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Monthly Archives: June 2022

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 25, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 25, 2022
 
INFANT ELSA JOINS OUR FAMILY
 
Elsa was admit­ted to our baby for­mu­la pro­gram short­ly after her birth on April 9th, as her moth­er died of post­par­tum prob­lems. She pre­sent­ed with malar­ia a month ago and a blood­less low­er eye lid, which told me she was very, very ane­mic.
 

Baby Elsa joins our family​.
 
Her grand­moth­er agreed to admit her to the hos­pi­tal if we would orga­nize the blood she need­ed. Elsa received that blood, and was gain­ing weight when released from the hos­pi­tal last week. This week was the first we saw Elsa and her grand­moth­er since her hos­pi­tal release. Sad­ly, Elsa had lost 200 grams which is a crit­i­cal weight loss for a 3.5 month old who only weighs 3.1kg/6.8 lbs.!
 
Her grand­moth­er just wasn’t capa­ble of car­ing for such a frag­ile infant. Thank­ful­ly, the fam­i­ly agreed yes­ter­day to release Elsa into our care which Social Ser­vices approved. 
 
Please pray for Elsa as this lit­tle one at 3.5 months is just 300 grams above her birth weight!
 
 
108 TONS OF BEANS IN THE BARN!
 
A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR BEAN DONOR for mak­ing this pos­si­ble! If it wasn’t for spe­cial busi­ness­men who love the Lord, our food pro­gram would not be pos­si­ble for the 1,500 orphans and the 700 wid­ows who care for them. 
 
Our well expe­ri­enced, hand-picked team of 112 men moved 600 sacks per day, each weigh­ing 132 lbs./60kg, to com­plete the stor­age task in 3 days. It was amaz­ing to watch, as they moved like a well-oiled machine!
 

108 TONS OF BEANS in the barn! The team is busy load­ing the 7‑ton-truck for Meluco​.
 
 
MELUCO HERE WE COME!
 
On Thurs­day at 5 a.m., a small team of our best men weighed and processed the 28 sacks of the very expen­sive Mon­te­ga (Pin­to) bean, and put it into the bean barn. 
 

5 a.m. devo­tions, then the work begins as the day is dawn­ing. Our 2 pick­ups and flash­lights give us the light we need​
 
Once done, these same men loaded up the pro­cess­ing chute onto our 7 ton truck which was secured by ropes as well as 40 sacks of the “Koote” bean (black eyed pea). Meluco’s ter­rain only pro­duces a small amount of corn and only a few beans. There­fore, the Melu­co orphans depend on the Bala­ma team to trans­port beans to them.
 

Load­ing the sack­ing chute onto our 7 ton truck​.
 
Back at the mis­sions office, the final items were loaded onto the truck so that our 3‑man-team could leave for Melu­co at 4 a.m. on Fri­day, June 24th. They arrived safe­ly and today found them pro­cess­ing the 500 sacks of corn pur­chased in remote Melu­co vil­lages.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS ARE SAVING MANY LIVES! 
 
THANK YOU FOR BEING GOD’S HELPING HANDS IN MOZAMBIQUE.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA FAMILY

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 18, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 18, 2022
 
FINALLY! BRINGING IN THE BEANS!
 
Bet­ter late than nev­er, as the 108 TONS of beans are final­ly dry and ready for stor­age! With a team of 43 men, we had 1,200 sacks (72 TONS), in the barn over the last 2 days. 
 

Cape­na, Office Man­ag­er, weighs 3 sacks of beans at a time while Car­l­i­tos Jorge holds the 🔦 torch.​
 
Mov­ing 600 sacks weigh­ing 132 lbs./60kg EACH, is no easy task, but these super strong men made it look easy. We begin prepar­ing these beans for long term stor­age on Mon­day, June 20th, and will receive the final 600 sacks on Tues­day.  So no need to count sheep next week, we will be count­ing beans in our sleep!
 

Ear­ly bird start at 5a.m. on 2nd day of bean buy­ing. Two of our pick-ups pro­vide lights along with 3 🔦 torch­es.​
 
Keep us cov­ered in prayer, for if all goes as planned, we will move ALL 108 TONS into our bean barn by Wednes­day noon.
 

1st day’s beans in the barn. 600 sacks total.
 
 
A BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF OUR MISSION STATION
 
The VP of Orphans Unlim­it­ed blessed me this week with a satel­lite pho­to from Google Earth of our Bala­ma mis­sion sta­tion. I decid­ed to share it with you, so you can see where we live with­out hav­ing to fly over here.
 
The BIG GREEN SQUARE in the low­er half of this pho­to is our 40 acre/16 hec­tor mis­sion sta­tion. The town built around us many years after we had pur­chased this land in 2002. The children’s homes are NOT on our mis­sion prop­er­ty as the chil­dren live in the vil­lage area just out­side our fence.
 

Satel­lite pho­to of our 40 acres/16 hectare mis­sion sta­tion in Bala­ma.
 
THE FAR LEFT UPPER CORNER of this GREEN SQUARE shows the food ware­hous­es, which we are work­ing in right now to fill with corn, beans, and rice by the end of July.
 
Fol­low the dirt road down to the mid­dle of our mis­sion prop­er­ty and the FIRST LONG TIN ROOF in the trees is our office and my home (all under 1 roof).  The oth­er build­ings are guest homes, and the cov­ered areas where our trucks are parked.  
 
THE FAR RIGHT UPPER CORNER (sandy area) is our soc­cer field, with the All Pur­pose Food Distribution/Education/Playground Cen­ter sit­ting just north of the soc­cer field.
 
If you turn LEFT at the Food Cen­ter, the dirt road takes you to the LONG BUILDING in the mid­dle of the prop­er­ty.  That is our church build­ing.
 
I hope this satel­lite tour helps you to under­stand bet­ter where every place is that I speak about in my blogs.
 
KEEP THOSE PRAYERS COMING! IT’S LOTS OF WORK TO BRING IN 500 TONS OF FOOD BY END OF JULY!
 
BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 11, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 11, 2022
 
PRE-TEENS COME FOR A VISIT
 
Nation­al Children’s Month in Mozam­bique helps to “open the eyes” of the local young peo­ple to the impor­tant pro­grams in their coun­ty. Hav­ing these young­sters vis­it our facil­i­ty was a first for us, and the chil­dren were tru­ly sur­prised to see such nice homes and lov­ing fos­ter par­ents.
 

17 chil­dren from Bala­ma received a tour of 2 of our homes plus the play­ground.  They were tru­ly amazed at our program​.
 
Their one-hour vis­it includ­ed our “Vic­to­ry Home”, the teenage boy’s dorm, and our play­ground/all-pur­pose teach­ing facil­i­ty. All but one of the chil­dren didn’t know such a facil­i­ty exist­ed in Bala­ma. I found that tru­ly amaz­ing!
 
 
MOTHERS CONTINUE TO FLOW IN FOR FORMULA 
 
Our Baby For­mu­la Assis­tant Pro­gram most­ly serves Grand­moth­ers hav­ing to raise orphaned Grand­ba­bies, but we do get the occa­sion­al moth­er who doesn’t pro­duce breast milk after birth.
Why? Poor nutri­tion most­ly accounts for their lack of breast milk, mak­ing it essen­tial to place the infant on a baby bot­tle.   
 

Aban­doned moth­er and Uncle are shown by Anna how to mix for­mu­la for 1.3kg/2.5 lb. Infant​.
 

I was amazed this 1.3 kg/2.5 lb. Infant could bot­tle feed. Super tiny lit­tle girl​.
 
Baby girl, Augus­ta, was born weigh­ing only 1.3 kg/2.5 lbs., but despite her tiny size, she man­aged to grasp bot­tle-feed­ing imme­di­ate­ly. THAT was a relief! This lit­tle girl needs all our prayers, for she is a high-risk infant due to her size, and the cold tem­per­a­tures that exist here at this time.
 
 
HAND POUNDING PRODUCES NUTRITIOUS RICE
 
In our area, Hand Hulling the local­ly grown rice is the best way to pre­serve the many nutri­ents God placed in those tiny ker­nels. Once a month, we have a “Hulling Par­ty” where all the local wid­ows from our church come togeth­er for 5–6 hours to use one of their best skills.
 

Remov­ing the rice hulls by hand leaves all its good­ness intact for our children​.  See video here —>  https://youtu.be/TOqgc-JLmGw
 
It’s a great social time, as well as pro­vides them a way to earn some pock­et mon­ey. The rice stays untouched by the heat of hulling machines, and thus pro­vides more nutri­tion for our chil­dren. I call that a “WIN/WIN” sit­u­a­tion for all.
 
 
SALVATION REPORT FOR MAY, 2022
 
Our 15 Dis­trict-Wide Vil­lage Pas­tors met on May 31st to give me their sal­va­tion reports.
 
CHILDREN: 286
TEENAGERS: 48
ADULTS: 58
 
GOD IS MOVING STRONGLY AMONG THE YOUTH OF BALAMA DISTRICT! THE WORD SAYS: Raise up a child in the way they should go, and they will not depart from it. The “good ground” (youth) is yield­ing a large har­vest. 
 
Please keep these “ten­der hearts” in your prayers as our lead­ers show them the Jesus Way to live their lives.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG JUNE 4, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 4, 2022
 
NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY FEAST A SUCCESS
 
June 1st is Nation­al Children’s Day in Mozam­bique. The 1st to 7th graders are giv­en a hol­i­day as it is a day of fun and feast­ing for the younger chil­dren. With 28 fat chick­ens, 220 lbs/100kg of rice, 33 lbs/15 kgs of Mon­te­ga beans, and all the “fix­ings”, these kids had a won­der­ful par­ty.
 

Always fun watch­ing our lit­tlest ones tack­le those chick­en pieces.
 

Baby Fati­ma (pink hoody) thor­ough­ly enjoyed the feast!​
 

From the youngest to the old­est, every­one feast­ed and enjoyed the fel­low­ship!​
 
Our Chil­dren’s Day Cel­e­bra­tion begins by singing God is so Good. 
See the video at this link—>  https://youtu.be/klCmxzGlQmA
 

Baby Fran­ciano cel­e­brates his first Chil­dren’s Day cel­e­bra­tion.​
 
It’s a bit cool, as it is our “cold sea­son” in Mozam­bique with chilly tem­per­a­tures mak­ing a sweat­shirt nec­es­sary, espe­cial­ly for the younger ones. Thanks to your gen­eros­i­ty, a 2nd set of warm clothes has now been pro­vid­ed to each child so that the Fos­ter Moth­ers can “wash one, while the chil­dren wear one”.  
 
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS WONDERFUL PARTY A HUGE SUCCESS!
 
 
BABY REGINALDA NEEDS OUR PRAYERS
 
“Reg­gie”, as we call her, was born with frag­ile bones. Her left femur broke 4 weeks ago but, even with treat­ment, it has healed bent to the left.
 
MAF (Mis­sions Avi­a­tion Fel­low­ship) very gen­er­ous­ly offered to fly her to see an ortho­pe­dic sur­geon in Nam­pu­la, 7 hours south of Bala­ma. Going by road was out of the ques­tion with such frag­ile bones as this child has.
 

Baby Reg­gie takes a plane ride with Mis­sions Avi­a­tion Fel­low­ship. She is the only orphan in our fam­i­ly to fly. Fos­ter Moth­er Angeli­na thought it was pret­ty great to make a 7‑hour-dri­ve in 45 min­utes with the plane.
 
This sur­geon felt that with her being only 15 months old, we should wait before try­ing to cor­rect the prob­lem. With great dis­ap­point­ment, Reg­gie was flown back 2 days lat­er, with instruc­tions to be extreme­ly care­ful when lift­ing her. She is on the best min­er­al sup­ple­ments avail­able to help increase her bone strength.
 
WE NEED A JESUS MIRACLE, and ask that you join with us in pray­ing for her left femur to straight­en out, AND for the strength­en­ing of all her bones. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD! THANK YOU and I will keep you post­ed on her progress.
 
 
JUNE FOOD BUYING DELAYED UNTIL THE 20TH.
 
With cold tem­per­a­tures (55°F/15°C night­ly and 72°F/23°C dai­ly) and grey cloudy skies, there has been lit­tle sun to dry the beans prop­er­ly. Many may laugh, but for peo­ple use to very HOT tem­per­a­tures, and only thin cot­ton cloth­ing, this is VERY COLD. That’s why your LOVE GIFTS are so val­ued, for it allows us to buy the need­ed cloth­ing to keep our kids warm and healthy.  
 
Hav­ing to patient­ly wait for the beans to dry has all of us a bit frus­trat­ed. WE NEED STRONG SUNSHINE, so that is also a prayer request. I’ll keep you post­ed on how it goes over the next 2 weeks. 
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF