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Monthly Archives: December 2024

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog for December 28, 2024

CHRISTMAS DAY A BIT DIFFERENT THIS YEAR
Chil­dren in our homes love to receive gifts as much as any oth­er child. This year it was cook­ies and yogurt suck­ers, as toys were a bit scarce due to a lack of sup­plies reach­ing our area. We explained this to the chil­dren, that it doesn’t mean NEVER, just not today. We will con­tin­ue to search for toys, giv­ing them out as soon as they arrive. Enjoy the pho­tos as we had lots of fun, espe­cial­ly with the lit­tle ones who expe­ri­enced Christ­mas for the first time as 18 month olds!
Handing out the goodies!
Hand­ing out the goodies!

Estale­sia goes wild when she sees us com­ing with treats.

Anony­mous donor gives our youngest 2 babies a tub with treats. Fos­ter Moth­er Tina with Gerilcia.

Ostrich House chil­dren. Some with smiles and oth­ers in shock, not real­iz­ing what is going on.
 NEW HOMES FOR CHRISTMAS! Two wid­ows and their chil­dren were blessed by a church in New Jer­sey with new homes as theirs was about to fall down. Two oth­er donors stepped for­ward and pro­vid­ed new clothes for both these fam­i­lies. The pho­tos show the new homes in the back­ground while the fam­i­lies proud­ly show off their new cloth­ing.

Around here, get­ting new clothes is real­ly excit­ing for the chil­dren, as it hap­pens so sel­dom. These 2 fam­i­lies are tru­ly grate­ful for all of these blessings.

Wid­ow receives new house and new clothes!

2nd wid­ow fam­i­ly gift­ed with new home and clothes.
This pro­gram will con­tin­ue in 2025 as soon as the rains stop so that con­struc­tion can begin. We hope to help many oth­er wid­ows with new homes as our con­struc­tion leader is now expe­ri­enced in how this can be done in sev­er­al vil­lages at the same time.

CHRIST’S LOVE IS TO BE SHARED ALL YEAR LONG. THANK YOU FOR ENCOURAGING US THROUGH YOUR LOVE GIFTS TO DO JUST THAT!OUR STAFF WILL KEEP MOVING FORWARD TO HELP THOSE IN GREATEST NEED, SHARING THE GOSPEL AS WE HELP OTHERS.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MANY BLESSINGS FOR 2025,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog for December 21, 2024

A HIVE OF ACTIVITY AFTER CYCLONE CHIDO
First, let me THANK YOU for all your prayers that kept us safe from the rav­aging winds that were to the East and South of our mis­sion. We suf­fered only minor dam­age to 3 build­ings, and NO ONE was hurt, PTL! Our goal now is to make sure that the orphans in the vil­lages have food, and to con­tin­ue help­ing oth­ers as need­ed.

The elec­tric lines were down west of us at our State Line, 75 miles (150 km) away. Our first hand of assis­tance was a small fuel gift that to made it pos­si­ble for the elec­tri­cians to get to the downed lines in order to fix it. No elec­tric­i­ty, no fuel pumps working.We were for­tu­nate as our elec­tric­i­ty was easy to fix, and we were only 48 hours with­out pow­er. Hard­er hit areas East of us were with­out elec­tric­i­ty for 4 days. 
BABY GERILCIA (Jer-ill-sia) RIDES OUT THE CYCLONE IN THE HOSPITAL
PTL that the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal did not sus­tain any dam­age, and our 2 Fos­ter Moth­ers as well as Ger­il­cia, were released the day AFTER the cyclone.

Ger­il­cia is 7 months old, and bare­ly 2 pounds/1kg above her birth weight of 2.7kg/6 lbs! She was admit­ted last week with seri­ous malar­ia after her father gave her up to us. Her grand­moth­er loved her very much, and didn’t want to give her up, but she was unable to cope with her care. 

Baby girl Ger­il­cia sees her new home for first time.
The pho­to shows a hap­py Ger­il­cia a full half kg heav­ier (1 lb.) and look­ing real­ly good in com­par­i­son to how we received her last week. Fos­ter Moth­er Tina is now her new “mom”, and Ger­il­cia is already very attached to her. Ger­il­cia is one of 27 infants in dia­pers who are in our care at this time. Please keep all of them in your prayers. Thanks! 
FEEDING HUNGRY VILLAGE ORPHANS
Thurs­day found our staff hand­ing out food to the Vil­lage Orphans and their care­tak­ers. This is the last major food give out for 2024. I am very hap­py that these chil­dren will have full tum­mies over Christ­mas and the New Year. These chil­dren are out of school right now, so it was won­der­ful to see them com­ing to help car­ry their food gifts to their home villages.

Staff han­dling out food to each orphans family.

The orphans help­ing their Grannies and Aunts to pre­pare their food for travel.
THANK YOU FOR MAKING ALL THIS POSSIBLE WITH YOUR LOVE FOR THESE PRECIOUS CHILDREN.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL, AND GOD’S BLESSINGS AND TRAVEL MERCIES ON EACH OF YOU THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.ENJOY CELEBRATING JESUS AND LOVING ON YOUR FAMILY!

BLESSINGS,BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog Update, December 16, 2024

PRAISE FOR ANSWERED PRAYER 

We praise the Lord that Cyclone Chi­da dipped just enough to spare Bren­da and the mis­sion the high winds we feared. There was minor wind dam­age in two places, but the roofs remained intact and our peo­ple and food sup­plies are safe. Bren­da was able to get this video update out to us from the time around when the eye of the storm hit the area.Thank you for your prayers! 
video

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog, December 14, 2024

LITTLE DISCIPLES GOING STRONG 
Our 3 to 5 year old chil­dren are eager­ly learn­ing their songs, as well as their ABC’s and num­bers.

I man­aged to catch them in their open­ing song this week, so thought you might enjoy it as well.

See our lit­tle Dis­ci­ples exer­cis­ing their lungs at this link https://youtube.com/shorts/e1G1itYLMBE
This pro­gram con­tin­ues through­out the year, as our chil­dren tru­ly enjoy the games and learn­ing activ­i­ties.

SCHOOL IS OUT! 
Our 19 school age chil­dren are enjoy­ing a 2 month break (Dec. and Jan.) from their stud­ies, so all were able to attend the BAWANA GAMES and Devo­tions this week for the first time as a group.

School chil­dren enjoy devo­tions under a shade tree.
I didn’t want to dis­turb their devo­tion time, so took this pho­to from afar. All were enjoy­ing a cool morn­ing under the shade tree as they lis­tened to the day’s les­son told by Daude and Berti­no, our 2 Youth Pas­tors.

BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS
Infants con­tin­ue need­ing our help, both orphans and moth­ers with­out breast milk.

Pray for us as sup­plies are com­ing in slow­ly due to prob­lems at the bor­ders. This includes infant for­mu­la and liq­uid vit­a­mins for our wee wit­tle ones.

Thanks to all of you send­ing prayers and Love Gifts, our Chil­dren our well tak­en care of.  Receiv­ing a new infant next week, so more about that in the next blog. That brings us to 27 infants in diapers. 
Chil­dren’s Direc­tor Anna, teach­ing a moth­er how to bot­tle feed her lit­tle one.

GOD’S BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU AS THIS MONTH MARCHES ON TO THE RINGING OF THE CHRISTMAS BELLS!

HALLALUJAH TO THE KING!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FROM Bush Bunny Brenda, December 13, 2024

CATEGORY 3 TROPICAL CYCLONE (HURRICANE) CHIDO AIMED DIRECTLY AT BALAMA WITH LANDFALL IMMINENT

As we are prepar­ing Bren­da’s usu­al Sat­ur­day Blog, we must pause to ask for your urgent prayers for Bren­da and the orphans. Trop­i­cal Cyclone Chi­do (equiv­a­lent to a hur­ri­cane) is now a CATEGORY 3 STORM and just shift­ed on a path with an almost DIRECT HIT antic­i­pat­ed to Bren­da and the orphan­age. 

Sched­uled to make land­fall with­in the next day, Chi­do brings hur­ri­cane force winds and rains sim­i­lar to Cyclone Idai, anoth­er Cat­e­go­ry 3 which slammed into Bala­ma in March 2019 caus­ing wide­spread destruc­tion. So many were flood­ed out of their homes and even strand­ed in trees. https://orphansunlimited.org/bush-bunny-brenda-blog-special-march-20–2019/

Your prayers are needed.

Cyclone Chi­do has shift­ed south.
Remem­ber, hous­es in the area are made of mud and grass. Our Orphans Unlim­it­ed build­ings are made of con­crete, BUT OUR ROOFS are made of sheets of tin. Wind dam­age could be hor­ri­ble if the high winds rip off our roofs.

Heavy flood­ing with 4 to 10 inch­es of rain is expect­ed, with land­fall antic­i­pat­ed in the next 12–15 hours (US Sat­ur­day morn­ing) and winds of 115 miles per hour mov­ing inland.PLEASE PRAY OUR FOOD STORAGE AND HOMES CAN WITHSTAND THE WINDS! Bren­da is spend­ing her day today prepar­ing as they only received notice with­in the past 2 hours of the antic­i­pat­ed direct hit com­ing tomorrow.

Chi­do is now antic­i­pat­ed to make a direct hit to Pem­ba and then on inland to Balama.
WE COVET YOUR PRAYERS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

Bush Bunny Brenda Blog, December 7, 2024

TWO YOUNGEST INFANTS IN HOSPITAL

Severe­ly mal­nour­ished Esteva­sia, 7 months but only 12 lbs./5kgs, and 9 week old Domin­gas were both admit­ted on Mon­day, Decem­ber 2nd with severe diar­rhea and high fevers. Both were neg­a­tive for malar­ia, PTL, but the rea­son for such high fevers was unknown. They were both start­ed on very strong antibi­otics that killed out the diar­rhea and fever by Wednesday.

Big boy, Domin­gas, upon his admis­sion to hospital.
They were held in hos­pi­tal to com­plete their med­ica­tions with Domin­gas released on Fri­day, PTL. Since Domin­gas has been with us since day 2 of his life, he is healthy and tough for his 9 weeks of age. This tum­my bug didn’t affect him as harsh­ly as it did the weak­er Esteva­sia.

Tiny Esteva­sia is still in the hos­pi­tal, and it is a mir­a­cle she is still with us. That is one tough lit­tle girl!On Wednes­day, her IV site became red, so 2.5 hours lat­er, and with the help of 3 very good IV experts, a line was final­ly start­ed in her scalp. Her oth­er veins were just too frag­ile to hold an IV catheter.

PLEASE PRAY FOR ESTEVASIA, AS SHE IS SO FRAGILE AND WEAK. IT MAKES ME CRING TO SEE HER IN SUCH A VULNERABLE STATE.

Very sick lit­tle Esteva­sia upon her admis­sion Monday.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE!

Our lit­tle boy Almei­da, liv­ing in the new tod­dler home at the Ostrich House, is now grow­ing up fast. He loves his stuffed bun­ny that was giv­en to him 2 months back. As you can see in the pho­to, he believes in lov­ing his bun­ny by car­ry­ing it every­where as he chews on its ear! 

Almei­da with his ever present bunny.

THE RAINY SEASON HAS BEGUN

Our ditch­es are dug, and our fields are plant­ed, for the rains are here, and the farm­ers are thrilled!

We were told to expect a drought, but doesn’t seem like it right now.

Pray for the har­vest of both SOULS AND FOOD CROPS!

Heav­en is wait­ing as we bring in the har­vest for our Lord Jesus! 

BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL, AS WE MARCH THROUGH DECEMBER.
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF