PTL, BABY ARMANDO SURVIVES MALARIA!

Baby Arman­do, 7 weeks old, mirac­u­lous­ly over­came his malar­ia, and was released from the hos­pi­tal Mon­day, (Feb. 13th). In addi­tion to the malar­ia, he was fight­ing an upper res­pi­ra­to­ry tract infection.This, too, is now GONE after prayer and antibi­ot­ic treat­ment at home. My thanks to all of you for your prayers for this lit­tle guy, and to the 2 fos­ter moth­ers who alter­nat­ed stay­ing with him at the hos­pi­tal, pro­vid­ing excel­lent 24 hour care.

Baby Arman­do tak­ing a wel­comed nap after leav­ing the hospital.

PREMATURE BABY CONSTANTINO NEEDS OUR PRAYERS.

Weight:  1.4kg  (3 lbs) at 19 days of age, means this lit­tle tyke needs to feed and grow. He is total­ly healthy, just very small since his moth­er has no breast milk due to a breast abscess. With the Lord’s help, our staff will help these con­cerned par­ents to pro­vide all that this lit­tle one needs.

Tiny Con­stan­ti­no. Note that the bot­tle cov­ers more than half his body.

TINY TWIN GIRLS NEED URGENT PRAYER

The twin’s father and his best friend rode 18 km (11 miles) TODAY on a bor­rowed bicy­cle from Mavala  (The Man­go Tree Church Vil­lage), to BEG a can of milk for his 6 day old infants.   The man’s wife per­ished dur­ing their birth on Jan. 12th, leav­ing these 2 tiny girls of 1.8 kg (3.8 lb) and and 1.7kg (3.7 lb) in their grandmother’s care. One was born just BEFORE mid­night on Jan. 11th in Bala­ma, and the oth­er an hour lat­er in the Mon­tepuez hos­pi­tal (60 km/36 miles away), due to com­pli­ca­tions. I gave them a can of for­mu­la and a 100mts. ($1.50 or R18) so the grand­moth­er and father could ride the local “cha­pa” (taxi) on Mon­day to bring them to Bala­ma. A fam­i­ly mem­ber must present the twins at Social Ser­vices in the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal for prop­er reg­is­tra­tion. Once this is done, we will pro­vide these 2 lit­tle girls with for­mu­la and baby clothes for the father can­not afford the mar­ket prices.

NOTE:  The father received 2 cans of baby for­mu­la and 2 baby bot­tles from the Mon­tepuez hos­pi­tal to get them start­ed. We are so hap­py that this man “did what it takes” to pro­vide for his 2 lit­tle girls BEFORE they ran out of milk. So many wait until the milk is gone, caus­ing the baby to suf­fer greatly.

FACT TO REMEMBER:  When an infant cries, it burns lots of calo­ries, and thus, los­es weight.  Tiny infants can­not afford to cry, for they have no body weight to lose.  Keep­ing them well fed and hap­py helps them gain weight at a faster rate.

YOUR LOVE GIFTS AT WORK!    PROVIDING BABY FORMULA, BOTTLES, AND BABY CLOTHES SAVES MANY INNOCENT LITTLE LIVES.

UNWELCOMED RAT EATER MEETS HIS DEMISE!

This morn­ing our brick lay­ers were walk­ing past our kitchen, when they spot­ted a 60 cm (2 ft.) ADDER (rat­tlesnake fam­i­ly) as it tried to cross in front of them. Our worker’s mot­to is:  “the only good snake is a dead snake”.  In the blink of an eye, one of the brick­lay­ers grabbed the 12 foot (4 m) bam­boo we keep at the kitchen for this very rea­son, and beat it to death as it tried to climb our sand pile.

Adder meets bam­boo rod and los­es, even in soft sand.

Adders are not fast mov­ing, but they “strike like light­ing” with great accu­ra­cy and their fangs full of dead­ly ven­om. Nev­er take any snake for grant­ed in Africa for 99.9% of them can spit far­ther and move faster than you can react. Keep­ing one’s eyes open, espe­cial­ly at dawn and dusk, can save your life.

Bless­ings,

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

And the Bala­ma Staff

MIRACLE HEALINGS IN NAMARA DISTRICT

Our 2 Pas­tors in Nama­ra Dis­trict, 24 miles (40 km) to the south of Bala­ma, report­ed 4 mir­a­cle heal­ings after pray­ing for the sick in dif­fer­ent locations.

Pas­tor Alber­to reports heal­ings and 25 new believ­ers in Namuno churches

A man who suf­fered from Bil­harzia (par­a­site infes­ta­tion of the blad­der caus­ing bleed­ing and mas­sive loss of ener­gy) showed no blood in his urine and regained strength over the next 3 days fol­low­ing prayer! Med­ical fact: Even with prop­er med­ica­tion, Bil­harzia is a tough par­a­site to erad­i­cate and the bloody urine does not dis­ap­pear with­in 3 days after treatment.

Two oth­ers were deliv­ered from chron­ic back pain and stom­ach prob­lems, while a 3rd per­son became pain free after suf­fer­ing chron­ic headaches for 5 years! Praise Jesus for all of this, and I pray for a greater anoint­ing on these 2 Pas­tors as they con­tin­ue to evan­ge­lize in this very remote area.

TWO INFANTS HOSPITALIZED WITH MALARIA THIS WEEK

Mon­day ear­ly a.m. found us urgent­ly admit­ting Baby Arman­do, 6 weeks old, with malar­ia. This is seri­ous as babies this age do not weigh enough to use the nor­mal treat­ments, so he had to be giv­en IV Qui­nine. He is still in hos­pi­tal with a pos­i­tive malar­ia smear after 4 days of treatment.

On Tues­day after­noon, Baby Jac­in­ta, 5 months old, was also admit­ted for a pos­i­tive malar­ia smear. She weighs just over the 5kg (11 lb.) lim­it, and could receive the nor­mal IV treat­ments. Jac­in­ta was released Thurs­day after­noon to con­tin­ue oral treat­ment at home for the next 3 days.

Both of these babies came to us in a very frag­ile, mal­nour­ished con­di­tion, which decreas­es their resis­tance to every sick­ness. Please keep them both in your prayers this week.

Malar­ia is on the increase in our area due to the rains slack­ing off in the last 2 weeks, allow­ing the mos­qui­tos to breed and flour­ish. All our chil­dren and moth­ers sleep under mos­qui­to nets, but any­one out­side after 4pm can become infect­ed as that is when the mos­qui­tos begin feed­ing. We thank you for your prayers for all our chil­dren for malar­ia is ram­pant through­out all of Africa in the rainy season.

Crossed a riv­er and walked 5 miles with his vil­lage orphans to fetch their school sup­plies and buy their shoes.

Pre­cious Soz­in­ho, 3 years old, demand­ed a back­pack for preschool.

WORK CONTINUES DESPITE HEAVY RAINS

Just as the US Post Office has their mot­to about deliv­er­ing mail in any weath­er, I believe our BBC and con­struc­tion teams deserve the same. THROUGH MUD, RAIN, AND DARK OF NIGHT, THE LORD’S WORK MUST BE DONE WITH MIGHT!

Our TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.  The men reap­ing God’s harvest.

Our BBC and con­struc­tion teams of con­struc­tion work­ers faith­ful­ly arrive dai­ly before 5 a.m (still pitch dark) for our dai­ly devotions.

We do action songs, hear a mes­sage from God’s Word, then pray a bless­ing over all of them. The sky light­ens by the time we are done, and all go off to their respec­tive jobs.

Note:  Con­struc­tion made great progress as we con­tin­ued pour­ing floors, built a bath­room, and mount­ed win­dow frames at the new dorm this week.

Bless­ings,

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

And the Bala­ma staff

THE PITTER PATTER OF “HAPPY FEET” DANCING TO BAWANA GAMES

Every­thing needs sun­shine to stay healthy! Chil­dren, crops, and goats alike! Spots of dai­ly sun­shine “lit up” our chil­dren this week as the rains became more “nor­mal”.  After­noon or night show­ers are nor­mal for our rainy sea­son, and very good for the crops and the kids who seri­ous­ly need their morn­ing play time. (So say the fos­ter mothers!)

Bawana Games — bean bag toss

Today our chil­dren eager­ly played Bawana games on our bas­ket­ball court after 3 weeks of con­stant rain that can­celed most out­door activ­i­ties. Our teenage boys were busy hoe­ing up the grass on the soc­cer field. Can’t have grass slow­ing down the ball dur­ing the “After Church Soc­cer Game” on Sun­day! Over 200 peo­ple from the com­mu­ni­ty come to cheer on the teams dur­ing these soc­cer games pro­vid­ing fun and laugh­ter for every­one. It’s a great “fam­i­ly time” for all of us.

Now I hear that the Twigg (graphite mine) Team has chal­lenged us to a bas­ket­ball game. One prob­lem. We need a new bas­ket­ball so the boys can prac­tice. ($34 in Pemba.)

SCHOOL DAYS ARE ALMOST HERE

Bush Bunny’s liv­ing room is full to the brim with all the “school sup­plies” donat­ed by our friends at the Syrah/Twigg Graphite Mine. The “elves” from the Christ­mas Par­ty will join us this Fri­day to dis­trib­ute this moun­tain of school sup­plies to the 87 school age orphans liv­ing with us.

My over­flow­ing activ­i­ty room

The back packs are bright­ly print­ed with fun kid designs, as well as the zip up pen­cil hold­ers, and the easy to grip pen­cil sharpeners.

The items we can buy local­ly are pret­ty dull in com­par­i­son.  Our chil­dren saw these gifts at the Christ­mas Par­ty, and eager­ly await our Fri­day “fun time” when we out­fit them with every­thing they need for this school year.  It takes about 4 hours to out­fit this gang with  every­thing from uni­forms to pen­cil sharp­en­ers.  More next week as we gear up for the school year start­ing Feb. 5th.

PASTOR JOAQUIM’S HOME NOW ROOFED

Our sin­cere THANKS! goes out to those who gave spe­cial gifts to help us rebuild Pas­tor Joaquim’s home. By re-using some old tin sheets, we stretched those gifts to com­plete his roof this week for we didn’t have enough new tin sheets.

Pas­tor’s house with new roof

A team of 3 teens and 1 woman vol­un­teered to plas­ter the “pao-peeky” walls with mud this week to pro­vide secu­ri­ty and pri­va­cy. The fin­ish­ing work (final plas­ter­ing and water­proof­ing with oil paint) will be delayed until more funds are available.

Teen pow­er mud­ding Pas­tor’s house

BBC TEAMS ARE ON THE MOVE!

  (Our motor­bike and bicy­cle teams)

Because the heavy mud and rains kept the teams from going out the last 3 weeks, the vil­lage chil­dren thought they had been aban­doned for good (their tes­ti­mo­ny to the team). They went WILD with lots of scream­ing and danc­ing when the teams showed up this week. It’s nice to know that the chil­dren tru­ly appre­ci­ate the fun, atten­tion, and Jesus Love Lessons our teams pro­vide for them.

PASTOR FRED UPDATE

   (motor­cy­cle acci­dent victim)

Fred’s bro­ken leg received a new cast yes­ter­day as he com­plet­ed week 5 of his recov­ery.  Sad­ly, he will be anoth­er 3 weeks in the cast as his bones are still soft at the break site. (Both low­er leg bones were bro­ken just above the ankle). Please keep him in prayer for a com­plete and expe­dit­ed healing.

BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU AS WE WALK DAY BY DAY WITH OUR LORD JESUS!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF

THE RAINY SEASON HAS HIT US!

As I write, light­ning is flash­ing and thun­der is rolling, as rain drops tap on my tin roof. It’s a nice sound as long as one is safe­ly INDOORS when all this hap­pens. The cool­er weath­er that hits while it is rain­ing is a wel­come relief from the hot temps and high humid­i­ty. Great thing about our rains is that is most­ly rains in the after­noons or at night, giv­ing us the morn­ings to tend to our work load.

The BBC motor­bike team is com­plete­ly out­fit­ted with rain jack­ets and pants for they usu­al­ly go out in the ear­ly morn­ing dry, but some­times get back when it is already rain­ing. So DE BUNNY and her mar­velous staff and Pas­tors will keep doing the Lord’s work as weath­er permits.

KIDS AND NOISE GO TOGETHER, AS OUR YOUTH PUMP WATER, MAKE JOKES, AND HAVE A GREAT TIME AT OUR WATER WELL.

GENONO (JEN-NO-NO), THE OLDEST OF OUR CHURCH MEMBERS, WALKED 3 MILES TO BRING ME 4 NEW BASKETS HE’D MADE.

I was so sur­prised when I looked up from my work at our corn barn to see Genono slow­ly walk­ing towards me. This jol­ly old timer has no idea how old he is, but he loves Jesus with all his heart!

When he could not walk at all, and every­one thought he would sure­ly die, JESUS RAISED HIM UP!  I was there when Genono was car­ried by friends to our first church meet­ing under a tree in Rovu­ma vil­lage.  (Sound a bit like the lame man low­ered through the roof by friends so Jesus could lay hands on him?)  GENONO HEARD AND BELIEVED what we told him about JESUS THE HEALER, and by the time church was over, Genono was DANCING TO THE LORD!  The group of men who attend­ed, all non-believ­ers, left IN SHOCK!!!!  It was a great heal­ing mir­a­cle and this “young” old man is still shuf­fling along today (10 years later).

Genono is still an active farmer, but his hoe was com­plete­ly worn out. Just a nub of met­al on a stick, as he car­ried it with him today to show me.

He makes his liv­ing in the “off sea­son” of farm­ing by mak­ing these beau­ti­ful bas­kets that our fos­ter moth­ers dear­ly love. I expect he planned to buy a new hoe with the mon­ey from his bas­kets.  When I fetched him a new hoe from our stock, along with pay­ment for his bas­kets, he began to clap and tears were run­ning down his face. A big Genono hug, which he is famous for, was my reward. See­ing his JOY was all it took to “make my day”.

Our pick-up truck took him home as my dri­ver was fetch­ing our brick lay­ers who were repair­ing the Pastor’s house  in his village.

This man is a walk­ing mir­a­cle who loves the Lord with all his heart.

FRUIT HARVESTED FROM THE LOVE YOU SEND SO WE CAN SHARE IT WITH OTHERS.

BLESSINGS,

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF