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Monthly Archives: February 2022

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 26, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 26, 2022
 
BBC LEADERS CONTINUE TO SERVE
 
Car­l­i­tos and Daniel are 2 of our BBC lead­ers who serve by tak­ing food twice a month on their BBC motor­bikes to 9 orphans liv­ing in a remote moun­tain area south of our mis­sion sta­tion. On a clear day, I can actu­al­ly see the area they are going to, but get­ting there by road is anoth­er mat­ter. Motor­bikes make it eas­i­ly,  where even 4 wheel dri­ve would get stuck in the rainy sea­son since the road floods.
 

BBC LEADERS, Car­l­i­tos and Daniel load­ing up food for 9 Orphans liv­ing in a very remote moun­tain are​a.
 
These 2 men made the 40km/24 mile dis­tance in 3 hours yes­ter­day, which is good for that road. Once there, they check on the 9 young­sters, and found them in need of new clothes. Upon hear­ing their report, I sent them to the mar­ket on a clothes-buy­ing mis­sion. Those clothes will be deliv­ered TODAY, pro­vid­ed there is no rain.
YOUR LOVE GIFTS AT WORK!
 
 
TEEN POWER!
 
Each week, our 17 teenagers vol­un­teer 2 hours to help keep our mis­sion’s moringa orchards and soc­cer field clean and safe. Clear­ing away all grass, leav­ing only the sandy loam soil, means snakes can’t hide there! That’s a very good thing since 99.9% of African snakes car­ry some form of poi­son. Pick­ing Moringa is a cook­ing task of the teen girls, so they make sure the “team” keeps it VERY CLEAN! 
 

Teenagers in our pro­gram clean up the Moringa orchard this week.​
 
Mot­to of Rur­al Mozam­bique: A clean yard, is a safe yard. It’s a task every Bala­ma house­hold per­forms ear­ly each morn­ing. 
 

17 teens in all, they make a pow­er­ful work force.​
 
FEBRUARY IS ALMOST OVER. MARCH WILL HOPEFULLY SEE THE REDUCTION OF HEAVY RAINS SO THE CORN AND BEANS WON’T ROT ON THE STALKS.
 
 
JOIN US IN PRAYING IN A GREAT HARVEST, FOR THE NEED IS GREAT!
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 19, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 19, 2022
 
ALFERES ACCEPTED!
 
Today, Alferes leaves for Teach­ers Col­lege in Mon­tepuez, 60km/36 miles from here. This is tru­ly excit­ing, as he is our 2nd teenag­er to enter this very wor­thy pro­fes­sion. Class­es begin on Mon­day! Please keep him in your prayers as he has many adjust­ments to make.
 

Alferes accept­ed into Teach­ers Col­lege!​
 
 
PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS RECEIVE A BOOST
 
Retired Teacher Pedro will begin tutor­ing our 1st to 7th graders on March 1st. With only 6 days/month of “in class­room” instruc­tion being allowed this year per stu­dent, our young­sters need a help­ing hand. Con­cen­trat­ing on read­ing, writ­ing, and arith­metic will be the first objec­tive.
 

Inter­view with new teacher, Pedro.​
 
We are blessed to receive the best, as Sen­hor Pedro has a stel­lar rep­u­ta­tion as a great teacher. THANK YOU TO OUR SAN ANTONIO DONOR who blessed us with the gift of this teacher!
 
 
BABIES, BABIES, BABIES!
 
Not all are pic­tured, but our baby for­mu­la pro­gram is expand­ing week­ly with an aver­age of 2 to 3 infants. This tiny lit­tle girl named GICA (Gee cah) was born on Jan­u­ary 21st. Her moth­er passed away from post­par­tum com­pli­ca­tions on Jan­u­ary 29th.
 

Office man­ag­er Cape­na, instructs Aunt Rosel­da on how to mix baby for­mu­la for baby Gica.
 
Gica’s Aunt Rosel­da adopt­ed her. After try­ing to feed her a local milk prod­uct, she came to us via Social Ser­vices for infant for­mu­la. 
The for­mu­la your Love Gifts pro­vide tru­ly is the sav­ing grace for these new­borns. 
 
Thank You to all of you for lov­ing God’s chil­dren in north­ern Mozam­bique. 
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 12, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 12, 2022
 
REGINALDA IS HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL!
 
THANKS TO YOUR PRAYERS, Regi­nal­da began show­ing improve­ment last Sun­day. Her fever was gone dur­ing the day on Sun­day, and only returned late after­noon. By Mon­day, she was fever free! 
 

Regi­nal­da and Fos­ter Mom very glad to be home!​
 
The Dr. want­ed to keep her until Thurs­day to be sure her infec­tion was gone. BY WEDNESDAY, she was in such good health, I was told we could take her home! REGINALDA loves the out­doors, so she was very hap­py to sit in her Fos­ter Moth­er’s lap upon arriv­ing home.
 
THANK YOU, JESUS for answer­ing our prayers so quick­ly!
 
 
TECHNICAL SCHOOL CHOOSES 2 OF OUR TEENS
 
The Graphite Mine (Twigg), opened a tech­ni­cal school just 2 miles down the road from us. Its pur­pose is to assist young men in learn­ing either mechan­i­cal or elec­tri­cal skills in a 90-day begin­ner’s course.
 

Elu­sio and Ali were cho­sen to attend the Graf­fite Mine School to learn Mechan­ics (blue) or Elec­tric­i­ty (orange).​
 
At the 2021 Christ­mas Par­ty, when the Twigg and CIS groups blessed our chil­dren with many nice foods, I was told our young grad­u­ates could reg­is­ter for the April class, as the Jan­u­ary group was full.
 

Twigg and CIS gifts to our chil­dren at Christ­mas.​
 
The School Direc­tor called Cape­na, our office man­ag­er, in late Jan­u­ary request­ing 2 young men to report imme­di­ate­ly to the school, as they had 2 slots open up.
 
ELISIO AND ALI were hop­ing to attend in April, so they jumped at the chance to get in now! The mechan­ics school wears blue uni­forms while elec­tric­i­ty wears orange.
 
We are very grate­ful for this won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty for them, as it will take them 1 step clos­er to devel­op­ing a much-need­ed job skill as the Bala­ma area con­tin­ues to grow. 
 
 
ON A PERSONAL NOTE 
 
I’m always telling you sto­ries of aban­doned infants, so here’s one for all you ani­mal lovers!
 
An abused female dog was brought to my home by Toto, my “romeo” guard dog. I could count every bone in her body, so BONES became her name. Shar­ing Toto’s food, Bones quick­ly gained weight and final­ly con­ceived with one of Toto’s sons, Rocky, who also eats occa­sion­al­ly at my house. Bones grew to trust me, but is still ter­ri­fied of any­one’s hands to this day, includ­ing mine.
 
Bones had her pup­pies well hid­den in the woods behind my house, but sad­ly, the very heavy rains caused all but 1 to per­ish. I noticed her milk had dried up, and fig­ured all the pup­pies were dead. Then Feb­ru­ary 1st, I heard the cry of a pup­py in the grass near my front porch. Fol­low­ing the sound, I found the cutest lit­tle 3‑week-old male pup­py, bad­ly in need of milk.
 

4 week old SOCKS! Future guard dog for mis­sion sta­tion.​
 
It seems that Bones had car­ried him to where she knew I would find him, hop­ing I would save him as I had saved her life.
 
I quick­ly taught him to suck milk from a syringe, and had him drink­ing from a bowl on the 3rd day. SOCKS is now 4 weeks old. (All 4 feet are marked with white “socks”.) Bones stays near­by, but is con­tent to let me raise her baby boy.
 
Toto is now 9 years old, (ancient for a Mozam­bi­can dog), so his grand­son, Socks, will be raised as my next guard dog for the mis­sion sta­tion. 
 
GOD PROVIDES ALL OUR NEEDS AS WE NEED THEM. 
For that, I am tru­ly grate­ful!
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 5, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 5, 2022
 
BABY REGINALDA HOSPITALIZED 
 
Last Wednes­day, REGINALDA, 11.5 months old, pre­sent­ed with fever and lack of appetite. Tests showed she has malar­ia and an infec­tion, ori­gin unknown. She is being treat­ed with broad spec­trum IV antibi­otics and LOTS OF PRAYER. 
 

Baby Regi­nal­da in hos­pi­tal.
 
HER LOW-GRADE FEVER is con­cern­ing all of us, as it refus­es to come down even with the strongest antibi­otics avail­able and the anti-febrile med­ica­tions.
 
YOUR PRAYERS ARE MUCH NEEDED!
 
SHE NEEDS JESUS TO ERADICATE THIS INFECTION AT IT’S ROOT, SO HER HEALTH CAN RETURN TO NORMAL. 
 
SCHOOL DAYS ARE UPON US!
 
Our Staff was kept busy this week dis­trib­ut­ing school mate­ri­als, fit­ting uni­forms made by our mas­ter seam­stress, and fit­ting school shoes for the 63 school-aged orphans liv­ing in our Bala­ma homes. 
 

1st graders deal with their new back­packs that are almost big­ger than they are! Small sizes not avail­able.
 

8‑year-old Mon­i­ca, who has an inop­er­a­ble hole in her heart is now in 3rd grade! She is amaz­ing!​
 

Bren­da and staff hand­ing out school sup­plies to high school boys.
 
For the first time, some of our stu­dents will start class­es with­out a uni­form, as the fab­ric in the prop­er school col­ors was late arriv­ing in the stores. Thank­ful­ly, the school gives a 1‑month grace peri­od to allow all chil­dren time to com­ply.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS ALLOW 100’S OF CHILDREN IN 2 COUNTIES / DISTRICTS TO OBTAIN AN EDUCATION THAT IS SO VITAL TO A BETTER FUTURE IN THE WORK FORCE.
 
MANY BLESSINGS,  
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 29, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 29, 2022
 
RUN FAST, PLAY HARD!
 
The rainy sea­son leaves us few dry days, but our chil­dren are tak­ing advan­tage of every minute. Hard rains hit on Mon­day, but by Tues­day, the play­ground was dry. It is amaz­ing watch­ing our youngest sharp­en­ing new­ly learned play skills each week. 
 

First graders hav­ing a “co-ed” soc­cer game to release all that pent up “rainy day” ener­gy.
 
From the tod­dlers to the preschool­ers, all are stay­ing hap­py and health as they “chase the balls” dur­ing play time.
 

Watch this video of our 3‑year-olds hav­ing a “ball”! —>
https://youtu.be/4CN-3rFWjxU
 
We only have 7 chil­dren in the 3- to 5‑year-old age group right now, but look out, because the 11 tod­dlers turn­ing 2 years old this year will soon be in the mix!
 

Watch as Baby Juma shows off his “danc­ing” skills learned from watch­ing oth­ers.​  —>  https://youtu.be/8iy5IagnFb8
 

Ade­laide and Chebany hav­ing a sand­box chat!​
 

Cape­na hav­ing some fun time with our tod­dlers at house #6, the Zebra house.​
 
HOUSE BURNS, LEAVING 2 ORPHANS WITH THE CLOTHES ON THEIR BACKS.
 
These 2 young­sters, ages 11, and 9, were part of a Child Head­ed House­hold run inde­pen­dent­ly of our help by their 18-year-old broth­er. Over the Christ­mas hol­i­days, their mud hut caught fire, leav­ing them home­less. Social Ser­vices request­ed our assis­tance as the chil­dren were left with noth­ing.
 

Two orphans from Child Head­ed House­hold now able to live with their aunt after their hut burned to the ground.
 
The 18-year-old teen found a place to live, but the 11-year-old boy, and his 9‑year-old sis­ter were not so for­tu­nate. THANKFULLY,  a “fam­i­ly search” locat­ed an Aunt who agreed to share her mud hut with them, but she had lit­tle food to spare.
 
THANKS TO YOUR LOVE GIFTS, our staff was able to assist them with emer­gency food and cloth­ing, and placed the 3 of them in our Thurs­day food give-out.
 
THE HANDS OF JESUS REACH THE “LOST AND DESTITUTE” BECAUSE YOU CARE.
 
THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US AT ORPHANS UNLIMITED. 
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 22, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 22, 2022
 
PLAY HARD WHEN THE SUN SHINES!
 
Our chil­dren are doing exact­ly that in these pho­tos and videos. 
 

Dai­ly Praise and Wor­ship is a favorite with all our children​.
 

Preschool­ers show­ing off with their ener­getic ren­di­tion of “God Is So Good”, Deus e tam­bom in this video. –>   https://youtu.be/Coo8xS0q5lE
 
We had an all-night rain storm in Bala­ma on Mon­day that had us stand­ing in water.  But sandy loam soil dries quick­ly, sig­nal­ing “PLAYTIME” for all our chil­dren who have an abun­dance of ener­gy after being cooped up for a day.
 
School starts at the end of the month, so in their minds, there is no time to waste!
 

San­dra, 1st grad­er, shows off her skills at the Moz ver­sion of “Jacks” in this video —> https://youtu.be/eh44hbeSk64
 
 

Preschool­ers share the swings as soon as the rains are gone. Click on the pho­to or this link to see Lit­tle San­tos, on left, as he push­es his school­mate for a high­er swing.  https://youtu.be/gc9fEJ8D2‑E
 

Pri­ma­ry school­ers have a quick game of soc­cer.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS KEEP THESE CHILDREN HEALTHY AND HAPPY. THANK YOU FOR GIVING TO THE LORD’S WORK AT OUR MISSION STATION. 
 
Bless­ings,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 15, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 15, 2022
 
ELECTRICITY COMING OUR WAY
 
Elec­tric hook-ups are sched­uled for Feb­ru­ary 2022 for any home that is prop­er­ly wired. Two elec­tri­cians have worked long hours since Jan­u­ary 3rd to wire all 7 of our orphan homes. House #7 is due to be com­plet­ed today, mean­ing that we are by ready when the juice is hooked up.
 

Elec­tri­cians wiring House #7, the Leop­ard House.
 
It’s an excit­ing mile­stone for all our staff, as night­time call-outs for sick chil­dren will be a bit eas­i­er with lights in their rooms.
 
TWO OF OUR YOUNGEST, NOW ON THEIR FEET!
 
Chebany began to take shaky steps this week, and Baby Gil­da makes her debut by stand­ing inde­pen­dent­ly. How time flies as our “baby hous­es” are becom­ing Tod­dler Homes.
 

Gil­da in mid­dle stand­ing inde­pen­dent­ly for first time. Adeli­na, 3, on left, with Maez­in­ha, almost 2, on right. See Chebany learn­ing to walk at this YouTube link. —> https://youtu.be/tn_5A0SZI5M
 
Rains knocked out most of our out­door games for the old­er chil­dren this week, but that’s the rainy sea­son way.
 

Fos­ter Moth­er Cecelia enter­tains our youngest while their Fos­ter Moth­ers pre­pare lunch and wash clothes.
 
Note: Exam results for our 2 young men who test­ed will not be out till next week. Helder, our Teacher Grad­u­ate will do his first job inter­view next week. Please keep him in your prayers, as he is a bit ner­vous. 
 
With many “Duck Days” ahead through Feb­ru­ary, we thank you for your prayers that all will stay healthy. (A duck day is a rainy day, as only the ducks are hap­py!)
 
MANY BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 8, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 8, 2022
 
CHEBANY STANDS INDEPENDENTLY!
 
Anoth­er mile­stone for baby Chebany, as he final­ly grasped how to bal­ance. After tak­ing this pho­to, I gen­tly took his hands and leaned him for­ward to nudge him into tak­ing 2 steps before he sat down.
 

Chebany stands inde­pen­dent­ly for the first time.
 
We are very hap­py for this lit­tle boy, who had a very rough start in life. His moth­er passed away when he was 11 days old, leav­ing a very sick Chebany in the care of an unlov­ing father and uncle.
Chebany was admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal for a seri­ous res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion, where his father aban­doned him 1 day lat­er, and has­n’t been seen since.
 
With lov­ing care, lots of med­ical help, and prop­er nutri­tion, this frag­ile, mal­nour­ished infant now weighs 8.4 kg/18.5 lbs. at 13 months of age.         
 
Every­one calls him Ale­gria (JOY), as he is smil­ing or laugh­ing most of the time.
 
WE PRAISE GOD FOR EVERY MILESTONE HE MAKES, AS HE HAS BEATEN THE ODDS AGAINST HIM THANKS TO JESUS’ HEALING POWER.
 
CLEAN WATER = LIFE
 
Our water well repair team has been super busy through­out Decem­ber. Hand pump water wells are PUMPED 24 HOURS A DAY from Octo­ber until the rainy sea­son begins, as all hand dug buck­et wells dry up. Exces­sive use leads to break­downs, and no oth­er water sources are avail­able to 1,000’s of peo­ple.
 

Pulling out the ‘guts’ of a bro­ken water well as 2 inner tubes had cracked.
 

Repair­ing a bro­ken top tube in a well does­n’t require pulling out all the tubes.
 
Our team repairs hand pump water wells each year in both Bala­ma and Melu­co coun­ties which serves the vil­lage orphans that your love gifts sup­port.
 
From Decem­ber 27th to the 30th our team repaired 5 high use water wells in Melu­co Coun­ty. These wells are the sole source of water for more than 10,000 peo­ple.
 

Put it all back togeth­er and the reward is clean water for the vil­lage.
 
These are YOUR LOVE GIFTS AT WORK, for the lack of clean water brings dis­ease and death, leav­ing behind more orphans.
 
THANK YOU FOR SAVING LIVES BY SUPPORTING THIS ESSENTIAL PROJECT. 
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 1, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 1, 2022
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
 
ALL OUR SCHOOL CHILDREN PASSED INTO THE NEXT GRADE! 
 
Those results were announced Mon­day, mak­ing every­one very hap­py! With only 2 days of school per week and LOTS OF HOMEWORK for each child, this is tru­ly amaz­ing.  
 
SANDBOX FUN!
 
Manel and a crew of 6 men took our 6‑ton-truck and loaded it with fresh sand TWICE in order to fill all 6 of our huge sand box­es where our younger kids prac­ti­cal­ly live dur­ing day­time hours. Mama Bren­da, as the chil­dren call me, fol­lowed with a give-out of sand box trucks, front-end load­ers, and back­hoes for the boys.
The girls received kitchen tea sets with repli­cas of food, plates, and cook­ing pans. The pho­tos show the smil­ing faces!
 

Isaura enjoys a sip of “tea” from her new tea set.
 

Our 3 ami­gos, plus Dixon (far right) enjoy the new sand and dump truck toys.
 

The balls were a BIG HIT with our tod­dlers. 
video —> https://youtu.be/utrMOnUZ3Hw
 

Anselmi­na and Chebane get super excit­ed over their new ball while Sal­vador (being held by Fos­ter Moth­er) isn’t too sure of this new “thing”.  
video —>  https://youtu.be/PbPKm4M8-3o
 
We are grate­ful to the Lord Jesus, and all His help­ing hands (YOU) for mak­ing our whole year cheery and bright.
 
OUR STAFF PRAY FOR ALL OF YOU!
 
MAY 2022 BE A GREAT YEAR FOR ALL OF US, AS EACH DAY BRINGS US CLOSER TO OUR LORD’S RETURN. 
 
MANY BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 24, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 24, 2021
 
A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!
 

From our fam­i­ly to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
 
OUR CHILDREN TRULY ENJOYED THE HOLIDAY CHICKENS YOU PROVIDED!
 
The pho­tos of the Christ­mas Par­ty tell only some of the sto­ry. Singing and even joy­ful danc­ing and jump­ing in place were how our exu­ber­ant chil­dren showed their love for Jesus as the par­ty began. The cooks had a bit of a chal­lenge debon­ing 60 lbs/ 30 kgs of cooked chick­en for the main course, but thank­ful­ly they fig­ured it out, and it was very tasty. Not a speck of food was left after feed­ing 142 chil­dren and Fos­ter Moms!
 

Our youngest enjoy­ing their 1st Christ­mas par­ty.
 

Lin­ing up for Christ­mas treats​.
 
TOYS FOR TOTS, AND A SHOPPING FOR THE TEENAGERS!
 
Your love gifts bought large cars for the young boys, stuffed dolls for the lit­tle girls, and much more. Balls, tea sets, and sand haul­ing front end load­ers will be giv­en out next week after all sand­box­es get fresh loads of sand for the rainy sea­son.
 

Your love gifts pro­vid­ed toys for the under-10-year-olds, and $8 in cash for the old­er chil­dren so they could go shop­ping! Smiles all around!
 

Tod­dler Julio wants the red car we gave Chebany. Typ­i­cal Christ­mas morn­ing ‘tus­sles over toys’ with our lit­tle ones.
 
I like to spread out the fun and can­dy between Christ­mas and New Years, giv­ing a lit­tle at a time.
 
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND GENEROUS LOVE GIFTS DURING 2021. 
 
WE ARE TRULY HONORED TO BE GOD’S HANDS. SAVING THESE INNOCENT LIVES IS HARD WORK, BUT “IT TAKES A VILLAGE”.
 
TOGETHER WE ARE SAVE LIVES, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY. 
 
GOD’S BLESSINGS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF