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Author Archives: Kim Hartman

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: August 19, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: August 19, 2023
 
BABY JUMAIDA FINALLY HOME!
 

Baby Jumai­da and Fos­ter Moth­er Esti­va­nia much hap­pi­er now that they are home
 
At Noon on Mon­day, August 14, the hos­pi­tal released this sweet 7‑week-old infant girl, but the thrush in her mouth con­tin­ues to be a prob­lem. We are chang­ing treat­ments in hopes that mak­ing her mouth less acidic with a super dilut­ed bicar­bon­ate of soda will kill it out. Oth­er­wise, she seems fine as she now weighs 4.1 kg/9 lbs. which is amaz­ing! (Her admis­sion weight was 3.5kg/7.7 lbs.) An infant that gains weight in hos­pi­tal while ill is not some­thing I have seen before. Keep pray­ing for her immune sys­tem to strength­en, as that will take care of the thrush prob­lem and give her a safe­ty shield.
 

AUGUST FOOD DISTRIBUTIONS NOW COMPLETED
 
This week found our food dis­tri­b­u­tion teams in 3 loca­tions giv­ing out the last of the corn that these orphans will receive this year.
 

Orphans real­ly hap­py with their food and soap gifts
 

No mat­ter how young, these chil­dren know the val­ue of this sack of corn and are mak­ing sure no one takes it while Granny is fetch­ing their beans
 
The Sep­tem­ber dis­tri­b­u­tion will be rice, along with the much need­ed beans, soap, and salt. It’s a dif­fer­ent world for all of us, as we switch gears at the end of August from corn to rice. With world­wide food short­ages, I am thrilled that we can pro­vide our fam­i­ly of orphans with good, nutri­tious food, even if it is not exact­ly what they are use to.
 

Typ­i­cal scene with the orphans help­ing their Aunt who divides corn while her own infant sleeps
https://youtube.com/shorts/1AiFlkYMKDc
 

Granny divides the corn sack so her orphaned grand­sons can help car­ry the load back to their mud hut
https://youtube.com/shorts/LFJqsiVh78k
 

THREE BEDROOM HOUSE NOW AT ROOFING LEVEL
 
The emp­ty lot I showed you a few months ago now holds a 3 bed­room house with walls up to 3 meters/9.75 feet! 
 

Walls almost com­plet­ed on 3 bed­room home for tod­dlers
 
These bed­rooms are 6 X 6 meters/19.5 ft square, so there is plen­ty of room for our ever-grow­ing lit­tle ones. The roof­ing will begin next Wednes­day if all goes as sched­uled. Doing our best to get it fin­ished as soon as pos­si­ble, as our lit­tle ones are fast out grow­ing their junior beds!
 
WE APPRECIATE ALL OF YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVE GIFTS, FOR OUR STAFF AND THE BUSH BUNNY COULDN’T DO THIS JOB WITHOUT YOU!
 
BLESSINGS AND MUCH THANKS!
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: August 12, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: August 12, 2023
 
JUMAIDA RECOVERING AFTER MINOR SURGERY
 

Baby Jumai­da just after minor surgery
 
Sat­ur­day night, baby Jumai­da didn’t sleep and cried most of the night due to the pain from the abscess in her shoul­der as it began to “ripen”. The head nurse of the emer­gency room, who is a very fine man, agreed to open the abscess as it was now ready. Once opened, as is usu­al, all pain stopped, and Jumai­da fell asleep instant­ly. Poor thing was total­ly exhaust­ed.

She is just 7 weeks old, but thank­ful­ly, is now on the road to recov­ery. The infec­tion she has is slow­ly being wiped out by the IV antibi­otics that she is receiv­ing. She will remain in the hos­pi­tal until the doc­tors think the infec­tion has been cleared from her blood. This “hand me down sick­ness” from her moth­er has giv­en this sweet baby a rough start in life. 
 
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS ASKING FOR A COMPLETE AND RAPID RECOVERY FOR THIS LITTLE ONE.
 
 
FOOD GIVE OUTS BEGIN IN THE REMOTE VILLAGES
 

Our very strong men load­ing our truck with these 132 lb. (60 kg.) bags of beans for vil­lage dis­tri­b­u­tion
 
Mon­day found our team load­ing the 6‑ton and 7‑ton trucks with TONS of corn, beans, plus soap and salt for the orphans and wid­ows liv­ing in the Mavala area. This pro­gram was repeat­ed on Thurs­day in Tuaune (Ti-whan­ny) vil­lage, and Fri­day in Kwe Kwe vil­lage.

The corn har­vest was lim­it­ed this year, so we pur­chased addi­tion­al tons of the very nutri­tious, local­ly grown rice to make up the dif­fer­ence. After the August give-out, the orphans will receive bags of nutri­tious rice instead of corn. Rice is con­sid­ered a treat in this cul­ture, so this will bring smiles to many faces.


Super bal­anc­ing act does not go unno­ticed in our first give-out Tues­day
 
Enjoy the pho­tos, as it clear­ly shows how grate­ful the orphans and their grannies are to receive our help­ing hand.
 

Granny spilled her beans and is mak­ing sure that all of it gets back in her bag. Food is super pre­cious to these peo­ple as they are the poor­est of the poor
 

Orphans help­ing grand­ma divide up the food they wil take home
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: August 5, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: August 5, 2023
 
BABY JUMAIDA IN HOSPITAL WITH SERIOUS INFECTION
 

Baby Jumai­da in the hos­pi­tal
 
Baby Jumai­da, now 6 weeks old, has had a very rough start to life. First, com­ing from a men­tal­ly chal­lenged moth­er who reject­ed her and would have killed her if the grand­moth­er had not whisked her away and tak­en her to Social Ser­vices for help. Sec­ond­ly, suf­fer­ing through a week with the elder­ly grand­moth­er who tried, but was not able to care for her. Then final­ly com­ing to live with us when just 10 days old.

When Jumai­da was received, she had small sores all around her scalp, but an oral antibi­ot­ic and good hygiene cleared it up with a 7‑day treat­ment. Just after her 30th day of life, Jumai­da devel­oped a new abscess on the back of her head that did not respond to 2 dif­fer­ent kinds of oral antibi­otics. When she spiked a high fever on Tues­day, August 1st, fol­lowed by a hard swelling at the base of her neck, the Bala­ma Doc­tor put her into the hos­pi­tal for IV antibi­ot­ic treat­ment. She is show­ing a slow response to treat­ments so far.

PLEASE PRAY FOR JUMAIDA, as she needs a mir­a­cle to pull out of this. Remem­ber that she had no Colostrum milk from her moth­er, and that has great­ly decreased her resis­tance to dis­ease. Will update next week, as her sto­ry pro­gress­es.
 

FOUR DAY SEMINAR ON CHILD CARE…
 

Child Care Class Atten­dees
 
…has kept us hop­ping this week! With our staff and 7 prin­ci­pal moth­ers in the con­fer­ence, it has been a whirl­wind of activ­i­ty this week for me to keep our orphan­age oper­at­ing smooth­ly. The mate­ri­als used to teach our prin­ci­pal moth­ers (flip charts, exer­cise books, etc.) will be left behind by Guil­herme and Ali­fo, the 2 Social Ser­vice Instruc­tors who gave the course. We will then hold small group teach­ing pro­grams for the oth­er moth­ers who had to stay at home to care for our 25 infants and 30 oth­er chil­dren in res­i­dence. With so many new moth­ers, this Child Care Sem­i­nar was a must to assure the best care is giv­en to all our chil­dren.
 

Child Care Sem­i­nar was a great suc­cess!
 

BABY ORLENCIA, 5 MONTHS, NOW SITTING!
 

Orlen­cia with Fos­ter Moth­er Gil­da sit­ting close by
 
Orlen­cia is the 2nd youngest infant in our care. (Jumai­da at 6 weeks is our youngest.) I was total­ly sur­prised last week when I vis­it­ed the 2 infant homes at noon to find Orlen­cia SITTING UP INDEPENDENTLY out­side on her play mat. Those big eyes are beyond words, as she tries to take in all the new sights around her.
 
YOUR LOVE AND PRAYERS ARE SO MUCH APPRECIATED! THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS LIFE-SAVING PROGRAM A HUGE SUCCESS!
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: July 29, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: July 29, 2023
 
 
MADELINA RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL!
 
God answered your prayers for Madelina’s health just 1 DAY after you prayed for her.  She is healthy, and eat­ing well after return­ing to her home with us over the week­end.  There is no sign of the malar­ia, no vom­it­ing, or oth­er symp­toms that she expe­ri­enced on her 7th day of hos­pi­tal treat­ment.  We are VERY HAPPY to have her healthy and at home!
 

Baby Madeli­na and Fos­ter Moth­er Felic­i­na hap­py to be home again!
 

KIDS AND BALLS, A PERFECT COMBO!
 
Last week, I made a quick sup­ply run to Pem­ba. While there, I found won­der­ful small soc­cer balls (very tough) that were per­fect for our tod­dlers. Load­ing up the cart with 8 minia­ture soc­cer balls brought inquis­i­tive looks from oth­er shop­pers who passed my cart. They prob­a­bly thought I was nuts over soc­cer balls, not real­iz­ing I have 25 lit­tle ones who ADORE any kind of ball. 
Juma loves play­ing soc­cer, even if his house­mates haven’t quite caught on yet
https://youtube.com/shorts/IFoRhC-tOjM
 
I also found spe­cial balls with bells on the inside, which became an imme­di­ate hit since they make noise!
 

Cre­cen­cia try­ing to fig­ure out the ball with the bell in it
 

BUSH BUNNY HAIR CHALLENGE 
 
Find­ing a per­son who can cut woman’s hair in our area is a BIGGER CHALLENGE than imag­ined as the local Catholic Nuns and I found out this year. Sis­ter Lisha always cut our hair, but when she left last Sep­tem­ber, it put all of us in a quandary. I had no choice but to let my hair grow long in the back. I could cut the sides and front myself to an accept­able lev­el, but not the back. 
 

One year of hair growth on Bush Bun­ny Bren­da.
 
FINALLY, 11 MONTHS LATER, I no longer need­ed dog tags!  One of the local Sis­ters met anoth­er Sis­ter at a con­fer­ence who lives just 2.5 hours away  on the road to Pem­ba! After con­tact­ing her, I could final­ly get my hair cut! It is amaz­ing that what most con­sid­er a “lit­tle thing” in life can bring such JOY once all is back to “nor­mal”. 
 

Bush Bun­ny with her nor­mal cut thanks to Sis­ter Tere­sa.
 

A very hap­py Bush Bun­ny with a great hair­cut!
 
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVE GIFTS THAT MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR OUR PROGRAMS TO CONTINUE SAVING GOD’S CHILDREN.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 22, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: July 22, 2023
 
 
FAMILY EVICTS NEW CONVERT
  
Nel­son, 15, received Jesus in one of our Namuno Coun­ty church­es 2 weeks ago. When his fam­i­ly found out, they told him to fetch his clothes and leave. He was now dead to them. Nel­son went to the only per­son whom he knew would give him refuge, our Pas­tor Alber­to, who imme­di­ate­ly noti­fied me of the sit­u­a­tion.

Nel­son has stood firm in his sal­va­tion, PTL, and for that we all have a great respect for his courage and love of the Lord Jesus. Most young men of his age would have wavered and pos­si­bly renounced Jesus in order to avoid rejec­tion from their fam­i­ly.
 

Nel­son, 15, with our Namuno Pas­tors. Nel­son is 4th from the left in front row.
 
Our State Pas­tor inves­ti­gat­ed the sit­u­a­tion, and it was decid­ed that the young man should live with our Pas­tor, as there was tru­ly no where else for him to go. Accept­ing Jesus requires sac­ri­fice in many cul­tures. This is not the first time I have seen this hap­pen, and sad­ly it won’t be the last as we move clos­er to our Lord’s return.
 

BABY MADELINA NOT RESPONDING WELL TO IV MEDICATIONS FOR MALARIA
 
Baby Madeli­na, 8 MONTHS OLD, has been in the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal since July 14, after she devel­oped RESISTANT MALARIA that requires IV med­ica­tions to destroy it. After 2 days on the nor­mal Coartem treat­ment at our mis­sion home, Madeli­na sud­den­ly spiked a high fever, became super irri­ta­ble, and was vom­it­ing any­thing she con­sumed. 
 

Baby Madeli­na still fight­ing to recov­er from resis­tant malar­ia
 
Those are the signs of Resis­tant Malar­ia, mean­ing the dis­ease is stronger than the nor­mal med­ical treat­ment. The nor­mal IV treat­ment is 5 to 7 days, but as of yes­ter­day (day 7), Madeli­na was still cry­ing a lot, and vom­it­ing what she ate. These are not good signs, and I am not sure what the Doc­tor will try next.

PLEASE KEEP MADELINA IN YOUR PRYAERS AS THIS HAS BECOME A SERIOUS SITUATION.
 

BBC AND VILLAGE PASTORS SEEING A GREAT HARVEST OF SOULS FOR JESUS!
 
With the nor­mal food har­vest and our food buy­ing behind us, the BBC Teams are now back to their reg­u­lar program.
Awe­some action shot of the Bawana games Note the crowd of chil­dren watch­ing the games


Awe­some action shot of the Bawana games. Note the crowd of chil­dren watch­ing the games
https://youtu.be/wwXq-jBokgw

The most pop­u­lar game of all is the tug o war!


The most pop­u­lar game of all is tug-o-war!
https://youtu.be/cco6nVmhHiU
 
This last quar­ter (April, May, June) nor­mal­ly sees a low­er num­ber of peo­ple com­ing to the evan­ge­lis­tic pro­grams, but not so this year! The fol­low­ing num­bers are adults, teens, and chil­dren com­bined with the largest group being the chil­dren.
 
APRIL SALVATIONS:  2,142 PEOPLE out of 30,000+ atten­dees
MAY SALVATIONS:   2,225 PEOPLE out of 32,000+ atten­dees
JUNE SALVATIONS:   1,386 PEOPLE out of 21,000+ atten­dees  (June is har­vest month, when every­one is har­vest­ing their fields.)

A group of young­sters pray­ing to receive Jesus


A group of young­sters pray­ing to receive Jesus!
https://youtu.be/9F_FY2N7D6E
 
GOD IS MOVING IN A POWERFUL WAY IN THE BALAMA AREA!
Keep your prayers com­ing for this SOUL HARVEST to con­tin­ue!
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 15, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: July 15, 2023
 
102 TONS OF RICE IN THE BARN!
 
Yip­pie! Our 4 barns are full for 2023, so we can now con­cen­trate on dis­trib­ut­ing it to the orphaned chil­dren who real­ly need it! It was 3 days of hard work, as we start­ed at 4:45 a.m. using bat­tery oper­at­ed lights (as it is very dark at that time). We held morn­ing devo­tions, fol­lowed imme­di­ate­ly by weigh­ing, sewing, and stack­ing the sacks of very nutri­tious rice in the hull.  Aver­ag­ing 600 sacks a day, with 12 men sewing the sacks, our team of 50 men made the job look easy.  Rice is much lighter/per bag than corn, so it real­ly was an eas­i­er job.
 

Rice stack­ing, our 54-man team moved 600 sacks per day for 3 days
 
THANK YOU FOR MAKING OUR JOSEPH PROGRAM A SUCCESS!  The Joseph Pro­gram is stor­ing up food for the time of hunger that is com­ing in Sep­tem­ber.
 

OUR BABIES ARE GROWING UP FAST!
 
Our once a week baby weigh-in is always a fun time, as all the lit­tle ones in our fam­i­ly are brought togeth­er in one place. We have a spe­cial room for weigh­ing the babies at “The Cen­ter” which is where we give out the week­ly food and hold the Lit­tle Dis­ci­ples Pro­gram for 3 to 5 year olds.  Thought you’d enjoy see­ing “the gang” all in one place.

Most are now walk­ing, mak­ing life a bit more chal­leng­ing for the Fos­ter Moth­ers.  Not all the moth­ers are shown, as some stayed at the orphan homes to do the cook­ing and clean­ing while their very active lit­tle ones are oth­er­wise occu­pied.
 

Some of our wee wit­tle ones and their Fos­ter Moth­ers on weigh-in day.
 

YOUNG “SWINGERS”, THE LITTLE DISCIPLES DURING RECESS
 
It is fun to cap­ture the chil­dren doing what they love most—SWINGING!  In the pho­to­graph, 3‑year-old Fati­ma is in the fore­ground with 2‑year-old Quis­ton swing­ing on the far left.  In the build­ing behind them in the door of the baby weigh­ing room are our two Children’s Direc­tors, Anna and Fati­ma.
 

Fati­ma with Quis­ton in back swing.
 

LEFT BEHIND, BUT NOT FOR LONG!
 
The one-year-olds are not always hap­py to be left behind when the 3‑year-olds leave for their Lit­tle Dis­ci­ple Pro­gram. In the pho­to­graph, moth­ers are con­sol­ing 16-month-old Ancha (left) and 20-month-old Fran­ciano on the right.
 

Babies Ancha and Fran­ciano with Fos­ter Moth­ers Fran­quina left, and Felic­i­na on right
 
CHEERS UNTIL NEXT WEEK!  BUSY BUNNY AND STAFF ON THE HOP!
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 8, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JULY 8, 2023
 
 
BABY #25 NEEDS PRAYER COVERAGE
 
Three-week-old baby girl Jumai­da was born on June 20, 2023 to a men­tal­ly defi­cient moth­er who fre­quents her local witch doc­tor. The Grand­moth­er res­cued the aban­doned infant, tak­ing her to Social Ser­vices at our Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal on June 29th. 
 

Granny walk­ing into our mis­sion sta­tion on June 29th with 9‑day-old Jumai­da
 
Granny had tried for a week to care for the infant, but she turned to us for help on Thurs­day, July 6, when she con­fessed that she had neglect­ed the infant by for­get­ting to feed her. Talk­ing to the Granny revealed that she has the begin­nings of old age for­get­ful­ness and con­fu­sion. Social Ser­vices agreed that the infant should live with us as Jumai­da lost 300 gms in the few days the Grand­moth­er had the child in her care. Born at 2.8kg/6.1 lbs., Jumai­da weighed in on the 6th at only 2.5kg/5.5 lbs. It was evi­dent she was dehy­drat­ed and had many sores on her head. The local hos­pi­tal gave her the all clear for malar­ia, pre­scrib­ing an antibi­ot­ic for her head, and fre­quent for­mu­la feed­ings for her dehy­dra­tion. 
 

3‑week-old Jumai­da all bun­dled up against the cold, windy July weath­er
 
Jumai­da will remain in iso­la­tion at Home #7 until she is a bit stronger, as we do not know what ill­ness­es she has been exposed to. It is like­ly her immune sys­tem is very weak also, as we don’t know if she was allowed to suck­le the moth­er once born. We broke the witch­craft influ­ence off her, but she is far from being healthy at this time.  
 
PLEASE PRAY FOR HER HEAD TO HEAL QUICKLY, AS WE ARE LIMITED ON WHAT MEDS CAN HELP AN INFANT OF THIS FRAGILE SIZE. I’ll keep you post­ed on her progress.
 

ELISA, GRANDMOTHER TO EVA, IS MAKING SLOW PROGRESS
 
When Elisa went into the hos­pi­tal, her stroke advanced until she was unable to speak, eat, or move her left arm and leg. In the last 2 weeks, Elisa has regained her speech and abil­i­ty to eat and drink, PTL! She has been sup­port­ed by IV flu­ids this entire time, as she is still not tak­ing in enough flu­ids to sus­tain her body.
 

Granny Elisa is now able to eat and talk after hav­ing a major stroke that par­a­lyzed her left arm and leg
 
As the pho­to shows, Elisa can tol­er­ate sit­ting, but only if our Hos­pi­tal Helper, Mari­amo, sup­ports her while she eats. Eva final­ly calmed down once her Granny regained her speech and could tell her to relax. Eva vis­its Elisa each day, in hopes that she can soon return home. We have not tried to explain the future for Eva yet, as many changes will hap­pen once Elisa is released into her family’s care. 
 
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PRAYERS FOR ELISA AND EVA.
 

CORN COMPLETED AND RICE ON THE HORIZON!
 

Cape­na and team weigh­ing the corn this week
 

Pas­tor Gito, who is about 5 foot 9 inch­es tall, is shown cel­e­brat­ing our com­plet­ing the corn stor­age
 
The 1,400 sacks of corn are now safe­ly in our barn. This year there is a corn short­age, but RICE is avail­able in abun­dance, PTL! We will fill our barn next week with over 1,800 sacks of RICE that comes straight from the farmer’s fields IN THE HULL. God gave the rice plant that firm hull to pro­tect it from bugs, and it stores very well as long as it is super dry. All our work­ers had small amounts of nutri­tious, sun-dried rice that they are sell­ing to us, as well as the 14 RICE ASSOCIATIONS who grow tons of rice just 10 miles from our base. Last year there was a huge RICE crop fail­ure, so we are very grate­ful that this year our kids will be blessed by a great rice har­vest. Our barn will hold 102 TONS of rice, so pray for us this com­ing week as we spend 4 days receiv­ing, sewing the sacks, and stack­ing them into the back half of our corn barn.  
IT’S A WAY FOR US TO SURPRISE THE ORPHANS, AS RICE IS USUALLY ONLY A HOLIDAY TREAT TO THE VILLAGE PEOPLE IN BALAMA.
 
BLESSINGS FROM ALL OF US!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: July 1, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: July 1, 2023
 
 
REGGIE IS STANDING!!!
 

Reg­gie stand­ing with chair sup­port and almost tak­ing a step towards Cape­na
 
After a very long 2 years of treat­ments, Reg­gie final­ly won the fight against the very rare dis­ease of Bone Tuber­cu­lo­sis and a bro­ken femur due to frag­ile bones. Her tiny 7.7kg/19lb. body has strug­gled to gain weight and strength.

On Thurs­day, June 29th, Reg­gie showed all of us that things are chang­ing in her life! PRAISE THE LORD! She can now stand if she can hold onto a sta­ble object. Cape­na, our office man­ag­er, even got her to reach out and take a step towards him, for she loves hav­ing him hold her. God is sure­ly doing a great mir­a­cle in this lit­tle girl’s life, and for that we are tru­ly grate­ful. Keep your prayers com­ing for her, as she has a long way to go and is very, very far behind on her age/weight gain chart. This girl needs to GROW and get STRONG! 
 

ALFERES IS HIRED TO TEACH SCHOOL IN HIS HOME VILLAGE!
 

Alferes proud­ly shows off his work doc­u­ment for teach­ing school
 
Proud­ly dis­play­ing his work cer­tifi­cate, Alferes pre­sent­ed him­self at our office ear­ly Thurs­day to tell us he had been hired to teach! The fact that it is in his home vil­lage where his extend­ed fam­i­ly lives, gives him great emo­tion­al and prac­ti­cal food and hous­ing sup­port until he gets on his feet.

We wish him well in his new life, and are very proud of his great achieve­ments. Alferes is the 2nd young adult from our pro­gram to achieve his teach­ers degree and be hired by the Bala­ma School Dis­trict.  
 

FRUIT FROM YOUR LOVE GIFTS! BLANKETS FOR OUR CHILDREN
 

Blan­kets for all the kids. Most are in school in the morn­ings
 

Jesuino, 3, was super hap­py with his new blan­ket
 

Tod­dlers weren’t sure what all the fuss was about. House 6, The Zebras!
 

House 7, more tod­dlers unsure of what is going on
 
The 54 chil­dren liv­ing with us were tru­ly sur­prised this week to receive the new very warm blan­kets we were able to obtain for them. With ear­ly morn­ing tem­per­a­tures now drop­ping to 13C/51F, the blan­kets were a beau­ti­ful bless­ing to all. Keep­ing our kids healthy and warm is a high pri­or­i­ty. We thank all of you, as it was YOUR LOVE GIFTS that made this pos­si­ble!
 
CORN AND RICE BUYING BEGINS NEXT WEEK!
 

Load­ing first 70 sacks that are now inside the Melu­co ware­house for dis­tri­b­u­tion to the Orphans in that area
 
Our 7‑TON-TRUCK TEAM just returned from Melu­co, as they took the first load of life-sav­ing BEANS to the 400+ orphans and wid­ows we serve in that area. This area strug­gles to grow high pro­tein foods, so these beans are essen­tial.
 
MUCH LOVE AND MANY BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU FOR HELPING US TO HELP THESE CHILDREN. 
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 23, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 23, 2023
 
URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FOR ELISA AND EVA 
 
Elisa, the elder­ly grand­moth­er to our Cere­bral Pal­sy orphan Eva, had a stroke this week and is in the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal. You may remem­ber Eva, who enjoyed work­ing to remove the rice hulls.
 

Eva enjoys pound­ing the rice to remove the hull
 
Eva was only 2 when her moth­er died, leav­ing her to be raised by her grand­moth­er. They are very close. Because Eva is men­tal­ly chal­lenged, she is super upset and doesn’t under­stand why her grand­moth­er can’t get out of bed and go home with her. Elisa is unable to speak, and is par­a­lyzed on her left side. Both Elisa and Eva need your prayers, because the out­come for Elisa is unknown. Eva does have extend­ed fam­i­ly who are at Elisa’s bed­side as well, but it is not cer­tain that Eva will accept them as her care­tak­ers.  Please keep them both in your prayers, and I will keep you updat­ed.
 

DONOR PROVIDES FRESH VEGGIES AND FROZEN CHICKENS!
 
Beau­ti­ful are the feet of those who sup­port us, and 8 oth­er African orphan­ages with high pro­tein food gifts!
 

Reg­gie being held by Fos­ter Moth­er Tina with Berti­na by her side. They were super excit­ed to get the Gem Squash
 

Fat frozen chick­en loved by all
 
With bean buy­ing behind us, it is won­der­ful to receive high pro­tein per­ish­able foods for the chil­dren. Frozen chick­ens on Sat­ur­days, (so all the kids are home to enjoy it vs. in school over lunch time), and Gem Squash which is a new food to our ever grow­ing fam­i­ly. Gem Squash is not grown in our part of the coun­try, so even I had to ask the donors wife, “How do you cook it?” We briefed the Fos­ter Moth­ers on the cook­ing instruc­tions as we passed out 40 Gem Squash­es to our 7 Orphan Homes on Wednes­day. The chil­dren told me that the sweet Gem Squash tast­ed yum­my, and I can vouch that it put smiles on all the kid’s faces. A BIG THANK YOU to our kind donor who pro­vid­ed this delight­ful treat. 
 

CONSTRUCTION ABOUNDS WHILE WE WAIT FOR JULY FOOD BUYING
 
The 3‑bedroom con­struc­tion site for the tod­dlers is tak­ing shape. The foun­da­tion is dug, and the foun­da­tion­al gran­ite rocks were trucked in. The ground was as hard as con­crete, so it took our build­ing team sev­er­al days to dig the required depth.  
 

Foun­da­tion being dug while oth­ers get rocks moved into the fenced con­struc­tion area
 
A chain link fence went up on Mon­day to secure the con­struc­tion site. Fenc­ing is required for everyone’s safe­ty as well as for secu­ri­ty pur­pos­es. We will build at a fast pace until the July food buy­ing begins for corn and rice.
 
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS FOR OUR STAFF AND CHILDREN.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 17, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 17, 2023
 
 
NEW HOME FOR TODDLERS
 
Our 2 baby homes are bust­ing at the seams as they host 18 of our 24 toddler/infants in res­i­dence.  Time to get seri­ous about build­ing more bed­rooms. The area next to our Ostrich House was vacat­ed by a wid­ow who moved in with her son, so we tore down that mud house. That gives us room to build on a 3 BEDROOM HOME ADDITION to the Ostrich House Com­plex. We are now busy putting in the required con­crete cor­ner posts for the chain link fenc­ing that will close off this area from the pub­lic. Sand must be stock­piled inside the fenced area BEFORE we can com­plete the front fenc­ing. The 3 bed­rooms will close off the entire entry area into the land once con­struc­tion begins as this build­ing is 20 meters/65 feet long. 
 

Just an emp­ty piece of ground now but it will soon host our lit­tle ones!
 

Putting in the required cor­ner posts at the Ostrich House.
 
It will take us 4 to 5 months to build, which means com­ple­tion will be just in time to move many of the 3‑year-old tod­dlers and their Fos­ter Moth­ers into their new home before the rainy sea­son begins in Novem­ber. Our fam­i­ly is 54 chil­dren strong, and is expect­ed to grow. With only 1 boy grad­u­at­ing in Novem­ber, it is a must that we build on.
 
THE LORD HAS PROVIDED FOR THIS PROJECT, AS HE KNEW WE NEEDED IT BEFORE I DID!
 

WEE WITTLE ONES ALWAYS EAGER FOR PHOTO TAKING
 
Each time I vis­it the Zebra and Leop­ard homes, I am sur­round­ed by lit­tle ones want­i­ng my hugs and atten­tion. That is great until I want to take a pho­to, which is impos­si­ble with them all crowd­ing around me. With help from the moth­ers, I was able to snap this group shot of some of the tod­dlers. 
 

Some of our ever-grow­ing lit­tle ones at Zebra House.
 
They are a live­ly bunch for sure!  (left to right in the pho­to)  BACK ROW:  JULIO, 3 years; MAEZINHA, 3 years; ADELIDE 5 years; SALVADOR, 2.5 years; SUSANNA (red sweater), 2 years.
FRONT ROW:  (Left to right) TWIN CRECENCIA, 18 months; and ABROSIO, 15 months.  The bare bot­tom one in the fos­ter mother’s arms in the back­ground is the twin broth­er to Cre­cen­cia, CRECENCIO, 18 months.  He is much small­er than his sis­ter, and is just get­ting over malar­ia.  He was just com­ing from tak­ing a bath, so for­give his bare bot­tom.
 

BABY JOAO SITTING UP AT 6 MONTHS
 
Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw baby Joao already sit­ting up inde­pen­dent­ly in the play area!  He is grow­ing fast, and could eas­i­ly be a very strong boy if he con­tin­ues at his present weight gain pace.  I take my eyes off these lit­tle ones for a week, and they are no longer lit­tle!
 

Baby Joao wants in on the fun with his new fam­i­ly.
 

FOOD BUYING CONTINUES
 

 
A train of Mon­te­ga Beans head­ed for the bean barn. Also com­plet­ed receiv­ing the Juko Beans today. God has Blessed our chil­dren with a vari­ety of healthy food.
 
MONTEGA AND JUKO BEANS are now in the barn, so our food buy­ing is on sched­ule.  Now we wait for the peanuts. The corn and rice will be bought in July, as it is not total­ly dry yet.
 
KEEP YOUR PRAYERS COMING, AS WE MARCH AHEAD AT A FAST PACE WHILE THE LAND IS DRY AND MANY PROJECTS ARE POSSIBLE.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF