| FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“ DATE: AUGUST 6, 2022 NEGLECTED BABY ANCHA JOINS THE FAMILY  Baby Ancha when 1st admitted to milk program in mid April Ancha’s mother ran out of breast milk when Baby Ancha (born March 6) was 5 weeks old. Social Services requested that we admit her to our Infant Formula Program, which we did in mid-April. Baby Ancha only comes in every 2 weeks due to living in a village 17 miles from Balama. She concerned us with her slow weight gain as she weighed only 4.1kg/9 lbs. at her weigh-in two weeks ago. This week (at 5 months old) she weighed 3.6 kgs/7.9 lbs, which is a loss of .5 kg/1.1 lbs, so it was time for intense action. Our staff immediately called me to better access the situation. The now anemic infant had a fever and was very, very weak. I rushed her to the Balama hospital where she was admitted immediately as her Rapid Malaria Test turned POSITIVE within seconds. She was so dehydrated that fluids had to be given before further lab testing could be done. Lab tests later that day revealed that Ancha needed blood (Hgb only 6.6, normal is 12), had serious diarrhea, and a respiratory infection as well. Social services investigated, and a trip to the family revealed the mother has mental problems. My staff and I agreed to take over the care of the infant, and the mother was removed from parental care due to serious neglect and inability to properly care for an infant. PLEASE PRAY FOR ANCHA AS SHE IS IN A FRAGILE STATE, BUT SLIGHTLY STRONGER AFTER HER EMERGENCY TRANSFUSION. This little girl is truly a survivor with lots of fight. Just try to remove her bottle before she is full, and she instantly lets you know that was NOT a good move! I’ll keep you informed as to how she progresses. 7TH OF APRIL GROUP LOOKING STRONGER  9 Orphans show off the food and nice clothes your Love Gifts provide The nine orphans living with 3 Aunts in a village called 7th of April are all healthy and going to school THANKS TO YOUR HELP! The 3 feed sacks contain 2 weeks of corn flour and beans, plus salt, and the children are holding the bars of soap needed to keep their new clothes nice and clean. Your love gifts also provide them with school materials so the older children can go to school. Their village sits at the foot of a mountain about 1 hour drive from Balama by motorbike. Two of our Bush Bikers for Christ leaders take these gifts to them every 2 weeks on their motorbikes as the road is a bit rough on pick-ups. THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING FOOD, CLOTHING, AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR THESE CHILDREN. BUSH BIKERS FOR CHRIST UPDATE Our Office Administrator, Capena, and I met with government officials on Tuesday of this week to ask permission for our BBC Teams to return to the villages with the BAWANA Program of games and Bible Stories. At the moment we are waiting to meet with other officials as this requires 3 different agencies to give their permission. I will keep you informed as those meetings are delayed due to 1 official being in meetings in the capital city, Pemba. PATIENCE is the name of the game. PRAY FOR FAVOR AS WE CONTINUE THIS JOURNEY THIS COMING WEEK. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF |
Monthly Archives: August 2022
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 30, 2022
| FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“ DATE: JULY 30, 2022 WHAT CAME IN NOW GOES OUT Our barns are FULL!!!  308 TONS OF CORN!  108 TONS OF BEANS!  Last but not least. 90 TONS OF RICE IN THE HULL! The food has already started going out to those orphans and widows in the Balama area as they have only small farms which cannot sustain them for over a month. Our staff distributes food each Wednesday to our Children’s Homes at our mission, and each Thursday to the widows and orphans living near us. AGAIN THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO TO MAKE OUR “JOSEPH PROJECT” possible. In the Bible, God told Joseph to store up food for the next 7 “good years”, because a famine was coming that would last another 7 years. Each year we store up for the “time of hunger” that we know is coming from October to December. This is the peak of the dry season when nothing will grow, and many widows run out of even their starvation food (casava root). The Joseph Project provides those widows and orphans with life sustaining food so they won’t starve before the rains begin in late December and food can be grown again. LISTENING TO THE LORD is what makes our program such a big help to all. But it takes YOU listening to the LORD also, for this program “takes all of us” to make it a huge success. THANK YOU LORD FOR LISTENING EARS! GOD’S ANGELS PROTECT EVA FROM NEAR DEATH DISASTER  Sweet Eva ® and her Grandmother Elisa. Eva is happy to be almost healed after being hit by a bad driver on a motorcycle. Eva was one of the first orphans we began to help in 2002 when I first started the Joseph Program. Her Grandmother Elisa had to raise Eva after her mother died of dysentery while visiting from another area. Eva was born with Cerebral Palsy, but is remarkable in that she talks, sings, walks, runs, jumps, and helps her Grandmother with household chores. Eva was doing one of those “chores” when a motorcyclist using bad judgement hit her as she returned from the local market with tomatoes for their evening meal. Eva was walking where she was supposed to be on the shoulder of the road, when a motorcyclist passed on the WRONG SIDE of the road, crossing the yellow stripe, and striking her as she left the market. FIFTEEN STITCHES LATER ON THE BACK OF HER HEAD, HER LEFT ARM, AND LEG, PLUS A HUGE SKIN ABRASION ON HER BACK where she slid on the tar road, Eva was released from the Emergency Room and sent home. I change her dressings daily to protect her stitches and treat her “road burn”. Most people hit by a speeding motorbike are not so fortunate as our EVA, for many are killed upon impact. THANK YOU JESUS FOR GUARDIAN ANGELS AROUND OUR CHILDREN! REMOTE VILLAGE EAGER TO KNOW JESUS!  Our Pastoral Team of 14 Pastors and 2 assistants came to our monthly meeting yesterday with some fabulous stories of villagers eager to know JESUS! Pastor Gito requested help in a new area he was serving called “Mumbe” (Mum-bee) where the adults and children have requested he tell them all about Jesus. All the Pastors reported a steady influx of new people into their churches. SALVATIONS IN JULY: ADULTS-58, TEENAGERS-75, CHILDREN-420! The children are begging for our Bush Bikers for Christ (BBC) to come have “Sunday School” with them. PRAY, for we hope to get permission to restart this fantastic evangelistic outreach again in August. We hope to talk with government officials this coming week to get their decision on this. Before the Covid outbreak which shut down this program, our teams were reaching over 21,000 children in many villages EACH WEEK with the love of JESUS! WITH GOD, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, so please join with us in asking God to reopen this door. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF |
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 23, 2022
| FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“ DATE: JULY 23, 2022 RICE PORRIDGE ANYONE? With 90 TONS now filling 2 barns, our kids can have rice anytime they want it. We buy our rice in the hull, straight from the field, as weevils don’t mess with it. God’s shell keeps those tasty little kernels nice and safe until we desire to dehull it for eating. Our group of widows living in our homes as well as some of the women from our church dehull rice BY HAND for the children once each month, giving them the freshest, vitamin rich rice available anywhere. Just ask any visitor who has eaten it how tasty and filling it is!  Bringing in 90 tons of rice took three days as we could only handle 600 sacks a day Note that 90 TONS is twice what we usually buy, but we decided this was best for 2 reasons. 1. Our main rice growers lacked rain at the proper time this year, leaving them with NO harvest. THANKFULLY, the small farmers in other areas of this county were able to bring in a few sacks each to fill our need. FYI: Rice in the hull will keep up to 2 years if kept dry. 2. With uncertain weather patterns for 2023’s rainy season, this could easily affect corn growers in 2023 as well. Thus, best to have a food reserve we can count on. BEE HOME DISCOVERED Rice stacking interrupted until we chased off a large honeybee family. Unknown to all of us, a family of bees built a four-bedroom home in the 4X4 building beams in the second rice warehouse.  4 Bedroom home of local honey bees OUR THANKS TO OUR BUSINESS CONTRIBUTOR WHO MADE RICE BUYING POSSIBLE. YOUR LOVE GIFT WILL FEED HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN OVER THE NEXT YEAR. WINTER COLD CONTINUES BUT… Nothing seems to stomp out the malaria mosquito! Malaria mosquitos are less active during this cold time but are never stopped completely. In cold weather we know some of the children will suffer Upper Respiratory Infections (colds, sinus infection), but this winter has been exceptionally tough on all of us.  Edward, 9 years old has malaria and Baby Franciano has a sinus infection but still smiling I hear many of our donors are laughing because our “winter” means night temperatures of 50F/13C, but our children are use to 10 months of VERY HOT weather. A 40-degree F/25C DROP IN TEMPERATURE is super cold to them, especially because many only have light cotton clothing. THANKS TO YOUR GENEROUS LOVE GIFTS, we can afford the cold weather clothing to protect them, as well as the medicines that help our children recover quickly when they do get sick. UGLY BUT VERY HELPFUL IGUANAS are not known for their beauty, but they sure love eggs and things that slither along the ground. This curious critter keeps our snake population to a minimum as it scours our woods for tasty morsels of snake eggs, or newly hatched snakes. This guy has been around for several years and makes an appearance out of his intense curiosity every now and then. Not violent, but that tail can be lethal, so that even our guard dogs know to “bark, but don’t approach”.  Our guard lizard (3 foot iguana) decided to check out my guard dog After taking the photo, I told him it was time to “disappear “again, and he casually walked back to the woods as I walked a few feet behind him to make sure he got there uninterrupted by my guards. The locals fear anything that gets that big, but I am doing my best to educate all our kids and staff on how beneficial even ugly creatures can be. WHAT CAME IN, MUST GO OUT With food buying over, it is time to visit villages and update our orphan lists in August. Due to the late harvest of corn, last year’s orphan group has food that they raised themselves. Our team will begin distributing food in September. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF |
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 16, 2022
| FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“ DATE: JULY 16, 2022 CORN BARN IS FULL TO THE BRIM! All 5,200 sacks (312 TONS) were weighed and stacked in our corn barn over 7 days by our VERY POWERFUL 106-man team.  Our weighing station at sunrise. 600 sacks weighing 132 lbs/60 kgs went over that scale each day for 7 working days Starting daily in the dark using our pick up lights at 4:30 a.m., we usually finished our 600-sack daily quota by 11 a.m. and were ready to hit the showers. Corn is very dusty, and the strong sunrise winds that hit daily picked up the loose dirt to add to the dustiness.  Cowboy Jamie has faithfully hand sewn sacks for us since we began buying in 2005  The tall stong men push the last of the “ladder” goes upon the 5200 sacks  And the last sack goes up! HALLELUJAH!!! NEXT WEEK we move on to buying 90 tons of local RICE straight from the fields. The 90 sacks of PEANUTS IN THE SHELL weighing 40Kg/88lbs PER SACK will also be received, wrapping up our 2022 food buying. HALLELUJAH! WE ARE MOST GRATEFUL TO OUR FOOD DONORS AND OUR STAFF FOR MAKING THIS ALL POSSIBLE. EVEN WITH ALL THE WORK THERE IS STILL TIME FOR WEEKEND FUN  Jess and I had fun distributing balloons to the children and squeaky tous for our toddlers during our weekend break from corn buying JESS RETURNS TO SOUTH AFRICA  Jessica Christie with her beautiful smile and trusty sidekick, her camera Jess, a true shutter bug, did her best to capture every aspect of our program during the 14 days she stayed at our base. She is dearly loved by our children, as she brought frisbees and jump ropes for the children to play with. She was a super blessing to me by lightening my work load around the mission station. Jess has returned to her home to begin the tedious editing process of all the footage she took. Our goal is to come up with informative videos and photos for Social Media and our website. I will let you know when she begins posting, but please be patient as it is not a simple process and will take some time. TOGETHER WE ARE SAVING LIVES AND GIVING VULNERABLE CHILDREN A CHANCE AT A FUTURE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVE GIFTS THAT MAKE ALL THIS POSSIBLE. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF |
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 9, 2022
| FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“ DATE: JULY 9, 2022 CORN, CORN, AND MORE CORN! The majority of our staff’s whole week has centered around the corn buying with the photos pretty much telling the story. The remainder of the corn will be weighed and stored this coming week, completing this monumental task, so we can move on to buying rice. With more and more baby orphans showing up here weekly, our plan to fill the barns to capacity is more important than ever.  Corn Mountain will feed over 1,500 Orphans and Widows for next 12 months Yesterday we thought our work was done when an anemic, orphaned, 7‑month-old baby girl was brought to us by the grandmother at 1pm. We gave them baby formula and Hypo baby food, teaching them how to properly feed this little one. They will now be attended each week at our Balama program, along with the 32 other orphaned infants receiving weekly assistance. (no photo to respect family wishes).  2,500 sacks of corn went through our scale this week.  78 TONS stacked for distribution from August to November. YOUR LOVE GIFTS ARE INVALUABLE AS LIFE IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THESE INNOCENT LITTLE ONES TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON INFANT FORMULA THAT HAS RISEN FROM $5 TO $6/CAN. BITTER COLD SWEEPS BALAMA AREA With temperatures down in the low 50’s°F/15°C at dawn, and high winds constantly picking up and throwing dirt across people’s yards, few venture outside until the sun comes out to warm the air. The normal temps are always in the 90’s°F/33°C for 10 months of the year, so this big drop in temperature makes it very cold for all of us. THE WARM SWEAT SUITS YOUR LOVE GIFTS provided to our children are keeping them warm and healthy. THANK YOU FOR THIS PRECIOUS GIFT!  Our little ones bundled up against the cold. Now back to the barns on Monday to finish the corn. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS FOR OUR SAFETY. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF |