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Monthly Archives: December 2023

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 30, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 30, 2023
 
TWAS THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS, 
AND ALL THROUGH THE MISSION
SAT CHILDREN WITH BIG SMILES ON THEIR FACES!
FOR FRIENDS HAD BROUGHT A FANCY MEAL WITH A HUGE CAKE AS WELL!
AFTER CHOWING DOWN ON SCRUMPIOUS CAKE,
EVERY LITTLE HAND HELD A BIG WHITE BALLOON,
MUCH TO THEIR HAPPY DELIGHT!
 

Bal­loon fun!
https://youtube.com/shorts/V27vRrIES5I
 
ALL THE CHILDREN WERE SMILING AND WAVING AS OUR FRIENDS DEPARTED,
FOR THEIR LITTLE BELLIES WERE FULL OF CHICKEN AND GOAT MEAT AS WELL!
IT WAS A WONDERFUL SURPRISE FOR THE CHILDREN, AS NONE EXPECTED SUCH A FANCY GIFT!
THANK YOU TO THE “CIS” COMPANY OF BALAMA, FOR SUCH A GREAT CHRISTMAS EVE PARTY FOR THE CHILDREN!
 
I knew part of what was com­ing, but those who orga­nized the par­ty went above and beyond what I expect­ed, mak­ing it extra spe­cial for the chil­dren. Our chil­dren had nev­er had cake of any kind before, and this huge 4 inch/10 cm tall, dou­ble lay­er, cream filled cake served over 80 peo­ple! 
 

The BIG CAKE served over 80 peo­ple!
 
Topped off with Pineap­ple juice in indi­vid­ual sip­py cups, the chil­dren were over­whelmed to say the least. They sang a song of thanks to Cel­so, the CIS leader who worked hard to make it hap­pen.
 

Our chil­dren with Cel­so on the far right
 
PRESENTS FOR ALL!
 
Our under 3‑year-olds have nev­er expe­ri­enced the giv­ing of presents, so it was a joy to orga­nize an age-appro­pri­ate gift for each child. Our 29 under 3‑year-olds react­ed in shock as the Children’s Direc­tors Anna and Fati­ma assist­ed me in giv­ing them their toys. Hand­made dolls, lit­tle cars, and squeaky baby ani­mal toys were giv­en to the under 3‑year-olds. 
 

11-month-old Orlen­cia loves her new toys!
 
The old­est twin, 2‑year-old Cre­cen­cia, was the only lit­tle girl to refuse her doll. She want­ed a CAR like her broth­er! So, I drove back to the toy box in the office and got her one! She was all smiles after that!
 

Cre­cen­cia with the car of her dreams!
 
The 1st to 3rd grade school-age chil­dren received Hoola Hoops and tea sets for the girls, and match­box type cars for the boys.
 

Hoola hoop­ing to show the oth­ers how it’s done!
https://youtube.com/shorts/t6yRLXuUjWI
 
The 20 school-age chil­dren (ages 7 to 18) were SUPER EXCITED as they each received a small mon­ey gift and a shop­ping spree at the down­town Bala­ma mar­ket on Wednes­day. As a child, I vivid­ly remem­ber my grand­moth­er giv­ing me mon­ey each Christ­mas, because she said that no one knew bet­ter than a grand­child what they tru­ly want­ed. This shop­ping trip gives our chil­dren a sense of inde­pen­dence and teach­es them mon­ey man­age­ment. And yes, they are super­vised by 3 adults dur­ing the shop­ping spree to pre­vent unsa­vory peo­ple from tak­ing advan­tage of them.
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EACH OF YOU!
 
The chil­dren thank you for our staff makes it known to them that it is your love gifts that makes it pos­si­ble for them to go to school and live a hap­py, healthy life. 
 
BLESSINGS IN CHRIST,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
THE BALAMA STAFF
AND THE 58 CHILDREN LIVING IN THE HOMES YOU BUILT!
 
 
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 23, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 23, 2023
 
CHRISTMAS FEAST A YUMMY AFFAIR
 
The entire 160 fam­i­ly mem­bers of wid­ows and orphans met at our Food Cen­ter for a great feast this week. Berti­no, our Children’s Pas­tor, led sev­er­al songs fol­lowed by a prayer before the meal was served.
 

Berti­no leads the chil­dren in singing I LOVE YOU JESUS in sev­er­al lan­guages.
https://youtube.com/shorts/hIKylBFQ1Wo
 
The menu was very tasty “fan­cy rice” which is a chick­en and beans sauce over the rice. It took 21 Chick­ens and 64 pounds (29kg) of Pin­to Beans and 220 pounds (100kg) of rice to feed every­one.
 
The lit­tle ones were served where they sat, but the school age chil­dren lined up with their plates in 2 serv­ing lines.
 

The 2 serv­ing lines for the school age chil­dren.
 
With 160 peo­ple to serve, this was the obvi­ous way to get every­one eat­ing in a time­ly man­ner. It worked great! In 20 min­utes every­one was seat­ed and enjoy­ing their plate full of good­ies.
 
The pro­gram wrapped up with our cook­ie and yogurt suck­er give out. It was fun watch­ing the lit­tle ones who had nev­er been to one of our feast par­ties before.
 

Our under 3‑year-olds receiv­ing cook­ies and can­dy.
 
 

Our twins, Cre­cen­cia in pink fol­lowed by twin broth­er, Cre­cen­cio.
 
Some of them were not quite sure what the treats were, but were quick­ly con­vinced by fos­ter moth­ers that they were tasty.
 

Juma in the fore­ground hus­tling out after get­ting his treats. Lit­tle Joshua, far left, in in total sur­prise mode as he waits for his treats.
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS! 
 

Our large fam­i­ly of 160. Biggest par­ty to date.
https://youtube.com/shorts/AXuafS7dZjA
 
THANKS TO CHRIST’S LOVE IN YOU, OUR HUGE FAMILY IS HEALTHY AND GROWING FAST!
 
BLESSINGS UNTIL NEXT WEEK!
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 16, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 16, 2023
 
 
STORIES THAT TOUCH THE HEART
 
MIRACLE BABY RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL
 
On Wednes­day, our “Mir­a­cle Baby Boy” (Mila­gre) was released from the hos­pi­tal. His hap­py, healthy look was heart­warm­ing after the scare he gave us a week ago when malar­ia hit him at 4 weeks of age! Malar­ia is tough on every­one, but to have it at 4 weeks of age is very dan­ger­ous. Mila­gre han­dled it like the tough lit­tle boy he is, and even gained weight dur­ing his hos­pi­tal stay (not nor­mal).

On the 14th, he weighed in at 3.9kg/8.5 lbs. at 5.5 weeks of age. It is so much eas­i­er on the baby and our moth­ers if we receive the infant before it gets into a severe­ly mal­nour­ished state. It is nice to have our whole fam­i­ly back togeth­er again!
 

Mila­gre, the Mir­a­cle, home after 7 days in the hos­pi­tal for malar­ia. He’s a sweet­heart

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS FOR MILAGRE AND OUR STAFF.
 

OVERWHELMED BY YOUR HELPING HAND
 
Late last week, Aunt Juli­eta, came to our door with the 3‑month-old orphaned boy, Ramos. His moth­er, (Julieta’s sis­ter) had passed away with post­par­tum prob­lems, and Aunt Juli­eta des­per­ate­ly need­ed milk to feed Ramos. Our staff imme­di­ate­ly taught her all she need­ed to know about bot­tle feed­ing, and gave her a baby bot­tle and infant for­mu­la.

Upon read­ing her Social Ser­vice doc­u­ment, I not­ed that Aunt Juli­eta had 3 oth­er orphans liv­ing with her from this same sis­ter. We quick­ly pre­pared a gift sack of a week’s worth of food that includ­ed the Aunt and these 3 chil­dren, even though we had no proof these chil­dren real­ly exist­ed. Sad­ly, many have lied in the past, mak­ing this request manda­to­ry. To reg­is­ter an orphan into our pro­gram requires that the fam­i­ly bring in these chil­dren with their birth cer­tifi­cate for offi­cial reg­is­tra­tion.

On Wednes­day, Decem­ber 13th, Juli­eta walked the 14km/8.4 miles from her vil­lage to Bala­ma where she stayed overnight with friends. On Thurs­day, after ver­i­fy­ing the chil­dren and their doc­u­ments, we pre­sent­ed Aunt Juli­eta with a week’s food, milk for­mu­la, and 2 cook­ing pans along with some small­er pans to use as bowls.

Right after I snapped their pho­to with these gifts, Juli­eta broke out in tears, and ran behind our baby weigh­ing build­ing. After we got her to calm down, she told us that these gifts were  much need­ed. She couldn’t believe that we just gave them to her for free! We all pat­ted her on the back, and then Pas­tor Whitey, our Assis­tant Admin­is­tra­tor, told her how much Jesus loves and cares for her and these chil­dren. Her total shock and grate­full­ness at receiv­ing these gifts had us all in tears before it was all over.
 

Aunt Juli­eta in pur­ple with her 4 orphaned chil­dren
 
SHOWING THE LOVE OF JESUS TO THIS KIND WOMAN WHO SO GENEROUSLY OPENED HER HOME TO HER SISTER’S CHILDREN, TRULY WARMED THE HEARTS OF ALL OF US.  YOUR LOVE GIFTS MAKE THIS POSSIBLE.
 
THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS TO THOSE WHO CARE FOR ORPHANS IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD.
 
BLESSINGS,
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 9, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 9, 2023
 
INFANT MOZZY NETS COME TOO LATE
 
On Wednes­day (Dec. 6), I went to weigh 4‑week-old Mila­gre, and he had a dis­tinct fever. I con­tact­ed our Doc­tor, who told us to bring him right over for a malar­ia test. The test was pos­i­tive, and he was admit­ted right away to the pedi­atric ward at the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal. Mila­gre has been in his Mozzy net ever since we received him on Novem­ber 25th. 
 

Mila­gre in his Mozzy net
 
It only takes one mos­qui­to bite while he is hav­ing a dia­per change, or tak­ing a bath to begin the 2 to 3 week incu­ba­tion peri­od this dis­ease requires before it man­i­fests symp­toms.  Mila­gre is inside his net even at the hos­pi­tal to pro­vide him extra pro­tec­tion. PLEASE PRAY FOR HIS QUICK RECOVERY!
 

CHURCHES GROWING ALL OVER BALAMA
 
Despite the Octo­ber elec­tion peri­od that cur­tailed our BBC groups for 4 weeks, many came to Christ via our 30 church­es. In Octo­ber, our Pas­tors report­ed 890 sal­va­tions, which is amaz­ing! In Total, our BBC teams in Novem­ber, and our church­es in October/November, min­is­tered to an esti­mat­ed 31,670 peo­ple! Sal­va­tions from these groups totaled 3,463 for the 60 day peri­od!
 
JESUS IS MOVING AND WE THANK THE LORD, FOR THE HARVEST IS GREAT! REALIZE THIS IS ALL BEING DONE BY 28 MEN!
 

STATE PASTOR GITO shows off our new evan­ge­lism teach­ing books for our Evan­ge­lists
 

CONSTRUCTION  MOVING AT MAXIMUM SPEED
 
On Mon­day and Tues­day (4th and 5th of Decem­ber)
 
The car­pen­ter team attacked the bath­room roof­ing job at the tod­dler house, com­plet­ing it in record time on Tues­day. That roof had to be com­plet­ed before the fin­ish­ing touch­es of the cement work could be done.
 

Bath­room roof com­plet­ed on Tues­day
 
The Brick­lay­er team put in 2 major side­walks to the bathing areas while wait­ing on the roof to be com­plet­ed. This means no one has to walk through mud to the new bathing hous­es under ren­o­va­tion.
 

Side­walks to bathing areas com­plet­ed on Tues­day
 
On Wednes­day and Thurs­day, (6th and 7th of Decem­ber)
 
All cement work on the bath­room walls was com­plet­ed, PTL!
 

Bath­room walls get fin­ish­ing touch­es on Thurs­day
 
The car­pen­ters have the 3 bath­room door frames ready to mount next week, as they must wait for the cement to com­plete­ly “cure”  before they can be mount­ed. After the doors are mount­ed, then the bath­room floor can be poured.
 
Since we had a dry day on Thurs­day, our Painter, Vicente, start­ed rolling out the water based paint on the tod­dler house walls. On Fri­day, the first coat of blue oil paint was applied to the out­side of the house, mak­ing it look real­ly nice.
 

First coat of blue oil paint on 3‑bedroom tod­dler house
 
I am very proud of our con­struc­tion teams, as they have risen to the chal­lenge to com­plete this home before Christ­mas. The health department’s inspec­tion won’t take place till ear­ly Jan­u­ary, 2024. That is when we hope to offi­cial­ly move mul­ti­ple tod­dlers along with 2 House Moth­ers from Hous­es 6 and 7 into this new addi­tion.
 
We still have sev­er­al small, but time con­sum­ing build­ing projects to com­plete to offi­cial­ly fin­ish the tod­dler house con­struc­tion.  I’ll explain those in the near future as we do them.
 
Keep us in your prayers that the rainy sea­son will allow us the sun­ny morn­ings we need to com­plete these pro­grams.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 2, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 2, 2023
 
INFANTS KEEP COMING — BABY # 29 JOINED US THIS WEEK
 
Sad­ly, the moth­er of 6‑week-old infant Marceli­na passed away from post­par­tum com­pli­ca­tions 5 weeks after the lit­tle girl’s birth. The elder­ly Granny (moth­er of the deceased) tried to care for Marceli­na, but at the manda­to­ry check in at our baby weigh-in on Thurs­day our staff found the bot­tle unwashed and caked in old for­mu­la. By a mir­a­cle, the infant didn’t have diar­rhea. The elder­ly Granny just couldn’t han­dle a bot­tle-fed infant. With 4 orphaned sis­ters and broth­ers from the deceased moth­er now liv­ing with the elder­ly Granny, Social Ser­vices agreed to place the 6‑week-old infant in our care. 

The father aban­doned the moth­er and the 4 chil­dren short­ly before the birth of Marceli­na, flee­ing this State to avoid prob­lems. Pray for these chil­dren, as the elder­ly Granny and the orphaned 10-year-old girl are the only females in this fam­i­ly who can care for her broth­ers. The remain­ing fam­i­ly is all male and very young, as the 2 uncles in the fam­i­ly are just teenagers them­selves. What mat­ters is that this beau­ti­ful lit­tle girl is now safe with us, PTL! 
 

Sweet­ie # 29, Marceli­na, 6‑weeks-old nev­er had clothes until we received her on Thurs­day
 
TODDLER HOUSE GETS 20-YEAR-TOILET
 
Dig­ging a “20-year-toi­let” or “long drop” as the South Africans call it, is a big job! The sep­tic hole had to be 3 meters wide, 4 meters long, and 3 meters deep! (10 feet wide, 13 feet long, and 10 feet deep). 
 

Dig­ging the pit for the 20-year-toi­lets
 
That is a HUGE DEEP HOLE that took 5 days for 8 men to dig. We were in a hur­ry, so when 1 team of men got tired, the 2nd team took over, so the work nev­er stopped. Haul­ing off the dirt took anoth­er team of men plus one of our trucks. BUT WE DID IT IN RECORD TIME TO BEAT THE RAINS!
 
After the hole was dug, the pit was divid­ed in six sec­tions and then the tops were put on each sec­tion.
 

The big pit that makes the foun­da­tion of our new bath­room at tod­dler house
 
 

Putting the tops on each of the 6 pits
https://youtube.com/shorts/RM10zPBNmgY
 
JESUS HOLDS OFF THE RAINS FOR THE ROOFING WORK TO BEGIN.
 
On Wednes­day, I had no plans to try and put in the 6 con­crete “pil­lars” that would secure the bath­room roof to the ground because a large amount of rain was due the next day. BUT GOD HAD OTHER IDEAS!  I awoke in the wee hours of Wednes­day night with a def­i­nite mes­sage from the Lord. He showed me I must put in the con­crete pil­lars the next morn­ing, and HE would hold off the rains. Sure enough HE did, as the rain clouds formed over our heads at 6 a.m., but a strong wind high up in the cloud lev­el moved them away from us at hur­ri­cane speed! Every­one saw the fast mov­ing clouds and mar­veled at what was going on. It was not some­thing we have ever seen before in our area. The day remained dry until 3pm, giv­ing the con­crete good dry­ing time. The rains start­ed slow­ly with­out the huge thun­der­storm that was pre­dict­ed. PTL for that! The car­pen­ters are now busy with the roof­ing beams that will start going up on Mon­day if the rains hold off. 
 

Bath­room as of this week with 6 posts to hold the roof
 
Our con­struc­tion work for the next 4 months is main­ly deter­mined by those mas­sive rain clouds that dear­ly love Bala­ma. There are days we receive 2 inch­es or 50 mm of rain in 12 hours!
 
MANY BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL FOR HELPING US WITH THIS LIFE-SAVING PROGRAM.
 
It is esti­mat­ed that our food and orphan pro­grams over the last 23 years have saved more than 20,000 chil­dren. The Lord is smil­ing because those 20,000 lit­tle spir­its have a great future thanks to all of you.
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF