From: Linda Ferguson, for” Bush Bunny Brenda” Date :, July 27, 2013

Hello to all of the faithful supporters of Orphans Unlimited, Inc.

This email blog is com­ing to you from Lin­da Fer­gu­son in our Texas office. I am the per­son who’s name appears at the very bot­tom of your week­ly Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Blog.

Bren­da is in Pem­ba today and did­n’t write a Blog entry before she left the Mis­sion Head­quar­ters in Bala­ma. Because of the jam packed sched­ules of the staff, Bren­da was the only one avail­able to deliv­er the team from Michi­gan back to the air­port for their flight home.

The Go Pro­jec­t’s team of Sal­ly Dyke­ma and Dale Mein­derts­ma have been busy help­ing bring in the har­vest, both of corn and of souls. We will have details of their adven­tures soon.

But while “The cat is away.…. this mouse” thought you might enjoy see­ing some pho­tos that rep­re­sent a typ­i­cal, pow­er packed, “day in the life”.. of The Bush Bunny.

Brenda Caring for a babe in mother’s arms- a daily sight.

These starving children were rescued from sure death by their Grandmother, who walked many miles,not knowing if she would find help.

Wor­ship ser­vice looks like lots of fun. The pup­pets are a favorite of both chil­dren and adults.

The wheelchair and the crutches were such a happy surprise. As you can see by the beautiful smiles.

Brenda shows us a stick with cord wrapped around it and beetles in bright colors attached. This tool of the witch doctor was given to her by the woman who was saved and baptized. The former witch doctor hut was burned as a testimony to a life changed by the grace of God.

We couldn’t end the day without checking in on the goats. Sure enough, there’s Brenda and one of the goat team busy worming a reluctant volunteer.

From: Brenda Sue Lang, The Bush Bunny Subject: BBBlog, July 21, 2013

JESUS FILM IMPACTS OVER 1000 “UNREACHED” IN MAPONE VILLAGE

Our Orphan Dra­ma Team at their best, just before the Jesus Film is shown. The boys did a great job and had the audi­ence total­ly captivated.

Our orphan dra­ma team engaged the large crowd with 2 very pow­er­ful pro­grams while our Mis­sion­ary Team set up the film equip­ment just before dark last night at Mapone’s soc­cer field. Many hid in the shad­ows to watch, too afraid to be seen in the crowd by their neigh­bors. Today, Sun­day, 80+ adults and 95 chil­dren came to the church meet­ing to find out more about Jesus. FOUR peo­ple prayed to receive Jesus as they met under a large Man­go tree that had been des­ig­nat­ed “the church” for this vil­lage. A total of 32 new Chris­t­ian adults will now cut fence posts and bam­boos so they can build a prop­er meet­ing place. Hav­ing 180 peo­ple show up for our first post Jesus Film meet­ing makes this vil­lage a record set­ter. It’s the best response we’ve seen so far. The fields are RIPE and we are ready to bring in the har­vest! These new believ­ers begged Pas­tor Alber­to to start a Bible School in their vil­lage. We’ll be orga­niz­ing that to begin 2 weeks from now. Evan­ge­lism is only the first step. DISCIPLESHIP through our Inter­na­tion­al Vic­to­ry Bible School cur­ricu­lum is the way to “train them up in the way they should go”.

Our team is off to the 5000+ pop­u­la­tion of the Mpaca vil­lage for tonight’s show­ing of the Jesus Film. More on that show­ing next week.

DALE’S OBJECT LESSONS IMPACT NAMARA AND PEQUARIA CHURCHES

Dale Mein­derts­ma of Michi­gan is vis­it­ing for his 3rd year in a row, spe­cial­iz­ing in “object lessons” that teach valu­able Bible Lessons to both adults and chil­dren. His 2 audi­ences were total­ly engaged this morn­ing as he used a blind fold­ed child to show how we are lost and in dan­ger with­out Jesus. But WITH Jesus in our hearts, He guides us through life, keep­ing us safe, even when dan­ger is right in front of us. Dale’s sponge dripped water, a per­fect exam­ple of how our words drip out of our mouths, and once gone, can’t be tak­en back for they are “lost” for­ev­er as they hit the dirt and soak into the ground. Bri­dle thy mouth or face the con­se­quences if our words harm oth­ers for you can’t get them back, no mat­ter how hard you try.

BABY RESCUE AT PEQUARIA CHURCH

A moth­er came forth when Dale prayed for the sick, who has a new born but no breast milk. We orga­nized a baby “RESCUE KIT”. A baby bot­tle, can of for­mu­la, and fil­tered water. Nel­son, my 16 year old nurs­ing trainee, got his first chance to teach a new moth­er how to boil water, clean the bot­tle, and take prop­er care of a baby on for­mu­la. The baby is very weak, so our prayer is that the baby will sur­vive it’s rough start in life.

PREGNANT MOTHER IN TROUBLE

Just as every­one returned from church, I received a call from the hos­pi­tal beg­ging our help for a preg­nant moth­er in trou­ble. Being “on call” with 1 of our Land Cruis­er pick-ups as an Ambu­lance is one of the ways we help out when lives are at stake. Our dri­ver, Jan­i­to, rushed out to the clin­ic in Impire at noon to fetch a preg­nant woman hav­ing a seizure. He just came back to say they request­ed him to take her on to the Region­al Hos­pi­tal in Mon­tepuez, 30 miles (60 km) away where C‑sections are pos­si­ble. I had antic­i­pat­ed this, and orga­nized Manuel, our main dri­ver to han­dle this fast trip so that Jan­i­to could car­ry the Jesus Film equip­ment out to Mpaca tonight.

My offi­cial title here is “THE COORDINATOR”. It’s a gift from God, and He helps me do it well. With HIM BY MY SIDE, many lives are touched in every­thing we do. There is no bet­ter place to be than in God’s will for your life. For it is in that place, that HE will show you that you can do more than you ever dreamed you could. NO ONE could have con­vinced me when God called me in 1988, just how much HE would have us accom­plish in these last 23 years. AMAZING is all I can say when I look back at how many lives He’s touched through us and the vis­i­tors he’s sent us.

SALLY PREACHES THE PRODIGAL SON IN ROVUMA TODAY

Sal­ly Dyke­ma of Michi­gan is also here for her 3rd “tour” to preach and love on our kids. Sally’s USA church found­ed Rovuma’s church 5 years ago, so she was received with much singing and danc­ing today by the mem­bers. Sal­ly told us at lunch that even ERIC got in on the danc­ing with the men in the church. Linda’s cam­era bat­tery died, or we would have had that rare hap­pen­ing on film!

CORN IS IN THE BARN!

Dale and our team set­ting up tarps as the rain driz­zled down.

On a cold and rainy Fri­day this week, our 60 man team worked hard and fast to sack and stack the last 305 sacks of super dry corn that will see our orphans through the rainy sea­son (Jan. to May). I’m very proud of our team of Mis­sion­ar­ies (Emma and Melis­sa) as well as our 60 man staff and crew who moved 103 tons of corn in 5 days. It was nev­er more true, when I say that “many hands make the work light”. Our corn barn is now “full to the brim” as we were bare­ly able to close the doors once it was stacked in 7 “pil­lars” reach­ing 13 ft. (3.9 m) in height. The first dis­tri­b­u­tion to 447 hun­gry orphans and the 211 wid­ows who care for them will be Tues­day this com­ing week. This area had a poor corn har­vest due to crop fail­ures from either too much rain or not enough, depend­ing on which of the 9 vil­lages the kids live in. We THANK ALL OF YOU who have gen­er­ous­ly giv­en so that these chil­dren may grow up healthy and do well in school. As every­one knows “hun­gry bel­lies have no ears”.

TIDBITS:

DANIELLE VAN ZYL is back in RSA to get her res­i­den­cy doc­u­ments. Melis­sa Olms­dahl flew in Wed. with Sal­ly and Dale. Melis­sa is from the Chris­t­ian Motor­cy­cle Asso­ci­a­tion church in George, RSA and applies for res­i­den­cy tomor­row, give a year of her life to help us out! Wel­come aboard, Melis­sa! Bik­er Woman!

BLESSINGS FROM THE BALAMA TEAM,

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

Eric Dry (The Bush Bear)

Lin­da Stan­ley, (Angel)

Melis­sa Olms­dahl (Bik­er Woman!)

Emma Clif­ford, Rough Tough Texan

From: “Brenda Lange” Subject: Blog, July 13, 2013

MAVALA BAPTISM SEES 23 DIPPED IN COOOLD WATER!

The pho­to shows Pas­tor Alber­to (in the rub­ber boots) using our new­ly made inven­tion by Eric Dry, O.U.’s Asso­ciate Direc­tor in Mozam­bique.  His portable Bap­tismal tank pro­vides us a way to do Bap­tisms through­out the dry sea­son.  Eric puts one of our 750 liter water stor­age tanks on the back of our 1 ton Land Cruis­er, fills it with water, and away they go.  This small­er, 500 liter tank with the top cut (rein­forced with a rebar ring at the top) pro­vides the dip­ping sta­tion. Before this, we were restrict­ed to hav­ing bap­tisms ONLY at the end of the rainy sea­son while  water still exist­ed in the local rivers. Eric’s inven­tion now makes it pos­si­ble all year round. THANKS ERIC for your Bush Engineering!

SOCCER PLAYING ORPHANS GET FIRST UNIFORMS

Our teenage orphans have had a great soc­cer team for 2 years, but we nev­er had uni­forms before.  Thanks to the MCMI STAFF in San Anto­nio, our kids are now out­fit­ted in prop­er soc­cer uni­forms! I just drove them to their first game as they proud­ly wore their new uni­forms.  It’s a BIG THING in this town to have a uni­form, as the only oth­ers who have them are the city’s men’s team. They are play­ing the Sun­day School chil­dren from our Rovu­ma church, just 5 km from our base. I’ll let you know the out­come in next week’s blog.  THANKS MCMI STAFF!SECOND CORN BUYING STARTS MONDAY, JULY 15TH

For the rainy sea­son, we need super dry corn that can han­dle the damper weath­er.  Our final 105 TONS will be trucked in this week, processed, and sacked for long term stor­age.  So back to the corn chutes we go!  If we can move 20+ tons a day, we’ll be fin­ished by Fri­day, PTL!

THE NEW MOZAMBICAN FAMILY TRANSPORT

If you count close­ly, you will see EIGHT peo­ple on this 50 cc motor­bike.  This pho­to has NOT been pho­to-shopped. We com­mon­ly see up to 5 peo­ple on motor­bikes around our area, but this one beats all!

Last week, some­one asked me if the goat pho­to had been pho­to-shopped.  NOPE, that was the real thing. Goats are nor­mal­ly car­ried tied up in a large bas­ket on the back of a bicy­cle, so the Goat BAAACK PACK was a first for all of us!

Keep those prayers com­ing!  We show the Jesus Film in 2 dif­fer­ent vil­lages next week­end and old “Smut­ty Face”, the dev­il is going to be a bit riled over that. We pray many will see the truth and come to Christ.

Bless­ings from the Bala­ma Gang,

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

Eric Dry

Lin­da Stanley

Emma Clif­ford

Danielle Van Zyl

From: “Brenda Lange” Subject: Blog, July 7

MOPONE VILLAGE A SERIOUS SPIRITUAL CHALLENGE

The remote vil­lage of Mopone is only 14km (8.4 miles) from our base, but it’s like anoth­er world. No mar­ket exists, which sig­nals a VERY poor area. The road to get there took 4 wheel dri­ve due to deep sand and sev­er­al washed out trenched areas. Not a fun dri­ve in the day­light, much less in the dark when we show the Jesus Film in 2 weeks. 

Over 120 peo­ple came to hear the sto­ry of “HOW MAN CAN DEMOLISH THE SIN GAP AND MEET JESUS.” As usu­al when we begin a spir­i­tu­al work in a vil­lage, the crowd is full of doubters and scoffers. Such was the case today, but most did at least lis­ten to the sto­ry (com­plete with pic­tures of how NO ONE can earn their way into heav­en through good works). 

One of the X‑Witch Doc­tors who burned her witch hut 3 weeks ago, is a strong Granny fig­ure, high­ly respect­ed in this vil­lage. She gave a pow­er­ful heal­ing tes­ti­mo­ny telling how her med­i­cine couldn’t cure ail­ments she’d had for years, but since she met Jesus, HE CURED HER! I could see the women in the crowd start­ing to “perk up” and take notice, while the men con­tin­ued to stand off at a dis­tance and talk among themselves. 

We prayed for the sick and 9 MOTHER’S with young chil­dren asked to receive Jesus. Many told us to keep our Jesus, they just want­ed to be healed. 

We prayed for them all, but explained that it is by FAITH they receive the Master’s heal­ing. The doubters stomped out when they didn’t receive an instant heal­ing. But those 9 moth­ers stood fast in the face of many doubters and left with big smiles on their faces. So keep us in prayer as we con­tin­ue to “break new ground” for Jesus. There are now 29 BELIEVERS in Mopone, and we are sure the Lord will reap a big har­vest once His sto­ry is told via the Jesus Film. 

Mopone will be a real chal­lenge for sure. But as we always say, NOTHING IS TOO DIFFICULT FOR JESUS! 

Bless­ings, Bush Bun­ny Bren­da in Bala­ma, Mozambique

From: “Brenda Lange” Subject: Blog, July 6

HEY YALL!

This week has been a whirl­wind of activ­i­ty that has kept us hop­ping from pre-dawn till dusk. 

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL COURT GETTING A FACE LIFT FOR TEN DAYS

our 26 man con­struc­tion team chipped away with ham­mers and chis­els at HALF the school’s 70 YEAR OLD BASKEBALL COURT, remov­ing the top 2 inch­es of con­crete. Hard, gru­elling work for sure. The new cement sur­fac­ing began yes­ter­day, with our team lay­ing 6 ft. X 15 ft. (2m X 4m) sec­tions BY HAND with the cement being HAND MIXED in small quan­ti­ties to keep it fresh and wet. We only have funds to com­plete HALF THE COURT and the 2 goal posts (total cost of just over $3,500). The oth­er half will have to wait for anoth­er day, as our team has to get back to build­ing the final orphan com­plex we start­ed in April. We hope to have the Half Court Sur­face com­plet­ed by July 12th. MY SPECIAL THANKS TO ERIC DRY for cus­tom build­ing the met­al goal post sup­ports and weld­ing them into place. We hope the con­crete and met­al goals will be tough enough to han­dle the intense usage, as over 500 kids work out on this court weekly. 

THE LASTEST STYLE IN BACKPACKS

First let me say that this is NOT, I repeat NOT, one of our goats! OUR goats ride in style in the back of a pick-up truck when being moved for any rea­son. But Eric thought all of you would get a gig­gle out of this unique trans­porta­tion method invent­ed by a local African.

We call it the “GOAT BAAACKPACK”. 

BUSH BUNNY TO VISIT NEWEST BUSH CHURCH TOMORROW

I’ll be head­ing out to Mopone at 7a.m. Sun­day to meet our newest Believ­ers and pre­pare them for the Jesus Film show­ing com­ing up June 20th. This vil­lage of 5,000 has NEVER SEEN A FILM OF ANY KIND, so this is a real­ly big thing to all of them. I’ve always want­ed to a be a pio­neer, and Jesus gave me the desire of my heart. Tak­ing HIS MESSAGE of love and sal­va­tion to these remote areas is the icing on the cake! MICHIGAN’S “GO” TEAM COMING JULY 17 Dale Mein­derts­ma and Sal­ly Dyke­ma, both expe­ri­enced short term mis­sion­ar­ies, are return­ing for the THIRD TIME for anoth­er evan­ge­lis­tic vis­it to enhance the train­ing of our Pas­tors as well as the new con­verts at Mopone vil­lage. Both of them are a “bar­rel of laughs”, and we look for­ward to their 10 day visit. 

AWANA TEAM COMING

Our team painter and I spent over 3 hours at our mis­sion station’s bas­ket­ball court today mark­ing off the “games pat­tern” for the AWANA TEAM that is com­ing July 31st. Lar­ry Friend, the Inter­na­tion­al Direc­tor of AWANA, is com­ing per­son­al­ly to train up 10 of our Youth Lead­ers. Scrip­ture mem­o­ry for chil­dren is the object of the pro­grams with a bar­rel of FUN thrown in via the AWANA games on the bas­ket­ball court. The HUGE, 37 ft. square game pat­tern is paint­ed in FOUR COLORS so that teams of kids can com­pete against each oth­er in many types of games. This will give us a way to attract the 6 to 12 year olds who are a bit small for shoot­ing bas­kets into the reg­u­la­tion hoops. Our Sports Evan­ge­lism pro­gram is grow­ing rapid­ly with Emma Clifford’s per­sis­tence. Her Dad is a High School Bas­ket­ball coach in the USA, and Emma is a 6 FOOT NATURAL! Every­where we go, we hear kids yelling “EMMA!” They love her and now call ALL OF US, EMMA! Until next week!

Bless­ings and Hugs, Bush Bun­ny Bren­da and the Bala­ma Team
Eric Dry
Lin­da Stanley
Emma Clifford
Danielle Van Zyl