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Monthly Archives: June 2021

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 6, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 6, 2021
 
MEET THE ZEBRA GANG OF HOUSE #6
 
The Zebra gang hosts 4 babies under 2 years, plus 4 oth­er chil­dren under 10 years. It’s a busy house, and the ONLY FOSTER HOUSE with 5 “live in” fos­ter moth­ers.
 
Rea­son: orphaned baby explo­sion 
 
Note: 2 of the fos­ter moth­ers are in train­ing for house #7 when it opens.
 
Four of the moth­ers each have an infant-in-arms, as well as assist­ing the Fifth moth­er with clothes wash­ing  cook­ing, and oth­er needs of this house. The moth­ers with infants in this home are trained in “frag­ile infant care”, as all the grow­ing, healthy babies you see now were tiny, frag­ile, mal­nour­ished lit­tle ones when they joined our fam­i­ly. 
 
 

Judi­ti hold­ing fast grow­ing Sal­vador with beau­ti­ful curly hair.​
 

Cecelia hold­ing Infant Fatima​
 

Vaneza, our mir­a­cle moth­er hold­ing Maiz­in­ha.​
 
Look at them now! I am always amazed at how love, prayer, and good nour­ish­ment can bring infants back to nor­mal in less than 8 weeks. Before the Lord sent me here, I was an RN in the USA, trained in PICU and NICU. (Pedi­atric and Neona­tal inten­sive care.)
 
 

Zebras, left to right: Helder (age 8),  Edwar­do (age 8) hold­ing Maiz­in­ha (age 10 months), Beba (age 2), Belusha (age 10), and Adeli­na (age 2)
 
Many thought I was “wast­ing” my train­ing and tal­ents by becom­ing a mis­sion­ary. GOD NEVER WASTES ANY TALENT OR TRAINING. HE EXPANDS ON IT!
 
Once here, the Lord showed me a dif­fer­ent path in which to use that knowl­edge WITHOUT all the fan­cy machines of a hos­pi­tal. A tough adjust­ment is an under­state­ment,  but learn, I did, through prayer and expe­ri­ence.  God showed me new and inven­tive ways to use my knowl­edge. If I could­n’t fig­ure out a solu­tion, I asked the Lord, lis­tened, and act­ed on what Jesus showed me. 
 
“Ask and you shall receive” is how Jesus and I resolve the chal­lenges that face us dai­ly when rais­ing His lit­tle ones.
 
 
OOPS, I FELL!
 
One such chal­lenge hap­pened last Wednes­day. Eight-year-old Anna, of the Zebra house, fell on her left elbow while play­ing soc­cer. The elbow was jammed and locked in a bent posi­tion. 
 
A trip to the hos­pi­tal, and the Bala­ma Dr. had it fixed and cast­ed in under an hour. Anna will be in her “half cast” for up to 3 weeks to let her elbow heal. 
 

Anna, our ‘Oops, I fell down!” girl, with Vaneza on return from hos­pi­tal.​
 
ALL OF YOU PLAY A VITAL ROLE IN RAISING THESE CHILDREN. Your prayers are great­ly need­ed as we face a stricter lock­down right now with schools and church­es closed due to fear of the more con­ta­gious CV19 found in RSA. There is no virus in our area, and my prayers are that it stays that way.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 30, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 30, 2021
 
INSIGHT INTO RAINY TIME ACTIVITIES 
 
A month behind us and PTL our chil­dren are safe, healthy,  and hap­py. Today, Jan­u­ary 30th, marks the mid­dle of the rainy sea­son. It rained most of the night, and heavy, grey rain clouds still hang over­head. Our 3‑man milling team rush to mill 1.1 TONS, or 23 sacks of corn so our hun­gry “mob” of 200+ kids can eat this week. 
 
The teenage boys are up crack of light (5 a.m.) because dawn nev­er came. They grab their hoes and rush to fin­ish weed­ing 1 of 3 fields they have now plant­ed with Juko beans, for all can see more rain is com­ing.
 
As the boys approach the tree line at the edge of their field, a shout rings out! A 2 foot/60cm Adder has been spot­ted, ready to strike.
 

Celesti­no’s first kill last Thurs­day. I am thrilled he saw it before it saw him!
 
An Adder is a rat­tlesnake with­out the rat­tle. We call it ‘Sneaky Snake’ as it gives no warn­ing, and its ven­om sack guards the same dead­ly poi­son as the Amer­i­can rat­tler. No ant-ven­om exists in our area, mak­ing a bite dif­fi­cult to treat.
 
The adder can strike both for­ward and back­wards. Its favourite trick is to lie hid­den next to a trail and strike with light­ning speed when a rat, or per­son walks by. 
 

Celesti­no’s 2nd kill, today
 
SO GLAD OUR BOYS ARE “BUSH WISE” AND ALERT TO THEIR SURROUNDINGS. This is the 2nd Adder they have put an end to in their fields this last week. Celesti­no,  is the brave one of this group as he is the expe­ri­enced snake killer who took out both snakes this week.
 
 
FARMING IS A FAMILY AFFAIR
 
Our wid­owed grannies not only teach farm­ing to their orphaned “live in” grand­chil­dren,  but also invite oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers to help in their fields. Many hoes makes the work load lighter! 
 

7‑year-old help­ing out her Granny
 
The lit­tle girl in the pho­to is about 7, and a prime exam­ple of an extend­ed fam­i­ly help­ing out their Granny. She not only looks after her lit­tle sis­ter, but picks Moringa leaves to spice up Granny’s mid­day meal. It is great to see fam­i­lies join­ing forces so that all may have food on their tables.
 

View of our train­ing fields for the orphans.  40 acres with church and food ware­hous­es of to the right.
 
 
BUSH BUNNY TIDBIT
 
All of us, includ­ing Social Ser­vices,  expect­ed the triplet fam­i­ly from last week’s blog to show up on Thurs­day, 28th, for weigh-in. This is when they receive more milk for­mu­la. They have yet to come (2 days late), caus­ing all of us con­cern. Nev­er good news when this hap­pens. I will keep you updat­ed once I know what has hap­pened. 
 
PRAYER OPENS SPIRITUAL DOORS SO THE ANGELS CAN DO THEIR WORK. KEEP THEM FLOWING HEAVENWARD AS WE FACE THE CHALLENGES OF 2021.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 23, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 23, 2021
 
FIVE BABIES IN 15 MINUTES!
 
A new record for sure! While eat­ing lunch on Wednes­day, I received a call from Social Ser­vices request­ing for­mu­la and baby bot­tles for TRIPLETS who were born ear­li­er that morn­ing. 
 
While orga­niz­ing the for­mu­la, I heard a noise out­side. Stick­ing my head out the door, I saw 2 women with 2 cry­ing babies sit­ting on our “recep­tion bench” for vis­i­tors. Our Assis­tant Chil­dren’s Direc­tor “trainee”, Fati­ma, was quick to tell me that she had met these women at our gate, and walked them to my house to receive baby for­mu­la. 
 

The Twins with Moth­er, ® and Aunt (l)​
 
Feel­ing a bit over­whelmed, I called Social Ser­vices to say I’d be anoth­er 20 min­utes as I had to first attend to these very hun­gry twins they had sent to me. Call­ing in our Chil­dren’s Direc­tor, I left her with the need­ed items for teach­ing baby for­mu­la prepa­ra­tion to the moth­er and Aunt of the twins. 
 
Fati­ma and I quick­ly loaded the car with triple of every­thing — Baby for­mu­la, baby bot­tles, plus store-bought 1.5 liter water bot­tles for mix­ing the for­mu­la. 
 
At the hos­pi­tal we were escort­ed into the mater­ni­ty ward to meet the triplets along with their par­ents, aunt and uncle. Moth­er and baby girl both looked a bit frail. The moth­er was “dry”, mean­ing no breast milk. The 2 boys looked much stronger, as you can see in the pho­to. Once released from the hos­pi­tal, they will receive baby for­mu­la week­ly from our pro­gram.
 

Moth­er of Triplets with baby girl.​
 

Aunt with Triplet boys.​
 
Because you care, these 5 lit­tle ones will have the for­mu­la need­ed to grow in to strong, healthy infants.
 
JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD. PLEASE PRAY FOR THESE 5 AS THE FIRST WEEK ON FORMULA DETERMINES HOW WELL THEY WILL GROW.
 
I“ll keep you post­ed on their progress.
 
 
HAPPY DAYS!
 
QUISTON is now sit­ting and play­ing Inde­pen­dent­ly! It does my heart good to know he has pro­gressied out of his mal­nour­ished state into a baby of nor­mal weight and strength for his 9 months of age. He’s come a long way from the lit­tle frail infant we received.
 

Quis­ton sit­ting and play­ing Inde­pen­dent­ly.​
 
MUCH THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR MAKING THIS PROJECT A LIFE SAVER TO THE INNOCENT.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 16, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 16, 2021
 
QUISTON GAINING STRENGTH 
 
Our 12 babies are all weighed at our food dis­tri­b­u­tion each Thurs­day. All of them are steadi­ly gain­ing weight, and I hap­pened to catch Quis­ton show­ing off his new strength after his Fos­ter Moth­er, Angeli­na, put him on her back to secure him in a “caplana”.
 

Quis­ton shows off his arm strength on the back of his Fos­ter Moth­er,  Angeli­na.​
 
A Caplana is a 7 ft. (2 meter) piece of strong cot­ton cloth that the moth­er uses to secures her baby to her back. This calms the baby, as the moth­er’s walk­ing motion works the same way as the move­ment of a car ride.
 
 
LIFESKILLS TRAINING IN FARMING 
 
Three of our teenage boys are tak­ing final exams this week for last year’s school term. The oth­er 9 teens were busy learn­ing to plant Juko Beans in the prop­er way. The ropes keep the boys mov­ing in a straight line as they plant the long rows. The video below shows it bet­ter than words.
 

Video of our teenage boys plant­i­ng Juko at our Life Skills Train­ing area.
Click link –>  https://youtu.be/xytscha_J1k
 

Life Skills train­ing at work, plant­i­ng Juko beans.​
 
Plant­i­ng is the easy part. The weed removal in the com­ing 3 months will be a bit more chal­leng­ing.  Teach­es patience and per­sis­tence!
 
 
STAND UP AND WALK
 
GENONO, 70, is the old­est church mem­ber we have. He still works by mak­ing bas­kets for our moth­ers to use in food prepa­ra­tion. He loves to vis­it me, and that entails a 3km/1.5 mile walk for him. His amaz­ing strength is proof of God’s pow­er in his life.
 

Genono shows off the new bas­kets he made for our Fos­ter Moth­ers.​
 
When I met Genono in 2006, he could­n’t walk. His friends car­ried him to the tree where we 1st had church in his vil­lage. He lis­tened, received God’s heal­ing touch, and WALKED HOME! He’s nev­er stopped walk­ing, nor does he take his strength for grant­ed, for he knows that Jesus tru­ly touched him. 
 
He is an amaz­ing tes­ti­mo­ny to all he meets.
 
GENONO BELIEVED, RECEIVED, AND ACTED ON IT. GOD’S WORD TELLS US THAT’S ALL IT TAKES.
 
Note: Our chil­dren are all healthy and hap­py. We are now in a 2nd lock­down due to the virus, but there is none in our area. How­ev­er,  this means no large gath­er­ings for the next 30 days, thus no feast.
 
Keep pray­ing for us, and know we are pray­ing for you. Let no chal­lenge defeat you, no mat­ter your cir­cum­stances, for Jesus is always with you.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 9, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 9, 2021
 
SOW AND YOU SHALL REAP
 
Our 12 high school boys know very well the Bible sto­ry of sow­ing and reap­ing. After a short morn­ing rain, Zito and Alferes quick­ly shelled their much loved Juko Beans which our 11 teens then plant­ed.
 

Teenage boys plant­i­ng Juko Beans​.
 
Juko grows under­ground in a shell like a peanut. Can be eat­en raw or cooked, and has a nut­ty flavour. It’s very rich, so a lit­tle bit on top of rice is enough for most. 
 

Juko Beans, in and out of the shell.​
 
Your Love Gifts have pro­vid­ed these young men with the advan­tages of high­er edu­ca­tion, yet they are hum­ble,  know­ing that no mat­ter the future, ALL must learn the art of good farm­ing in order to live well.
 
 
RAINY SEASON ACTIVITIES 
 
From man­ag­ing the food barns to hand made car­pen­try items, our well-trained teams help us to pro­vide the needs of over 1,700 vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren in 2 counties/districts. Each corn sack weighs 132 lbs./60kg.  Get­ting a sack down from the tall stacks must be done with cau­tion and with strong men.
 

Food Team mov­ing corn sacks for dis­tri­b­u­tion.​
 
Work­ing with only hand tools, I watch (see video, below) the car­pen­ters use the same sim­ple tools that Jesus used. These young men, under the super­vi­sion of a Mas­ter Car­pen­ter, learn as they work. All the doors and win­dows for our chil­dren’s homes, and almost all the chil­dren’s fur­ni­ture is cus­tom made by this 4‑man-team. Widnes (Wit­ness), on the left, is an orphan who grew up in our pro­gram. He  became an intern upon grad­u­at­ing 12th grade, and is now 2nd only to our Mas­ter Car­pen­ter in tal­ent.
 

Video Link  —> https://youtu.be/Oo9kpAgnmbM
Car­pen­ters mak­ing a door with hand tools.
 
 
FOOD FESTIVAL DELAYED AGAIN
 
Our head cook for the fes­ti­val had a death in his fam­i­ly on Tues­day this week. Because it is a big job to cook food for such a large fam­i­ly, our staff decid­ed to delay till next week. No mat­ter, for these rainy day pho­tos were tak­en 5a.m. Fri­day morn­ing. 
 
Fri­day is our most “free” day as we have food give-out prepa­ra­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion on Tues­days through Thurs­day each week.
Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary are our wettest months, so we will keep try­ing.
 

6 a.m. Fri­day, Jan.  8th. “Duck Day”, because only the ducks are hap­py.​
 

The road from our food barns to church and Chil­dren’s Cen­ter on Fri­day.
 
 
QUISTON’S SMILE WINS MANY HEARTS
 
No mat­ter what chal­lenges you face in 2021, keep your eyes on Jesus.
 
Let NO ONE steal your joy, for it is our strength in times of trou­ble. 
Keep this cute lit­tle boy’s smile in mind when times get tough. May his inno­cence bring joy to your heart, put a smile on your lips, and a twin­kle in your eyes.
 

Baby Quis­ton and Fos­ter Moth­er, Angeli­na.​
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 2, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 2, 2021
 
HEAVY RAINS WRAP UP 2020
 
Rain means our corn/bean fields will grow, PTL, but it also crushed our hopes for the chil­dren’s feast on Dec. 31st. So Bush Bun­ny and staff pulled out the reserve plan by load­ing the toys, cook­ies, and indi­vid­ual koolade bot­tles into my ful­ly cov­ered King Cab.
 
When the rain paused at 7 a.m., off we went to deliv­er the good­ies house to house. Sun­shine fil­tered through the clouds just long enough to get fam­i­ly pho­tos of all 6 chil­dren’s homes. Each house with small chil­dren received a minia­ture soc­cer ball so the under 3‑year-olds can have fun at home. 
 

Beau­ti­ful “Gazelle House” with their gifts.
 

Our pre­cious Ostrich House fam­i­ly.
 
As I was get­ting the “Rab­bit” fam­i­ly of Vic­to­ry House lined up for their pho­to, the chil­dren’s hands were full hold­ing their presents (and they weren’t let­ting go). Thir­ty-month-old Jesuino tried to hold his gifts AND THE NEW BALL, but could­n’t man­age it. The ball fell to the ground, so I placed it at his feet and stepped back­wards to take the pho­to. Next sec­ond, I was hit full body with that ball as Jesuino rared back with all his might, kick­ing the ball per­fect­ly to his “goal”.
 
THE KIDS ROARED WITH LAUGHTER, for Mama Bren­da for­got that this lit­tle one can’t resist kick­ing ANY BALL with­in his reach.
Solu­tion: remove his koolade bot­tle so he could hold the ball. His face is one of total deter­mi­na­tion, dar­ing any­one to take the ball away. Our future soc­cer star for sure!
 

Vic­to­ry House Rab­bits and their 3 Fos­ter Par­ents
 

The Lion House kids!
 
See­ing the smil­ing faces of our chil­dren as we gave out gifts house to house, brought great joy to all of of our staff. Next week, we hope to have our “pic­nic” with the kids. Just need a morn­ing of sun­shine and dry ground as it is total­ly an out­door affair.
 

Buf­fa­lo Boys with pock­et mon­ey for shop­ping, treats and a new Soc­cer Ball.
 

For some of our Zebra House kids it was their 1st toy ever!
 
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO GAVE SPECIAL LOVE GIFTS SO OUR CHILDREN COULD HAVE SPECIAL TREATS THIS YEAR.
 
HAPPY 2021 TO YOU ALL!
 
STAY CLOSE TO THE LORD, AND NEVER DOUBT HIS WORD.  IT IS FOOD FOR YOUR SPIRIT AND ENCOURAGMENT TO YOUR MIND. HE TRULY IS COMING SOON.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 26, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 26, 2020
 
CHRISTMAS PARTY DELAYED, BUT TREATS A BIG HIT
 
Our fun-filled par­ty plans for Decem­ber 24th were changed to the 31st due to last minute chal­lenges with 6 days of rainy weath­er and oth­er inter­rup­tions. Thanks to a local busi­ness­man, his gift of a  large box of gum, can­dy, and cook­ies put smiles on many sad faces caused by this delay.
 
The pho­tos below show each of the 6 hous­es of chil­dren with their Christ­mas treats.
 

The Ostrich House Chil­dren
 

The Lion House children​
 

House #6, The Zebra House Chil­dren
 

The Gazelle House Chil­dren
 

The 13 “Rab­bits” in the Vic­to­ry House
 

The 12 Buf­fa­lo House Boys
 
Next Fri­day’s par­ty will include a big feast, toys, and more sweets, along with our joint prayers for a great 2021 for all of us.
 
THANK YOU, as your spe­cial Christ­mas gifts are mak­ing our New Years Eve Day Par­ty a sight to remem­ber.  The chil­dren don’t yet know that your gen­er­ous giv­ing pro­vid­ed each of them with a new toy that they will receive at the par­ty.
 
 
HOUSE #7 NEEDS ONLY DOORS AND WINDOWS. 
 
The heavy rains this week have delayed the paint­ing of the com­plet­ed doors and win­dows. Oil paint and high humid­i­ty don’t mix, so as soon as weath­er per­mits, this 16-bed orphans home will be com­plet­ed. Our mur­al artist will assist our painters to speed up this process as soon as the sun shows its face. The chil­dren’s rooms will then receive sev­er­al beau­ti­ful murals that will greet the next chil­dren join­ing our fam­i­ly.
 
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
 
Our hap­py fam­i­ly is shown in this video singing their favourite song, just for you. Lift Jesus High­er!
 

 
Our ener­getic fam­i­ly singing “Lift Jesus High­er“
Link—>  https://youtu.be/wJ7X5DHfmEc 
Bless­ings to you all!
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 19, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 19, 2020
 
DIXON’S CHICKEN 
 
Many of you remem­ber DIXON from years back, for he came to us extreme­ly mal­nour­ished (4.4 lbs./2 kg) at 4 months of age. Today, 8‑year-old Dixon is a hand­some young­ster in the 2nd grade who loves his pet chick­en, “Gal­in­ha”. (Chick­en in Por­tuguese).
 

DIXON rep­re­sents the 20,000 vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren saved because you care.​
 
Dixon rep­re­sents the 20,000 plus orphans and aban­doned chil­dren in the 2 coun­ties we serve with food, cloth­ing, and school mate­ri­als.  These chil­dren live today because you shared the love of Jesus that lives in your heart.
 
The Bala­ma project is now 20 years old, and it keeps on expand­ing with the open­ing of orphan home #7 in Jan­u­ary 2021. JESUS named us ORPHANS UNLIMITED as He showed me a vision of a sea of chil­dren. That sea of chil­dren con­tin­ues to expand. 
 
Thanks to your love gifts we deliv­ered life-sav­ing food to over 1,449 vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and the 550 wid­ows who care for them.
 
 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!
 
On Dec. 24th our chil­dren will cel­e­brate the birth of JESUS with a huge birth­day par­ty that includes games and a feast for the 110 chil­dren and fos­ter moth­ers who live in the homes you pro­vid­ed.
 
THANKS FOR MAKING THIS PARTY POSSIBLE!
 
 
INFANT UPDATE: PRAYER NEEDED
 
 
1. BABY FATIMA was hos­pi­tal­ized last Thurs­day after she devel­oped a fever of 101ºF/39ºC.  Malar­ia was ruled out, but the source of the infec­tion could not be deter­mined.  She is recov­er­ing well after 2 days of gen­er­al IV antibi­otics.  
 
FYI: Fati­ma remains with out a spon­sor. 
 

Baby Fati­ma feel­ing bet­ter but remains in hos­pi­tal.
 
2. INFANTS MAEZINHA AND QUISTON both received treat­ment for dysen­tery this week. With more ener­gy due to a great diet, both these babies show excep­tion­al curios­i­ty by putting every­thing they can get a hold of into their mouth. Both are recov­er­ing well.
 

Baby Quis­ton now has strength to sit up with lit­tle sup­port.​
 

Baby Maez­in­ha return­ing to nor­mal eat­ing habits.​
 
JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!  
 
MAY YOU ALL HAVE FABULOUS FAMILY TIME AS YOU CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF GOD’S SON!
 
BLESSINGS,  
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 12, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 12, 2020
 
BABY FATIMA JOINS OUR FAMILY 
 
Orphaned Fati­ma was brought to us last Fri­day by her Grand­moth­er and Uncle from a vil­lage almost 30 miles/50km into the Bush from Bala­ma (on foot). This tiny infant looked like a pre­ma­ture new­born, but her doc­u­ment said she was exact­ly 90 DAYS OLD, weight­ing only 2kg/4.4 lbs., AND WAS OBVIOUSLY SICK!
 

Baby Fati­ma eats hourly, then sleeps sound­ly.​
 
My Chil­dren’s Direc­tor,  Anna,  and I ush­ered them into my King­cab, and drove them quick­ly to the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal. The hos­pi­tal staff was SHOCKED at her age and weight, so wast­ed no time get­ting blood for a malar­ia smear, then start­ing an IV for med­ica­tion.
 
Fati­ma is 1 tough lit­tle girl, as she recov­ered rapid­ly from her malar­ia, but stayed in hos­pi­tal a full week to receive a spe­cial mal­nu­tri­tion for­mu­la. Rav­en­ous with hunger, she drank a tremen­dous amount dai­ly, gain­ing 2.2 lbs./1kg dur­ing her 7 day stay. 
 
Fati­ma’s Uncle real­ized the very elder­ly Grand­moth­er could not prop­er­ly care for Fati­ma, and request­ed Social Ser­vices to allow her to live with us. Both her par­ents are deceased, and it is obvi­ous to all that Fati­ma needs extra atten­tion if she is to sur­vive. 
 
Plz pray for this lit­tle girl, for she will need at least 4 months of good nutri­tion and care to achieve a nor­mal weight for her age.
 
Fati­ma needs a $30/month spon­sor as soon as pos­si­ble. This lit­tle tyke can eat!
 
 
BABY NELITA MEETS JESUS
 
With a sad heart I must announce that 1 yr. old Neli­ta is now with the Lord Jesus. Neli­ta con­tract­ed malar­ia last Sun­day, Dec. 6th.
 

Baby Neli­ta back on Novem­ber 7, 2020. Hap­py, healthy, and enjoy­ing her new toy tele­phone.
 
The nor­mal malar­ia treat­ment seemed to be help­ing her by Mon­day, but ear­ly Tues­day it was evi­dent she was get­ting worse. We rushed her to the hos­pi­tal, where she was admit­ted imme­di­ate­ly, with IV anti-malar­ia meds start­ed with­in min­utes. 
Lab analy­sis showed that the malar­ia was attack­ing her liv­er and red blood cells. She was very ill with a crit­i­cal hemo­glo­bin of only 6. (Nor­mal is 12–14).
 
Blood was giv­en, but the liv­er fail­ure was too far advanced, and she grad­u­at­ed to heav­en at 7pm Thurs­day night.
 
We miss her very much, but are hap­py she now has a per­fect body, and can hap­pi­ly play with the oth­er chil­dren in heav­en.
 
The loss of Neli­ta has real­ly upset the fos­ter moth­ers and chil­dren in house num­ber 6. Please keep them in prayer as they go through the griev­ing process. 
 
 
BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS
 
1. Our chil­dren enjoy play­ing soc­cer between rains. 
 

https://youtu.be/hpu4Cunw8ck
School age chil­dren enjoy­ing fun between rains.
 
2. Rainy sea­son offi­cial­ly began this last week with 6 days of light rain.
 
3. House # 7 rush­ing towards com­ple­tion. Jan­u­ary open­ing looks very promis­ing. 
 

House #7 paint­ing in progress between the rains.
 

Final cement work near­ing com­ple­tion.​
 
BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 5, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 5, 2020
 
KIDS TEACHING KIDS
 
 

Our old­er teens are expand­ing their hori­zons by learn­ing to teach our younger chil­dren. This week we assigned small groups for the pri­ma­ry school­ers, so our high school­ers could help them 3 days a week with their math and Por­tuguese.  Fri­day, it was exer­cise day, so the young­sters began learn­ing aer­o­bics.
 

Exer­cise class. Kids teach­ing kids.​
Click for video—>  https://youtu.be/8Kj7RR2ROrQ

The 2–3 year olds are learn­ing coor­di­na­tion through games with balls. These 2 videos I took show how much fun they are hav­ing. 
 

2 & 3 year olds play­ing ball​.
Click for video—>  https://youtu.be/VHk7iOlFxsM
 
 
PASTORS CONTINUE TO MAKE AN IMPACT 
 
Novem­ber Sal­va­tions:
   27 Church­es in 2 coun­ties.
 
   Chil­dren: 86
   Teens: 35
   Adults: 24
 

Seeds are being plant­ed and the har­vest is com­ing in. PRAYER for USA con­tin­ues. 
 
 
HOUSE #7 UPDATE
 
Floors are com­plete in all 4 bed­rooms with win­dow frames being installed today.
 

 
 
The video shows how we hand mix the cement for plas­ter­ing the walls before the floors are laid.
 

Hand mix­ing cement for the floor.​
Click for video—>  https://youtu.be/NkuvFAi2cgo
 

Plas­ter­ing the walls with cement.​
 
OUR GOAL: com­ple­tion by end of Decem­ber with Jan­u­ary open­ing. The biggest chal­lenge is to get the paint­ing done between rains. 
 
From our team to you, have a great week! We great­ly appre­ci­ate your lov­ing kind­ness as we plan a fun Christ­mas par­ty, thanks to your gifts. FYI. Found enough toys for all the chil­dren.  
 
BLESSINGS,  
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF