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Author Archives: Kim Hartman

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

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 10, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 10, 2023
 
 
BEANS IN THE BARN IN RECORD TIME!
 
Thanks to a great team effort, we weighed, processed, and stored 108 TONS of dried beans in 5 days!
 
It took a mon­u­men­tal effort to do this with our 106-man team (no machines). To let you in on a secret, the entire team request­ed we take 6 days next year to not be so hard on our bod­ies.  I ful­ly agree!  For sore mus­cles abound­ed all around for young and old alike! Enjoy the pho­tos of our week’s work.  
 
The week starts with two days of the beans being weighed. 
 

Man­u­al weigh­ing beans at 5 am. Every­thing done by flash­light (torch) since there is no elec­tric­i­ty in this area.
 

The rest of the week the beans are processed for stor­age. Start­ing at 4:30 am and using pick­up head­lamps for illu­mi­na­tion until the sun ris­es at 5:30 am.
 

After pro­cess­ing the beans, the sacks are sewn, and then our men car­ry them 40 yards (meters) to the bean barn.
 
State Pas­tor, Gito, gave the men very pow­er­ful words from God before we start­ed work.  This is the largest unsaved group of men we min­is­ter to dur­ing the year, and we prayed that the words Gito spoke would enter their hearts, not just pass through their heads.
 
NEXT WEEK—MONTEGA AND JUKO BEAN BUYING
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS SAVING LIVES BY PROVIDING PROTEIN FOR THE DIETS OF 1,500+ ORPHANS AND WIDOWS.
 
BLESSINGS FROM A VERY TIRED, BUT HAPPY, BALAMA STAFF.
 
AND A VERY BUSHED BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 3, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 3, 2023
 
NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY PARTY (JUNE 1ST ) WAS LOADS OF FUN!
 
Nation­al Children’s Day is a day set aside to hon­or and cel­e­brate the chil­dren of Mozam­bique.  Every­one except the High School has a school hol­i­day.  June 1 is a day of recog­ni­tion, par­ties, gift giv­ing and enjoy­ing a spe­cial meal. Before sit­ting down to our feast, the chil­dren want­ed to share with you the praise songs they sing to Jesus.
 

Singing  “I LOVE YOU JESUS” to a catchy beat!
https://youtu.be/YleUrUce3xo
 

The whole group singing “I LOVE JESUS AND JESUS LOVES ME” in Makua, Por­tuguese, and Eng­lish!
https://youtu.be/mBtjrCPRpqM
 
The preschool class­es gave a spe­cial pre­sen­ta­tion to hon­or me. The hand­made signs around their necks and the song from their hearts was pre­cious to me. I thank our preschool teacher, Fati­ma, for orga­niz­ing this demon­stra­tion of love.  It is an HONOR to be here serv­ing the Lord. 
 

Preschool class signs say “We love you Mama Bren­da.  Viva June 1st!”
https://youtu.be/HW0zxdyq5Rc
 
After the enter­tain­ment, it was time for the feast.
 

The whole fam­i­ly is ready to receive the feast!
 
This year’s meal con­sist­ed of rice with a top­ping of pin­to beans and chick­en chunks in a deli­cious sauce.  Kool-Aid was the drink of the day.  Note that every­one has their cups ready! Dessert was cook­ies and can­dy, always a BIG HIT! The fol­low­ing pho­tos show­case the youngest in our fam­i­ly plus the first-time tod­dlers.
 

Our 2‑year-olds enjoy­ing this feast, espe­cial­ly since they were too young to remem­ber last year’s par­ty.
 

2 years and under from House #6.  First time at a feast for all of these chil­dren.  They were keen to eat!
 

Our youngest from House #7.  Their first feast had them wide-eyed for sure!
 
I pur­pose­ly delayed the begin­ning of our bean buy­ing until Mon­day, June 5th, so we could have the time to enjoy being with the chil­dren on Nation­al Chil­dren’s Day, June 1st.
Am keep­ing this blog short, as there is still much to do to kick off the bean weighing/processing next Mon­day.  Thanks for under­stand­ing.  No beans, means over 1,500 orphans and wid­ows (our fam­i­ly plus those in the food pro­gram) would go hun­gry.  God sent us here to save His chil­dren, so off we go to the barns to do just that.  Our plan is to move over 108 TONS OF BEANS next week. Please keep us in your prayers.
 
Hugs and Bless­ing to you all for mak­ing this pos­si­ble!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MAY 27, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: MAY 27, 2023
 
BUSH BUNNY BIRTHDAY BASH!
 
It was an hour of great fel­low­ship and deli­cious food on Fri­day, the 26th, with the 3 Catholic Sis­ters who live down the road from me. These ladies love to cel­e­brate birth­days, and since I’m the only mis­sion­ary at our base, they always include me in their Birth­day Cal­en­dar events.  
 

Birth­day girl Bren­da, with Sis­ter Tere­sa who made a fab­u­lous meal and cake from scratch! Deli­cious indeed!
 
Any excuse for a fun meal with friends, is good enough for them! We had great fun with plen­ty of sto­ries to make us all laugh.  They pro­vid­ed me with lunch for the next day as well, for they always send me home with plen­ty of left­overs. It’s nice to have friends who enjoy bring­ing a smile to my face.
 

CANDID CAMERA ON THE PROWL
 
I snuck up on some of the tod­dlers on Thurs­day. They are a fun group, always full of ener­gy and laugh­ter.  Enjoy the pho­tos I man­aged to snap.
 

Chebany and Sal­vador as they fin­ished their spaghet­ti lunch. Chebany still has spaghet­ti in his mouth.
 
 

Head Fos­ter Moth­er Gil­da for the 2 infant hous­es is hold­ing 2‑month-old Orlen­cia.
 
 

Baby Madeli­na doing her Hi Mom pose! She is not one for sit­ting still.
 
BUSH BUNNY AND STAFF…
 
Are hop­ping hard in order to buy 108+ tons of beans come June 5th. The Blogs will be short but sweet for the next 3 weeks, and in July as well.  Food buy­ing each year takes everyone’s con­cen­tra­tion and hard work. Our major food buy­ing, 300 TONS, will be in JULY. That is when we must fill our barns with super dry corn and rice still in it’s hull (keeps it fresh­er).
 
BLESSINGS FROM ALL OF US,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MAY 20, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: MAY 20, 2023
 
BABIES ANCHA AND ELSA:
 
On Thurs­day this week I vis­it­ed House # 7 to find baby ANCHA start­ing to walk! The video shows Ancha in the act along with baby Elsa who has been walk­ing for sev­er­al weeks now. Baby Elsa is 1 day YOUNGER than Baby Ancha. Read on and you will real­ize why all of us are so excit­ed that Ancha is walk­ing.
 

Baby Ancha, Elsa in the red jack­et
https://youtube.com/shorts/IT5uOFgKfSk
 
ANCHA’S STORY: BABY ANCHA, born March 6, 2022, had a real­ly rough start in life. Hos­pi­tal­ized in August 2022 with 4 dis­eases that would kill most babies, and weigh­ing only 3.6kg/8 lbs., 5‑month-old Ancha was in crit­i­cal con­di­tion. WE WEREN’T SURE SHE WOULD LIVE, AND NOW WE PRAISE THE LORD THAT SHE IS WALKING AT 14.5 MONTHS! With such a rough start, Ancha showed all of us how impor­tant prayer, tons of love and care, and a high pro­tein diet opens the door so the Lord’s heal­ing touch can work over­time!
 
TO CLARIFY, HERE’S THE FACTS:
Ancha is 1 day old­er than Elsa. Ancha was still at her birth weight when she was 5 months old, and had to over­come 4 dis­eases to sur­vive. TODAY’S WEIGHT: 7.7kg/17 lbs.! Elsa was orphaned at 12 days, but was nev­er mal­nour­ished. She was born at 3.3kg/7.2 lbs. and TODAY’S WEIGHT:  7.4 kg/16.24 lbs. ANCHA IS AN OVERCOMER!
 

FIRST SWEET POTATOES FOR THE TODDLERS!
 
Chebany and Jul­ho, both 3 years old, came over to show me their boiled sweet pota­toes! 
 

Chebany (L) and Jul­ho, in the green shirt, show off their sweet pota­to break­fast
 
The 2023 sweet pota­to har­vest was just com­plet­ed, which excites all the chil­dren who knows what they taste like. Sweet pota­toes are eat­en here as a break­fast food, for it is pow­er packed with ener­gy that stays with you for sev­er­al hours. Great for those chil­dren who have to eat and run off to school at 6 a.m.! 
 
Fran­ciano, who is 18 months old, doesn’t under­stand what all the excite­ment is about, as he has nev­er tast­ed sweet pota­toes.
 

Fran­ciano won­der­ing what all the fuss is about!
 
I couldn’t hang around today, but am sure his fos­ter moth­er gave him a taste when their pota­toes came off the fire. 

It is a priv­i­lege to get to open the eyes of a child to the bless­ings the Lord pro­vides!
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS ARE LIFE TO THESE CHILDREN.
OUR STAFF CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR ALLOWING US TO BE THE HANDS AND FEET OF JESUS EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR.
IT IS AN HONOR THAT BLESSES ALL OF US, FOR WE GET TO SHARE THE LOVE OF JESUS WITH HIS LITTLE ONES AS THEY GROW.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MAY 13, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: MAY 13, 2023
 
UNDERWEIGHT TWINS JOIN OUR FAMILY
 
CRECENCIA (girl), and CRECENCIO (her twin broth­er) lost both their par­ents last year to an untime­ly inci­dent. Their Aunt, who lived near­by, was unable to care for these 7‑month-old babies as she had lit­tle food, and a house full of fam­i­ly to care for. Anoth­er Mozam­bi­can fam­i­ly offered to care for these twins, but they didn’t feed them the prop­er food for their age. The infants slow­ly became mal­nour­ished, and we were asked to reg­is­tered them into our week­ly infant pro­gram for the mal­nour­ished. Even with prop­er high pro­tein food and milk being giv­en to them over the last 2 months, their weight was not improv­ing as it should.

Last Tues­day, Social Ser­vices approved the admis­sion of these 16-month-old tod­dlers into our tod­dler home as they are both 12 lbs./6kg under­weight for their age. A high pro­tein tod­dler diet, as well as a sta­ble envi­ron­ment with 12 oth­er tod­dlers to play with, proved to be just what these twins need­ed! They imme­di­ate­ly start­ed play­ing with the oth­er chil­dren in the sand box.
 

A can­did shot of the twins lov­ing their sand­box play time
 
WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL to be able to give these twins a sta­ble home envi­ron­ment. Nor­mal­ly, new arrivals are afraid of me because my skin col­or and hair are dif­fer­ent than the vil­lage peo­ple. The lit­tle girl, Cre­cen­cia showed her courage on Tues­day when she walked across the sand­box to sit in my lap as I sat watch­ing the chil­dren play. Cre­cen­cia is a hug­ger, and I always wel­come ALL HUGS these lit­tle ones can dish out.

This makes 24 infant/toddlers under the age of 3 now liv­ing in 5 of our 7 homes. Nev­er a dull moment for sure, and it real­ly keeps me hop­ping! Please pray for all our staff as we adjust to man­ag­ing this large of a tod­dler fam­i­ly.
 
THE STORY OF OUR ADVENTURES WILL NEVER STOP!
 
For­give the short­ness of this blog, but all of our staff have extra duties as we gear up for the mas­sive 500 ton food buy­ing on June 1 that feeds over 1,300 vil­lage orphans. I will keep you all post­ed on our many adven­tures as we pre­pare to buy 100 TONS of beans on June 1st.
 
UNTIL NEXT WEEK, THIS IS THE BALAMA BUSH BUNNY SIGNING OFF.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF