITS PASTORS HOME
To top it off, I was just notified an hour ago that a very strong twister wind wiped out our youth pastor’s house in Rovuma village while everyone was in church!
It was scheduled to be roofed this week, and now has to be rebuilt.
Seems there is a witchdoctor living nearby who doesn’t want the pastor there, so that guy is going to find out about the power of prayer this week!
Thanks for your continued prayer for us during our times of extraordinary challenges.
Blessings, Bush Bunny Brenda
Author Archives: Bush Bunny Brenda
Raining Babies in Balama
Subject: Blog, July 25, 2010
TWINS AND THEIR FAMILY OF 10
On July 21st, the twins I told you about last week had to be taken back to the hospital late in the afternoon.
Both had developed severe nasal blockages and were struggling to breath.
The hospital refused to admit them, so I was told to pick them up and start them on liquid antibiotics.
By 8pm that night, Pastor Fred and I finally had the babies and grandmother settled into their mud hut and the new drugs administered.
We got on our knees and prayed for God to spare the lives of these little ones.
Without a miracle, I felt the little girl would not live the night.
The next morning I found BOTH TWINS looking much better and breathing normally!
I KNEW GOD HAD ANSWERED OUR PRAYERS and was ECSTATIC!
Both twins are doing well at this time and the whole family of 10 kids, grandmother, and foster mother (all muslims) were presented to the church this morning.
They saw the miracle our God did and wanted to know more about Him. PTL!
BALAMA MAMA says help! It’s raining babies!
In the last 7 days we received the family of 10 orphans (two of them newborn twins weighing only 4 lbs each).
On Friday, July 23rd, I sent Eric out to pick up a family of 5 orphans which included a 16 YEAR OLD orphan with her OWN TWINS!
They came to our mission on Thursday afternoon, with a letter from Social Services saying they needed urgent help.
I guess so, since the 16 year old, very thin and anemic mother, was carrying two month old twins boys.
Agirina (Ah-jeh-ree-nah) told us her 8 year old sister and two brothers, ages 4 and 3 were at their mud hut.
We gave her immediate food and sent her home in one of our trucks with all she needed.
I needed a day to get a house ready, so Eric and our ministry team picked her up the next day.
Their hut is in sad condition.
The mother of these children died 3 years ago. Father died in 2008, so they went to live with an aunt who died in 2009.
A man married Agirina and she became pregnant in Sept. 2009.
Her husband refused to help her plant a field of corn and beans which is absolutely necessary for any family to survive in Moz.
He abandoned her in December. She had the twins ALONE in May, 2010. Quite a feat for any woman, much less a 16 year old.
With only minimum help from neighbors and her uncle, she has been the sole caretaker for her twin sons, as well as her sister and brother.
They had only starvation foods, so the entire family is anemic and bloated.
Now in a home we had just purchased and renovated, this little mother has the help of a live in foster mother from medications online our church.
She looked so relieved to no longer be the only provider for her family.
Sponsors are needed for this family, as Agirina’s anemia and poor health, means her breast milk cannot support the twins.
They boys, Pedrito (Peh-dree-two) 1 and Petrito 2 need milk formula to supplement their Mom’s breast milk.
Since the twins only need 1 can of baby formula every 5 days ($6/can), a sponsorship of $30/month will support both the twin boys at this time.
The little brothers also need sponsors at $30/month/child.
Their photos will be featured in the next Bush Beat.
Construction and Rehabilitation is going full speed ahead with 5 work crews of brick layers and carpenters on the job.
The road crew are expected to condemn our orphan houses this coming week, so there is no time to lose in getting housing ready for the orphans to move into.
I greatly appreciate ALL OF YOUR PRAYERS and support as we go through this difficult time of change.
Blessings, Bush Bunny Brenda
Now known as the Balama Mama!
BLOG UPDATE FROM BUSH BUNNY BRENDA
July 18, 2010 BLOG
NEW ROAD WILL DESTROY 9 ORPHAN HOMES!
On Wed., July 14th, the Balama government informed me that the new highway coming through Balama till take out 9 of our 18 orphan houses.
This includes the concrete brick dorm that houses our Jr. High and High School orphans. (A $10,000 loss)
This SHOCK WAVE rocked our mission station.
I expected to only lose 3 orphan homes and not until next year!
The Road Crew will be coming this week, July 19th, to tell us when we have to vacate.
More than 300 mud huts will be destroyed, so speed is of the essence if housing or land is to be found before prices sky rocket.
Taking immediate action, I sent 2 pastors into the neighborhood to find out what mud huts were for sale.
MIRACLES NEVER CEASE! J
8 MUD HUTS are for sale within 300 yards of our mission station. ($550-$600/hut)
Thanks to several extra love gifts given last month, we have enough to purchase these buy drugs without a prescription huts this week.
God is never late. He knew what was coming and provided before we even knew the need.
We PRAISE THE LORD and send our thanks to the donors who gave those gifts last month.
Your funds are at work.
As if this news wasn’t enough, another shock wave hits…
10 ORPHANS NEED IMMEDIATE HOUSING WITH US!
On Thursday, July 15th, Social Services sent us a grandmother with 10 ORPHANS (included 8 day old twins).
With no food, no help, and only one small mud hut, she can’t cope.
One look at the twins, and we rushed them to the Balama hospital. The male twin was near death with diarrhea and a respiratory infection. The female twin was looking ill also.
With no house to put them in, Capena, our project manager, organized food for the 8 orphans, (7 under age 5 and one teenage boy), and then drove them back to their home village. The village chief organized neighbors to care for the children until we could provide them a new home in Balama.
Grandmother and a 2nd neighbor woman stayed to care for the twins in the hospital. As I write this, both twins are recovering in the hospital and looking much perkier.
How did this happen?
A man with 2 wives had a total of 8 kids and the 2nd wife was pregnant. Late in 2009, the man and his first wife died, leaving the orphaned teenage boy and 4 children under age 5 with the grandmother.
Being a strong woman, she coped, but then the 2nd wife, pregnant with twins, died the same day she gave birth. This left grandmother with new born twins and 3 more toddlers!
The husband was muslim, so the village mosque took up an offering to buy a can of baby formula ($6) and a baby bottle ($1). This was a BIG gesture from a village that has little income.
Grandma lacked education in how to prepare the formula, so the male twin picked up a deadly type of diarrhea that kills infants in less than a day.
It was a miracle that they both didn’t have diarrhea as they ate from the same bottle.
By God’s grace, the twins were saved because neighbors brought them to us the same day the twins got sick.
MIRACLE HOUSING: A lot with 2 mud huts and a $700 tag, was located within 200 yards of our mission station.
With the emergency reserve funds which your love gifts provide, we purchased these 2 huts that day. With a few improvements, the 7 toddlers will be able to move in with a foster mother this week.
Sponsors are needed to help us care for these 7 little ones at $30/month/child.
Photos will be provided to each sponsor.
The twins will need milk formula and an additional foster mother’s care for the next year. TWO sponsors are needed at $50/month.
Please feel free too write.
I’ll keep everyone updated and answer questions via this blog.
Blessings,
Bush Bunny Brenda
Dateline June 13, 2010
“YOU LOAD 230 TONS AND WHAT DO YOU GET.….….….”
It’s been a hectic but prosperous week as our corn barn now contains 230 TONS of corn.
The amounts will start to slow down this week as we have to travel to the more remote areas to get the final 70 tons.
A gift came in last week that will allow us to buy an additional 80 tons from some small villagers whom we have never bought from.
Our remote churches have come together and are holding some of their corn surplus for us also.
I spoke to the Rovuma church members today and they have managed to pull together 6 tons from others in their village.
The new corn barn will be finished by June 18th. My brick layers poured cement (hand mixed) from 5:30a.m. to 4pm on Saturday to get the floor done.
All that is left is nailing the tin sheets onto the roof and walls and making the 2 doors.
MIRACLE AT IMPIRE CHURCH
Eric and Linda Stanley, our 72 year old powerhouse for Jesus, prayed for a sick woman order prescription drugs whom the Doctors claimed had a dead baby in utero.
The hospital gave her no hope.
She never aborted the fetus and had a HEALTHY baby girl a few weeks after being prayed for.
Her name is ESPERANCA (HOPE) she is very healthy. Eric and Linda visited the Impire church today and the whole congregation greeting them with the news of the baby.
They say she is a very beautiful child indeed.
OUR GOD is an AWESOME GOD for sure!
More next week!
Bush Bunny Brenda
Dateline June 6, 2010
THE BUSH BUNNY UP TO HER EARS IN CORN!
June 2nd, dawned as the first day of legal corn buying in Mozambique.
Like a race horse in the starting chute, our trucks left at 5:30a.m. to grab the first 400 bags of corn in a nearby village.
The state governor came out on June 1st to warn people to guard their food this year, as many will go hungry all over Mozambique due to a poor harvest. Some counties had a fair harvest while other counties had little to none.
The locals are calling this the YEAR OF HUNGER.
The Lord has told us to BUILD a new barn and fill it up to help feed the children who will suffer this year.
Our Meluco orphans are in grave danger as there are less than 20 tons of corn in that whole country for sale. (Our orphanage manager, Sylvia, is living in a tent this week in a remote village in order to buy as much corn as he can in the only area that has any corn in Meluco county). Our 400 orphans and widows in that area require 44 TONS/year, so you can image how this shortage will affect the other 20,000 children in that area. We will do all we can to give to ALL the children in that area but the needs will be overwhelming.
The 42 support posts for the barn’s walls have been set in concrete. Clark Stidham, retired firefighter from Colorado Springs, spent all Saturday morning cutting 100 4X4’s into 2X4’s with our electric circular saw (run by generator), cutting 2 weeks off the construction time. BY HAND, it would have taken our carpenters 1 hour per 4X4 to do the same work.
From Wed. to Saturday this week, Clark, Louis (18 year old from San Marcos), and our 60 barn workers sprayed, bagged, and stored 55+ TONS of beans. We managed to buy over 90% of the available beans in this county before other buyers showed up.
Each bag weighs about 120 lbs, making it no little job to move them one bag at a time to the bean warehouse.
This 60 man crew moved 15–20 TONS PER DAY by hand and completed the bean processing in 2.5 days.
Corn processing moved at a record rate on Saturday when they processed and stored 27+ tons in 5 hours!
Eric with his 6 ton truck crew and our tractor with its 5 ton trailer are busy hauling in the corn. They transported 46 TONS of our 300 TONS to our barn in 4 days.
God is answering our prayers by speeding up the whole process, leaving little for the export buyers to send to other countries.
SNAKE SCARE for our new visitors.
Clark and Barbara Stidham went to Eric’s house to check e‑mails at dusk one evening this week. As they opened his door to leave, they found a 2 foot ADDER (rattlesnake without the rattle), STRETCHED ACROSS the doorway! This has happened a few times before at Eric’s house as they are looking for warmth on his concrete steps that get the late evening sun.
Severe weather changes over Africa this year are making the temperatures MUCH COLDER than usual. It is 55 degrees F (15C) INSIDE MY HOUSE this morning as I write this. Normally this type of weather only comes in July. There is no way to warm our houses, so we have to dress warm. Never has it been this cold in June during my 20 years here.
When the temps cooled off in May, I knew it would be a cold June/July. I sent Pastor Fred with funds to buy heavy sweatshirts this year to make sure our kids kept warm. We also gave out blankets to over 800 orphans in our program who didn’t have one.
Know we appreciate your prayers and love gifts very much as we continue to haul in the corn that will feed the hungry children in our area till the next harvest in April, 2011.
GOD’S BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU, and THANK YOU for making it possible for us to FILL THE BARNS of our Joseph Program.
Bush Bunny Brenda and all the Moz. staff
Corn Buying Has Begun
Dateline June 2, 2010
Hi Everyone!
It’s 4a.m., June 2nd, and our trucks will be moving out to buy corn in 2 hours.
I will not have time to write individuals during June, but will try to keep you updated with my blog that can be found on our website.
If you subscribe, then you will get it automatically like an e‑mail coming from me.
Keep us in your prayers for strength, favor, and all to go well without accidents.
Know I love and appreciate all of you and couldn’t do this job without you.
FYI: One top of processing the beans, and buying corn today, we have to build a new barn also.
We received over 50 tons of beans and they are still trickling in one sack at a time.
40 TONS was the minimum we had to have to feed the 1,200 in our program, so a new storage barn MUST BE BUILT to handle the overflow.
It is already paid for several donors.
God is providing food like I have never seen before.
OUR JOSEPH PROGRAM (filling the silos for the starvation time) is truly being blessed.
It is heart wrenching to see them hanging on our fence watching us move the food.
Many kids are going hungry already.
The new barn will allow us to keep receiving food, so we can help as many kids as we can through this difficult year of poor harvest.
God’s river of food is flowing and it is awesome to see!
Help us pray in the 300 tons needed to fill our barn.
?In Meluco, where our 2nd orphanage sits, we have been able to buy about 15 tons of corn when it was thought none was available.
God is TRULY amazing!
This gift of unexpected corn takes some of the pressure off our Balama program to provide everything for those 400 kids also.
Serving our AWESOME LORD in these end times is truly a pleasure.
THANKS for loving and blessing our kids with all you give.
Yesterday was National Kid’s Day in Moz.
The Meluco and Balama kid’s were given a party and received small gifts of candy, cookies, and a balloon!
They loved it.
Your love helps us put a smile on the faces of many.
Blessings, and love,
Corn Buying Bunny of Balama
BARN REPAIRS COMPLETE
Dateline May 23, 2010
Howdy Everyone!
This is the Bean Buying Bush Bunny of Balama with the latest news from
deep in the heart of northern Mozambique.
The Corn Barn has been rebuilt!
Our 7 carpenter team completed it, May 22nd, in a record 2 weeks
time. Monday was clean up day and preparing for the massive corn
buying season that starts June 2nd.
BEANS ARE FLOWING IN, as we have literally purchased almost every
available bean in the county! God has really blessed this and we
appreciate your prayers that helped block out the competition.
30 TONS OF BEANS ARE IN THE BARN, and another 5 tons will be picked up
next week. To feed our kids MINIMUM rations, we had to have 32 tons, so
we are “safe”, but hope to pick up a few more tons during June in order to
bless more orphans in this year of certain hunger.
The lack of rain this year is very evident as we normally are able to buy
at least 60 tons of beans in order to “fill the barn” and bless the
children in our feeding programs.
BUT! We serve a MIGHTY GOD and He is a God that multiplies!
So we have asked that he multiply what we have to meet the needs.
NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP WITH THE CORN HARVEST!
Unless you have been here to experience it, it is hard to describe the
challenges we face in trying to BUY, TRANSPORT, PROCESS, and STORE 250
TONS of CORN in only 4 weeks (it’s all done by hand with a very strong 80
man crew). 5000 SACKS, each weighing over 100 lbs., have to be lifted by
hand at least 5 times from the time of pick up, until it is in our barn.
Every year we pray and ask the Lord to send helpers specifically to
enforce our Moz. missionary team during June, as it is the most stressful
of all programs we do each year.
This year, our volunteer CORN TEAM helpers will be Clark and Barbara
Stidham from Colorado Springs and Louis Gervais from San Marcos.
WHY is it stressful? To feed our 1,200 orphans and widows in 2 counties,
we have to beat out the commercial buyers who sweep in to buy and EXPORT
the available corn. Their tactic is to undermine the contracts we have set
up with the local villages.
THIS YEAR, on top of that, we are dealing with a poor harvest, making it
even more important to move the corn ASAP before the commercial buyers
swoop in.
Our prayer is that God will FILL OUR BARN and CONFUSE those trying to
swipe what we have secured for the orphans.
Your prayers are much appreciated, and I will do my best to keep you
updated via this blog during June.
We will be working from 4:30am till dark at 5pm, 6 days a week till the
job is done, so we have asked the Lord to provide all of us with
supernatural strength and safety also.
On SUNDAY, May 23, another witch hut bit the dust!
Nsewe B, has a fast growing church and we have just organized a pastor to go
live and teach these new converts. Pastor Alberto reports a new member burned
her hut before 100’s of people on Sunday (2nd witch hut to burn in this
village in 2 months!). God is really moving in the hearts of the people here.
Blessings to all of you!
The Bean Buying Bush Bunny of Balama and her Moz. team. 🙂
BARN BUILDING UNDER WAY
DATELINE MAY 17, 2010
OBEDIANCE BRINGS BLESSINGS
With the damaged barn roof removed last Sunday, the 1100 bags of corn, rice, and peanuts were at big risk from sporadic rains.
By Tuesday we had the food safely stored or distributed to the needy.
During my prayer time on Monday night, the Lord clearly showed me that I was to donate some of the food to the hospital and the high school dorm for out of town students.
Before I could even contact them, the School Director came to my door begging a bag of beans as the students had nothing to eat that day.
I immediately loaded up 3 bags of beans and delivered them to a very grateful group of hungry teenagers.
As we took the food to the hospital, the Doctor met us at the door with a look of surprise on his face.
He told our staff that he was most grateful as the patients had just eaten the last food they had in their warehouse!
Our showing up with exactly what they needed just as they needed it, made quite a witness to this non believing doctor.
BUT GOD KNEW and He provided!
SNAKE GUARDS LOSE THEIR HOME
As the men moved the last of the corn from our damaged barn, the “live in snake guards” were not happy at being disturbed.
On Tuesday, a 2 foot spitting cobra showed his temper by attacking our workers with his venomous spit.
The snake was outnumbered, and quickly disposed of by my expert snake killers.
Unknown to us, a 5 foot snake that lived under the corn had escaped the damaged barn on Sunday night, and went to live under the corn that we were now storing in our corn grinding mill.
He was under the corn in the mill the whole time my men were moving the bags into that building on Monday.
My carpenters were taking their lunch break this last Friday, when our well fed “rat guard” decided to make his appearance (not realizing the men were just outside the mill door).
As he slid out from under the door, scaring the carpenters beyond words, they quickly whacked him, ending his happy hunting days.
He received a nice burial.
My men are firm believers in the phrase; “the only good snake is a dead one”.
I FIRMLY AGREE!
The barn reconstruction is expected to be complete this Friday, May 21.
The beans are still flowing in steadily, one sack at a time, but no one is complaining.
We now have over 10 tons stored in our barn for this year.
It looks like it will be a lean year for many in this area.
We are expecting several tons of beans to be available to us this week.
We will take in all we can find knowing that our JOSEPH PROJECT may be all that stands between hunger and malnutrition for many kids this year.
God named our food distribution program the Joseph Project 10 years ago.
Just as Joseph gathered the food and filled his barns against a time of severe hunger, so will we.
Blessings,
BBB in Moz.
Drove in to the village road to a line of people blocking the road, as they were headed to the cemetery to bury a 3 year old girl.
Sad to say but her Catholic parents took the child to a witchdoctor and she died on the way home of anemia.
Some people are just too thick to listen to reason as our church members told them that we could help her.
Anyway, when I got to the church most of the church members were at the funeral as this family lived only 150 yards from our church.
Pastor Joaguim told me that few were here due to the funeral, so I went over to greet them (including Genono, the oldest man in that church).
He received a miracle healing for his Congestive Heart Failure and is now DANCING in the church!
This man couldn’t walk last time I saw him in January.
Linda Stanley and her prayer team went out and prayed for him and he was healed the SAME DAY!
That man grabbed my hands during Praise and Worship and DANCED WITH ME!
I preached today on Joshua 1:5–9 for courage and boldness, and on how to use the name of Jesus to protect themselves from thieves and others following the devil.
Church lasted over 2 hours and it seemed like 30 minutes.
The children danced and sang. Gotta get some new clothes out to them this week as most are in rags.
All I saw as they danced were BUTTS as most of the boys had holes in the seat of their pants!
The mothers and men sang and danced, and then all I saw were baby’s heads bobbing as they were sleeping while tied to their Mother’s backs.
Two of the 2 year old toddlers came and crawled up into my lap at the same time.
I had a fun time hugging and swaying to the music with them. Those 2 little boys ate it up.
Afterwards we had clinic under the nearby Mango tree just outside the church.
We had prayed for the sick but there were 14 babies that needed meds badly.
I didn’t want more deaths in the area, so spent 30 minutes playing Doctor Bunny!
I told them how you plan to come next year and they were only sad in that you can’t come THIS YEAR.
You might want to think about that.
I will be all alone here from late August to early Oct. as Eric has to be in RSA at that time.
All the visitors and all my HELPERS are leaving end of August.
If you think you can come, don’t let Finances enter into your decision.
PRAY ABOUT IT! Tell him HIS WILL BE DONE that you are willing!
I can find a donor to get you a ticket.
If God calls HE PROVIDES!
Love and Blessings, BBB
TORNADO HITS CORN BARN
NEWS FROM BALAMA
TORNADO STRIKES ORPHANS UNLIMITED BARN
Early today a small tornado destroyed the Corn Barn that is the main corn storage facility for Orphans Unlimited in Mozambique.
The tornado came suddenly out of a calm sky and peeled off the tin roof “just llike a can opener”. The structural supports were damaged as well. There were no injuries to anyone even though a guard was in the barn at the time of the event.
The entire roof must be replaced in the next two days to save the crops that are being stored in the barn. The 30ft. by 100 ft. barn will be rebuilt by 20 plus workmen . Eric must go to the city of Montapuez to buy materials. Brenda expects the cost to replace the roof and make the repairs to be $3,000.00.
Please pray for dry weather while they work. This is a real race with time as food buying time is upon us.
News From Brenda in Balama, Mozambique
From: “Brenda Lange”
Date: May 2, 201
YOUR PRAYERS ARE WORKING! KEEP THEM COMING.
Hard to believe I’ve only been here 2 weeks now, as we accomplishment so much in that short period of time.
With facing a food shortage, assisting other missionaries in starting a new orphanage in Tanzania, and dealing with the daily challenges of our many programs, it does tend to keep me off the streets and out of trouble. The kids are doing well and our remote village churches are growing rapidly. Two of our BBC members (Bush Bikers for Christ) who evangelize the children in remote villages, have offered to move into the 2 remote villages where new churches have been started. Pastor Alberto, our Bible School teacher will mentor them as they help him to get these new Christians grounded in God’s Word.
We prayed for beans and the village farmers have responded by bring in 3.5 tons one sack at a time, mostly by bicycle.
Many farmers tell us that most villagers can sell one sack of beans, but few had a large harvest.
So we will fill our barn one sack at a time this year in any way God brings it to us.
Our Meluco orphanage with 400 kids and widows is at critical food status as their corn and bean fields produced nothing. Our Meluco barn is almost empty, so our plan is to transfer 12 tons of our emergency reserve food to them during May. That will keep the kids fed till the new food is bought in June.
Eric informed me last weekend that new tires are a MUST before long distance hauling is possible. It’s 9 hours one way by big truck to our Meluco mission base.
The only way to get good tires is to drive 7 hours to the largest supply city in Northern Mozambique, Nampula.
Taking off with a 2 page supply list, Eric went to Nampula last Tuesday week with a pick up pulling a trailer.
He returned loaded with all the supplies, but not without having a little excitement himself.
BRAVE MOTORIST STOPS A ROBBERY IN PROGRESS
Eric and Capena were buying supplies this week in Nampula, the largest city in all of northern Mozambique.
In this area, thieving gangs are well organized and work in broad daylight.
Capena’s friend was on guard in the back of the pickup when someone walks up to him, causing a distraction.
With the guard distracted, another man moved in on the opposite side of the truck, grabs a case of motor oil worth $145 and walks off unnoticed by our guard.
The thief ran across the street in front of a car. The Mozambican driver sees the thief put the case of oil in a taxi parked in the middle divider of a major 4 lane street. (The taxi driver was obviously part of the gang.)
This huge Mozambican motorist, who never gave his name, STOPPED HIS TRUCK in the street, and shouts “YOU”VE BEEN ROBBED” as Eric and Capena were coming out of the store.
Eric raced to the truck, while Capena and the guard ran to the taxi that the motorist pointed out.
The 2 thieves scatter in different directions while the taxi driver starts his motor and tries to pull out into traffic.
Our Brave Motorist steps right out in front of the traffic AND STOPS THE CARS from moving!
This kept the taxi blocked in, giving Capena time to yank open the taxi door and grab the case of oil.
Needless to say the 2 thieves were long gone, and Eric saw the taxi driver sliding down in the seat to make himself less conspicuous.
Nothing could be proven against the taxi driver, so he was released.
Eric quickly organized a 2nd guard for the back of the truck, as the missionaries living there pointed out that they don’t dare go to town without TWO guards on their trucks.
All of us are very thankful to our BRAVE MOTORIST who saved us from losing that case of motor oil.