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Monthly Archives: April 2018

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: APRIL 21, 2018

HEIGHT OF THE HUNGER SEASON

On Fri­day, April 20th, Grand­par­ents Mar­i­ano and Asse­na walked 14 km (7 miles) car­ry­ing their 2 new­ly orphaned grand­chil­dren on their backs to ask help from Social Ser­vices in Bala­ma.  The fam­i­ly was brought to us imme­di­ate­ly for long term assis­tance. Severe­ly mal­nour­ished, the hos­pi­tal staff thought the 2 orphans were very young due to their small sizes.

Their birth records showed the shock­ing truth!

Lit­tle boy, Mateus, weigh­ing only 5.5kg (12 lbs.) is 16 MONTHS OLD! As I held him in my arms, I felt like I was hold­ing a doll made of feath­ers. His Sis­ter, Zelia, in bet­ter phys­i­cal con­di­tion than her broth­er, looked to be 3 years old, but is real­ly 4!

Chil­dren’s Direc­tor Anna dress­es lit­tle Mateus. This size 12 month sweat suit swal­lows his lit­tle 16-month-old body.

Their moth­er died on March 30th, 2018, after a long ill­ness. The father died from unknown rea­sons just before Mateus was born in Decem­ber, 2017. The grand­par­ents, also very thin, were doing their best to help these new­ly orphaned chil­dren, but they had run out of food them­selves. Their fields were washed away in the heavy flash floods that hit Bala­ma Dis­trict in Feb. and March.

All four now ben­e­fit from your Love Gifts. They left us very hap­py with a new set of clothes for the chil­dren, as well as food to sus­tain the 4 of them until the next food give out on April 27th.  THE LOVE OF JESUS AT WORK BECAUSE YOU CARE.

2018 CORN AND BEAN HARVEST

Flash floods late in the grow­ing sea­son did severe dam­age to the corn and beans in many areas of Bala­ma. This is a major blow finan­cial blow to many farm­ers AND TO OUR CHILDREN, for we depend on their crops to feed over 2000 orphans in 2 Coun­ties (Dis­tricts). The corn and bean har­vest is expect­ed to be aver­age at best around our Coun­ty (Dis­trict). I’ll keep you updat­ed in the com­ing weeks as the har­vest num­bers roll in.

MUCH THANKS TO THE DONORS PROVIDING FOOD BUYING FUNDS, FOR THIS WILL BE A CHALLENGING YEAR FOR MANY CHILDREN. With your help, we will peak out our barns so we can help as many as possible.

VICTORY SPONSORED CHILDREN’S HOME HAS WALLS!

Vic­to­ry Chris­t­ian Cen­ter in Tul­sa, OK is spon­sor­ing a “2 bed­room expan­sion” with indoor eat­ing area onto one of the orphans homes we built last year. The walls began going up last week, and the home will be ready for roof­ing in 10 days. Our brick lay­ers are effi­cient, fast, and very good at what they do.

Our new Vic­to­ry home for orphans is mak­ing great progress.

THANK YOU VICTORY for giv­ing us a new home for our ever grow­ing mul­ti­tude of children.

16 BBC YOUTH MINISTERS WITNESS WAVES OF NEW CHILDREN 

(BBC=Bush Bik­ers for Christ, Youth Evan­ge­lis­tic Teams)

1. BBC 10 MAN/5 MOTORBIKE TEAM:  min­is­ter to an aver­age of 12,693 children/WEEK

2. BBC 4 man/5 day a week Bicy­cle Team (which began over 8 years ago) saw 2,439 NEW chil­dren come into their pro­gram in the last 3 months. The pre­vi­ous num­bers were about 4,000 children/week in 10 vil­lages.  The new total is over 6,000/week!

3. Friday/Saturday, 2 man Bicy­cle Team reach­ing about 810 children/week in 2 unreached vil­lages behind our mis­sion station.

The BBC Team is fuel­ing up after long day in the Bush.

THE BAWANA GAMES ARE NOW REACHING 19,503 CHILDREN PER WEEK IN 22 VILLAGES 

These “lit­tle sponges” learn a Bible Sto­ry and mem­o­rize a scrip­ture AFTER run­ning off some of their abun­dant ener­gy play­ing real­ly fun relay games. BRINGING IN GOD’S HARVEST IS A TEAM EFFORT THAT STARTS WITH YOU! Your Love Gifts pro­vide motor­bike fuel, bicy­cles, and the equipment/books need­ed for the BAWANA GAMES and BIBLE STUDY TIMES. These 16 young men do a great job of teach­ing these chil­dren God’s way to respect oth­ers, and team build­ing skills. THEY ARE THE FUTURE GENERATION that will help build a bet­ter Mozambique.

TOGETHER WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THESE LITTLE ONES.

BLESSINGS,

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: APRIL 14, 2018

SYRAH/SODEXO SEND TREATS
Bala­ma was hon­ored with a vis­it from this coun­try’s Pres­i­dent on Thurs­day the 12th of April. Pres­i­dent Nyusi was here to inau­gu­rate the Syrah/Twigg Graphite Mine and the new Agri­cul­ture School that is just down the road from us. His heli­copter’s pilot whisked him in and out with great skill between heavy rain storms that sur­round­ed our area.
After his depar­ture, our office man­ag­er received a call from lead­ers at the near­by graphite mine stat­ing they had lots of nice TREATS left over from the inau­gu­ra­tion and want­ed to bless our chil­dren. Cake, fruit juice, apples, and oth­er good­ies were brought in and sparked an impromp­tu par­ty enjoyed by all the orphans that afternoon.
And then the rains returned!
Oh well, the food was fab­u­lous, and we are thank­ful that every­one trav­eled safe­ly back to their homes.
The Ostrich House kids get a ride. Guar­an­teed gig­gles and smiles when Mama Bren­da gives a ride to some of the preschoolers.
18 OF OUR YOUNGEST SEND THEIR LOVE TO YOU!
This smil­ing crowd gath­ered for a pho­to today for they are the orphans who attend our Lit­tle Dis­ci­ples  pro­gram each week to learn Por­tuguese, basic num­bers and their ABC’S.  Each day ends with a Bible sto­ry and devo­tions. When a cam­era appears, the fos­ter moth­ers and teach­ers are not to be left out!
18 preschool­ers send their love
Thought you would enjoy see­ing our hap­py bunch which are a delight to us all. Tru­ly a great group of God’s inno­cent ones who have a won­der­ful chance at a future thanks to your Love.
BABY SANTOS CAME HOME TODAY!
I went to the hos­pi­tal today to check on this tough lit­tle guy, and met his Doc­tor in the park­ing area. SANTOS had com­plet­ed his antibi­otics and was ready for dis­missal. PTL! God’s tim­ing for sure!
We are to watch him close­ly for fever, but this lit­tle guy is on the road to recovery.
Now 15 days old, San­tos is still quite tiny. His new fam­i­ly was thrilled to have him home, so I am sure he will receive the best care that their love can provide.
Baby San­tos at home — Tru­ly con­tent with a smile to prove it
Thank you for your prayers and plz keep them com­ing, for we need him to pick up weight quick­ly. He’s spent his entire life just try­ing to sur­vive. Now it is time for him to LIVE ABUNDANTLY in the love of JESUS.
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: APRIL 7, 2018

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA”

DATE: APRIL 7, 2018
EASTER MORNING BRINGS NEW LIFE TO OUR DOOR
A baby boy born in his moth­er’s home on Good Fri­day, lost his moth­er to com­pli­ca­tions that same night. Unable to afford milk, for­mu­la, or find a nurs­ing moth­er to suck­le the boy by Sat­ur­day night, the fam­i­ly took the baby to our near­est church. At 7a.m. East­er Morn­ing, I was hand­ed a cold, very dehy­drat­ed baby with an umbil­i­cal infec­tion. He had had noth­ing to drink since his birth 36 hours earlier.
Granny Josephine hold­ing Baby Santos.
Grab­bing for­mu­la, and a baby bot­tle, I put in a call to the Bala­ma Doc­tor. He met us at mater­ni­ty, as did my nurse friend, Sis­ter Ligia. For 3 hrs the three of us prayed and worked to get flu­ids into this 2.8 kg (6 lb.) Infant. A IV was not pos­si­ble due to his severe dehy­dra­tion, so we got him to sip small amounts of glu­cose and elec­trolytes via a syringe. Get­ting him warm, and hydrat­ed final­ly pro­duced a vein and Sis­ter Ligia was able to start an IV for antibi­otics to stop his umbil­i­cal infec­tion. PTL!
By Noon, it appeared our lit­tle one had a good chance to live. As we walked out of mater­ni­ty hap­py but tired, I asked his fam­i­ly for his name. They did­n’t have one so I sug­gest­ed San­tos, A name in Por­tuguese mean­ing Holy, for he was born at noon on Good Friday.
The fam­i­ly agreed.
Two days lat­er, San­tos and his granny Josephine, came to stay with us for a few weeks. Our Doc­tor did­n’t want San­tos too far away until his infec­tion cleared, and he was eat­ing well.
Social Ser­vices vis­it­ed San­tos the next day at our orphan home and approved his stay. It was obvi­ous that his care was too com­pli­cat­ed for his Granny to han­dle, so our fos­ter moth­ers began train­ing her in the basics of bot­tle feed­ing a frag­ile infant.
Now 8 days old, San­tos is alert and eat­ing well. Your love gifts are at work, for it “takes a vil­lage” to raise an orphan.
San­to’ s 2 uncle’s, Granny, and his 5 siblings
NOTE: San­tos has four sis­ters and one broth­er ages 2 to 12 liv­ing in Rovu­ma Vil­lage. Their father passed away a few months ago, so two uncles and their fam­i­lies have now tak­en in these 5 chil­dren. Two of our staff self­less­ly came in on East­er Morn­ing to make an emer­gency food drop so these chil­dren would not go hungry.
YOUR LOVE GIFTS make this pos­si­ble. Your gifts will also pro­vide them an edu­ca­tion and a chance at a brighter future. Our Rovu­ma Pas­tor has invit­ed them all to church fol­lowed by Bawana Games on Sunday.
Granny has nev­er been to a church or heard of Jesus before this week. Tomor­row her eyes will be opened when she sees what Praise and Wor­ship to Jesus is all about. Granny has already heard much about Jesus from our moth­ers, and it is obvi­ous her stay will pro­vide much more for her than basic baby care.
FYI. Your love gifts are sup­port­ing 33 ORPHANED infants in our baby pro­gram at this time. An infant under 90 days can­not sur­vive with­out for­mu­la, so we thank all of you for pro­vid­ing life to these inno­cent ones.
CHRISTMAS IN APRIL?
It’s a bird, not a plane, and it’s bring­ing our once a year sup­plies from south­ern Mozambique!
Ambas­sador Avi­a­tion pilot Kent make a a per­fect land­ing on a dirt airfield.
Thanks to the Chris­t­ian team at Ambas­sador Avi­a­tion, (name changed from MAF), we were blessed last Mon­day with a sup­ply drop. It was great to fel­low­ship a few min­utes with mis­sion­ar­ies from that area who brought their chil­dren for an up close look inside the plane. Net­work­ing with oth­er Chris­tians on the mis­sion field is a key ingre­di­ent in the advance­ment of God’s kingdom.
It takes a whole team behind the scenes to help us res­cue 1000’s of orphans.
Unload­ing while oth­ers stand­by to car­ry box­es to our truck
A BIG THANK YOU to Eric Dry, and his daugh­ter Chanelle, who gave up their hol­i­day time to bring the sup­plies to the plane in Inham­babe, as well as Pilot Kent and Ambas­sador Avi­a­tion for fly­ing them the last leg of the journey.
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF