EASTER, A CELEBRATION OF LIFE! 

YOU ARE THE REASON, FOR THE ENTIRE O.U. FAMILY WALKS “HAND IN HAND” TO HELP THE INNOCENT. And no one is more inno­cent than a new­born infant like baby San­tos. Born on Good Fri­day 2018, he now cel­e­brates 1 year of life! 

San­tos and grand­moth­er, 10 days after birth.

With a birth weight of 2.8 Kg (6 lbs.), this tiny lit­tle boy sur­vived against all odds. His moth­er died the same night he was born. He nev­er received immu­ni­ty build­ing liq­uids from his mother’s breast, and his fam­i­ly had no way to feed him. This lit­tle fight­er drank NOTHING for the first 36 hours of his life!

DESPERATE FOR HELP, the fam­i­ly took him to our near­est church.  The Pas­tor imme­di­ate­ly brought the infant and grand­moth­er to our mis­sion via motor­bike, as he lived in a remote area with­out reli­able cell service. 

With severe dehy­dra­tion and a seri­ous­ly infect­ed umbil­i­cal cord, his sur­vival chances looked grim, but for Jesus! Lots of prayers bom­bard­ed heav­en, and Jesus answered, for the tiny body respond­ed, with no sign of tetanus, a com­mon killer of home born infants. Nurs­ing Sis­ter Ligia refused to give up, and drib­bled glu­cose water into his mouth for an hour before she man­aged to start­ed an IV on him.

TEN DAYS lat­er, sta­ble but still very frag­ile, he was released into our care. Under the care of 3 fos­ter moth­ers, San­tos (named for the Sacred Day on which he was born), has con­tin­ued to grow at an amaz­ing rate!

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR OUR LORD JESUS, AND SANTOS IS LIVING PROOF! 

Look at baby San­tos today!

Two of San­tos’ “OU broth­ers”, baby Arman­do and 2‑year-old Mildo.

BLESS THE LITTLE CHILDREN, FOR THEY ARE THE HEART OF GOD!

The Bala­ma Admin­is­tra­tor stunned us by doing  “3 firsts” on his ini­tial vis­it to our children’s homes this last Wednes­day. First, he entered our mis­sion by greet­ing each child with a gen­tle touch on the head. 

Admin­is­tra­tor greets our children.

He then prayed for our chil­dren, fol­low­ing with a very eye open­ing sto­ry about “thou shall not steal” for Jesus is always watch­ing! The chil­dren were total­ly focused on him, for this man is a born sto­ry teller!

Admin­is­tra­tor and orphan­age man­ag­er, Cape­na, inside the boys’ room at Vic­to­ry House.

His vis­it was a great bless­ing to all of us as he toured our homes, fol­lowed by a TOTALLY POSITIVE REVIEW. This man’s love for Jesus and our chil­dren was beyond doubt, and for that we are most grateful!

HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY TO ALL OF YOU! MAY IT BE A TIME OF MANY “NEW BEGINNINGS” BETWEEN YOU AND JESUS. HIS RETURN FOR HIS CHURCH IS VERY SOON!

BLESSINGS, 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF

LITTLE ONES GROWING UP FAST!

I am fas­ci­nat­ed by how fast our babies are grow­ing up. As a proud “Mama” to these chil­dren, I want­ed to share their lat­est fun pho­tos with you.

Arman­do learn­ing to walk with the help of ‘big sis­ter’ Felimina.

7 month old Vic­to­ria with Fos­ter Father Raul.Orphaned at 3 days and weigh­ing only 2kg (4.4lbs.), Vic­to­ria has blos­somed weigh­ing in at 6kg.(13.2lbs.) this week!

Ade­line with ‘sis­ter’ Angel­i­ca is now in pre-school!

Your Love Gifts are a bless­ing beyond words. THANKS TO YOU, THEY HAVE A BRIGHT, HEALTHY FUTURE!

TEXAS DONOR CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY WITH OUR STAFF

One of our Texas donors, David, want­ed an Inter­na­tion­al Birth­day Par­ty, so we made it hap­pen! On March 29th, our BBC teams (18 men), the 15 Bala­ma and Namuno Dis­trict Pas­tors, and our ENTIRE STAFF, includ­ing the 12 man con­struc­tion team and our 5 car­pen­ters, gath­ered togeth­er for a great time of fel­low­ship and feast­ing. David’s gift pro­vid­ed 2 goats, and all the “fix­ins” as we Texas folks call it.

Pas­tors being served at the Inter­na­tion­al Birth­day Party!

Since many feasts are pro­vid­ed for our chil­dren and Fos­ter Moth­ers, David decid­ed that the “back­bone work­ers”, who make this pro­gram pos­si­ble, should be hon­ored.  I total­ly agreed, and we made the most of it.

Every­one left with smiles on their faces and full tum­mies, total­ly blessed by the love shown them through this party.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID, AND THANKS FOR SHARING IT WITH US!

CYCLONE RESCUE EFFORTS CONTINUE BECAUSE YOU CARE!

I felt the best way to say ‘Thank You’ is to tell you exact­ly what we are doing with your gifts.

    1. $15,000 is being sent to Mer­cy Air for fuel for the 2 helicopters. 

    2. The bal­ance is being used to assist Mer­cy Air with the Water Purifi­ca­tion Pack­ets they so des­per­ate­ly need.

    3. Eric, an O.U. Board Mem­ber and South African Liai­son, is still coor­di­nat­ing efforts with Mer­cy Air in RSA to get these water purifi­ca­tion pack­ets to the cyclone victims.

I am very thank­ful he no longer has to dri­ve the dif­fi­cult route through Zim­bab­we (4 bor­der cross­ings) to get these pack­ets to the Mer­cy Air base in the cyclone area.

Mer­cy Air’s car­go plane is now trans­port­ing TONS of donat­ed mate­ri­als TWICE A WEEK direct­ly to their Mozam­bique dis­tri­b­u­tion site.

Mer­cy Air staff plan­ning next load to cyclone victims.

Fuel and a pick-up (bakkie) have been donat­ed for Eric’s use, so he will now trav­el only 4 hours each way to get these pack­ets to Mer­cy Air’s RSA (South Africa) base. This allows us MORE FUNDS to buy water purifi­ca­tion pack­ets vs. trav­el costs. Please know we are stretch­ing your gifts to help the mul­ti­tudes have clean water.

TOGETHER, WE ARE SAVING LIVES!

BLESSINGS AND MANY THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO TO HELP US, TO HELP OTHERS.

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF