FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA” DATE: DECEMBER 27, 2014

SUPER SLIDE OPENS FOR CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS PARTY!

The photos tell it all, as you can see the slide, and the monkey bars (attached to the right side of the slide), are all a bit hit with the children.

Just like any great play­ground, it was stand in line to take your turn. But with the slide accom­mo­dat­ing 2 kids at a time, it only takes a few min­utes of wait­ing before you start climb­ing the 2 sto­ry lad­der to have anoth­er thrilling ride on the slide!

JESUS’ BIRTHDAY PARTY GREAT FUN FOR ALL!

170 orphans and street chil­dren attend­ed our Christ­mas par­ty and 2 of our fat goats along with 220 lbs (110kg) of rice pro­vid­ed the noon feast for the chil­dren and their fos­ter mothers.

Pho­to shows the chil­dren all feast­ing on our great food.

Katie and Ash­lynn com­ment­ed on how qui­et it got once the chil­dren were served. The kids were so busy eat­ing, they didn’t utter a peep. For the street kids, it is the ONLY time they get meat and rice all year, so they were total­ly “focused” on eating.

To explain: the street chil­dren have par­ents, but most are left alone to fend for them­selves dur­ing the day, and few get any lunch.

These chil­dren are reg­u­lars at our Sun­day School pro­gram, as the love they feel there is like a mag­net to those who are love starved.

Every­one who attend­ed Jesus’ Birth­day Par­ty received 2 kinds of lol­ly pops and a pack­et of cook­ies as they left. It was smiles all around, as every­one left with a heart full of love and joy!

CHRISTMAS DAY ORPHAN TOY GIVE OUT

Can’t show all the pho­tos of our orphans receiv­ing their small trucks, cars, dolls and jump ropes, so I chose BABY DANIEL’s pho­to as he had the most unusu­al look on his face when he saw his toy (it lights up).

His “light up” octo­pus was an instant hit with all the orphans in Ernestina’s house. It was a joy­ful week and super fun for all of us.

We prayed for all of you and your fam­i­lies to have a won­der­ful Christmas.

Now we ask the Lord to keep you safe and pro­vide you with a GOD BLESSED 2015, for it will be a year of many changes.

A full solar eclipse as well as the 3rd blood moon all appear in ear­ly March, which marks the 6th month of this Shemi­tah year.

All these signs are Bib­li­cal, mark­ing the skies with sig­nals that Jesus’ return is very near.

ARE YOU READY? GOD ANSWERS MY PRAYERS WITH MORE HELP ON THE WAY

Stephen Miller, expe­ri­enced mis­sion­ary who taught Bible to both Adults and chil­dren in Bali, Indone­sia for 18 months, will be join­ing our team on Feb 4, 2015.

His pre-mis­sion­ary work skills include truck dri­ving, ware­house man­age­ment, and inven­to­ry work. All of which will be very use­ful, since most of what I do is man­ag­ing ware­hous­es, tak­ing inven­to­ry, and buy­ing sup­plies as needed.

I am very grate­ful to God for pro­vid­ing a helper before the Bala­ma Blaz­ers com­plete their 1 year com­mit­ment dur­ing food buy­ing time in 2015.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange Bala­ma Blaz­ers: Katie Pol­cyn Ash­lynn Grabill

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA” DATE: DECEMBER 14, 2014

NAMUNO FAMILY GIFTED WITH NEW MUD HUT

The Del­fi­na fam­i­ly in their old hut with no walls, and no beds, shel­ter. or security.

Thanks to your gen­eros­i­ty, we were able to gift Del­fi­na and fam­i­ly with a new mud hut for $126! It lacks an out­door “latrine” and kitchen/cooking area, but the vil­lage chief assures us that he will orga­nize neigh­bors to help them with to add on these need­ed items.

Social Ser­vices (both Dis­trict and State) agree that “at this time” stay­ing in their home vil­lage near fam­i­ly and friends is the best solu­tion for this fam­i­ly of 9. The hus­bands “inde­ci­sion” about mov­ing was a key fac­tor, as he changed his mind dai­ly about what he want­ed to do.

We donat­ed 6 sacks of corn (120lbs each/60kg), 1 sack of corn flour, and 60kg (120lbs) of beans. That is enough food to help them through the rainy sea­son. Our gift includ­ed CORN AND BEAN SEEDS to help them get a new start at being inde­pen­dent. I per­son­al­ly spoke to the Dis­trict Social Ser­vice Direc­tor in Pem­ba yes­ter­day (we ran into each oth­er while I was in town get­ting sup­plies), and he is going to assist them this week in get­ting a big­ger “ma-cham-ba” (farm­ing field), as their present field is too small to pro­vide for them.

The wife was in tears over all this, as our gifts includ­ed 3 new “rope beds” so that all the kids would have a place to sleep off the ground.

Giv­ing this fam­i­ly a “hand up” vs. just a “hand out” is what we do best.

The option is still open to move them next year if the sit­u­a­tion changes.

THANK YOU for your prayers and love gifts that made this “res­cue” possible.

RAINY SEASON BRINGS OUT OUR SLITHERING NEIGHBORS

Last Sunday morning dawned fresh and beautiful after an all night rain cleared the air. As I went to our kitchen, which is a building 30 yards/meters from my house, I met the first of our unwanted neighbors.

Next to the fence was lay­ing a 2 foot black mamba.

He began mov­ing away when he saw me, so I wast­ed no time in yelling, “GAURDS, COBRA!” It was shift change, so there were 3 men present.

With their trusty snake stick of bam­boo, they made short work of that crit­ter. Mam­bas hatch from eggs, and as they unwind them­selves it is amaz­ing to real­ize that they mea­sure 18 to 24 inch­es at hatch time (45 to 60cm).

A new hatch in the area is a seri­ous mat­ter, as there could be up to 20 or more roam­ing around.

So BUSH BUNNY SENSES WENT ON FULL ALERT!

The next day my Bala­ma Blaz­ers, Katie and Ash­lynn, found a small snake hid­ing behind our stove in our kitchen. It was NOT a mam­ba, but a more docile type of snake, accord­ing to the guard who killed it. It came in under the door, which is our biggest chal­lenge around here. With all the fre­quent walk­ing on this con­crete, the area had worn down just slight­ly, so that a small snake could slide under. They can com­press their bod­ies more than any­one realizes.

My brick lay­ers will build up that part of the floor to make it more snake proof.

Rainy sea­son always dri­ves them out of the rat holes where they live in the dry sea­son. The rains fill their holes with water, and out they come look­ing for a warm, dry place to live for the next 4 months.

We deal with it by ask­ing God to keep us “aware” of our sur­round­ings, and REVEAL THEM before we get too close to them.

I was proud of Katie and Ash­lynn for not pan­ick­ing when they dis­cov­ered the snake in the kitchen.

They left the room imme­di­ate­ly, and even remem­bered to grab our lunch on the way out the door as they yelled for the guard!

We praise God for His Divine Pro­tec­tion at each encounter. TIME FOR PLANTING

Our 40 acres is now cleaned with the brush burned, and is ready for planting thanks to our 23 foster mothers.

Each fam­i­ly is giv­en an area to clean and plant so that the orphans can learn farm­ing, as well as pro­vide some fresh food for themselves.

Every­one must farm or go hun­gry in our area, as there are no “food stamps” to apply for once your food sup­ply is gone.

It’s also time for intense spir­i­tu­al plant­i­ng, as we have orga­nized a 1 day train­ing sem­i­nar this Wednes­day to pre­pare our 19 Bala­ma Pas­tors for our rainy sea­son (20150 evan­ge­lis­tic program.

OUR THANKS GOES OUT TO ALL OF YOU WHO MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO BRING “THE MESSAGE OF JESUS” TO THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL.

Our staff tru­ly embraces the “pio­neer spir­it” it takes to face the numer­ous chal­lenges they face when they are the first in an area to bring God’s mes­sage about His Son.

FYI: Car­l­i­tos Jorge accom­pa­nied AWANA leader Bilali through the “python area” this week to make sure all went well.

Trav­el­ing in pairs is always the safest, but not always possible.

They romped and played with over 150 kids in the Sir­a­mu­la AWANA pro­gram this week.

DEEP BUSH RESCUE

After Sun­day school today, I was intro­duced to 2 boys, 1 of them blind since birth. They are liv­ing with their very sick moth­er in a small grass hut that sits deep in the bush at their macham­ba (ma-sham-ba—farming field). The father of the chil­dren died a month ago, leav­ing the chil­dren with very lit­tle food. The old­er sis­ter, Rosim­i­na, has been vis­it­ing them and bring­ing what food she could spare from her own family.

Today, Rosim­i­na walked to the Rovu­ma church with the blind boy, Isu­fo, 11, and his lit­tle broth­er Isake, 8, to ask if our Jesus could help save them.

The old­er boy, Lido,12, had to stay to help his moth­er who is not able to walk.

Upon hear­ing their sto­ry, we imme­di­ate­ly agreed to help the boys with food, but told the sis­ter that the chil­dren and their moth­er must be brought into the vil­lage to live with her family.

Rosim­i­na is present­ly orga­niz­ing some­one with a bicy­cle to go fetch Justi­na, the sick moth­er, as it is quite a dis­tance to their hut, and there is only a small bicy­cle path that gets you there.

Once she is brought in, we will take her to the Bala­ma hospital.

Nel­son returned to our base with me and assist­ed me in fetch­ing food for the boys. The bicy­cle res­cue of the moth­er is still in progress.

Will update you on the sit­u­a­tion next week.

Bless­ings to all of you! Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Bala­ma Blaz­ers: Katie Pol­cyn Ash­lynn Grabill

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA” DATE: DECEMBER 6, 2014

SUNDAY MINISTRY ON A DIFFERENT LEVEL

Last Sun­day, I was leav­ing for the Rovu­ma Church ser­vice, when Pas­tor Joaquim called to tell me that one of the chil­dren in the church had just died. It was Meheto (Mee hey too), the lit­tle 4 year old boy that always danced to the Lord with me at the front of the church. This hit me like a bomb, as he was one of those boys who was always wear­ing super dirty torn cloth­ing, but would show up for church with a big smile and a warm hug.

He suf­fered from a tes­tic­u­lar her­nia, but his par­ents didn’t believe in hos­pi­tals, so they refused to have any­thing done about it.

His par­ents said he began hav­ing intense abdom­i­nal pain in the mid­dle of the night, and passed away just after dawn. Church was can­celled, as all the mem­bers went to help the fam­i­ly orga­nize the funeral.

As I walked the dirt path to the family’s mud hut with Youth Lead­ers, Car­l­i­tos and Nel­son (our grad­u­at­ing orphan, 17 years old), I told them I knew the Lord could res­ur­rect Meheto, and we would ask the Lord to do just that. They read­i­ly agreed. I’ve per­son­al­ly seen 2 peo­ple (1 adult and 1 child) res­ur­rect­ed from the dead while work­ing in Mozam­bique, so my faith in this area is very strong.

When we got to the mud hut, there was already a 100 peo­ple sit­ting around, most­ly muslims.

The women were wail­ing, as they do in this cul­ture, with the men sit­ting under the grass roof of anoth­er mud hut in total silence.

We asked the women to be silent, and for all to leave the mud hut where Meheto was wrapped in a bur­ial cloth and lay­ing on a woven rope bed made from dried tree limbs.

DOING WHAT JESUS DID IN THE BIBLE, I want­ed no unbe­liev­ers in the room.

We knelt next to the bed, laid our hands on his body, and began to pray. But as we prayed, the Lord sent a clear mes­sage to sev­er­al of us, that this lit­tle one would stay with Him in heaven.

I total­ly under­stood and accept­ed this since his earth­ly life had been one of neglect and much suffering.

I was upset, but had to admit it wasn’t fair to bring him back, as he was hav­ing such a great time danc­ing before the Lord.

That lit­tle boy tru­ly loved to dance. We explained to the fam­i­ly that Meheto was hap­py to be with Jesus, and would con­tin­ue to dance in heaven.

I’ve spo­ken to many who are ter­ri­fied of death, and for the unbe­liev­er, this is very true sit­u­a­tion, as HELL is more hor­ri­ble than we can even imagine.

But not so for a per­son who has giv­en their life to Jesus as lit­tle Meheto had done even at the ten­der age of 4. There is no fear of death when one knows the type of “life after death” that Jesus had pre­pared for us in heaven.

MEHETO’S GRADUATION TO HEAVEN PROVIDED 300+ LOST PEOPLE WITH THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT JESUS.

MEHETO SAVED HIS LITTLE BROTHER’S LIFE, as he became very ill 2 days later.

Our truck was in Rovu­ma drop­ping off brick lay­ers to repair the church, when the fam­i­ly came run­ning with Meheto’s 2 year old broth­er, beg­ging a ride to the hos­pi­tal. We glad­ly took them and I was thrilled to know that their hearts were now open to receiv­ing med­ical help for their children.

We expect that more “fruit” will be com­ing forth very soon from those who heard the gospel for the first time last Sunday.

MANGO TREE CHURCH PASTOR MEETS 6 FOOT PYTHON!

Pas­tor Bilali and Car­l­i­tos Jorge proud­ly show off Car­l­i­tos Jorge’s new motor­bike. This pho­to was tak­en on a calmer day last sum­mer. We are using this pho­to because no Pythons were avail­able to pose. PTL.
Pas­tor Bilali, the new Youth Direc­tor at the Man­go Tree Church, was return­ing home last Mon­day on his bicy­cle via a remote, nar­row bike trail after doing an AWANA pro­gram in a dis­tant village.

A large python (esti­mate 6 foot or 1.75 meters,) rose up and struck at this leg (they have vicious teeth), but missed, hit­ting the rear spokes of his bicy­cle. The bike flipped as the snake’s body jammed the spokes, but the Pas­tor was thrown clear with only a few scrapes.

Bilali said he jumped up and ran a good dis­tance, wait­ing to see what the snake did, as he had no weapon to kill it with. Sad, but this snake lived to strike anoth­er day, for after clear­ing him­self of the bike wheel, he slith­ered off into the woods, seem­ing­ly unharmed. Need­less to say, the bike’s back wheel was demol­ished, but we were thrilled that Bilali was unharmed.

It was a long walk home car­ry­ing his bike on his shoul­der, but he was hap­py to be alive.

Bilali’s courage and deter­mi­na­tion to spread the gospel were evi­dent when he walked the 11 miles (18Km) to my house on Tues­day, to tell me the sto­ry and ask for mon­ey to repair his bicycle.

He was in no way “scared to return” to that area, just angry that his brand new bike had been so bad­ly damaged.

We glad­ly gave him the $25 need­ed to fix the bicycle!

SIDE NOTE: Just a few months ago, a 7 year old boy was killed by a python in this very area. Seems him and a friend were walk­ing this same path when one of the boys need­ed to go to the bath­room. The snake got him when he went into the woods. Africa is an unfor­giv­ing envi­ron­ment, and it is only safe to ven­ture into its inte­ri­or when your faith is strong and Jesus’ angels are at your side.

SUPER SLIDE’S FINAL TOUCHES DELAYED

Manuel, the main fence builder, must still mount the chain link “safe­ty fence” on the 2nd sto­ry this week.

Manuel, who is also my main dri­ver and mechan­ic, returned very sick from our Melu­co orphan­age on Tues­day with resis­tant malar­ia. He was hos­pi­tal­ized in Bala­ma and receive IV treat­ments for 5 days.

He is now home, but still on treat­ment till Sun­day. He told me today that he expects to fin­ish the slide by Wed. this week.

Bless­ings from all of us in Balama!

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange Bala­ma Blaz­ers: Katie Pol­cyn Ash­lynn Grabill