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Author Archives: Kim Hartman

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: NOVEMBER 19, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: NOVEMBER 19, 2022
 
2022 FOOD AND SEED GIVE OUT FINISHED!!
 
The 2022 food pro­gram for the vil­lages is com­plete!  The pro­gram is named The Joseph Project, because like Joseph, we fill our barns in time of plen­ty and give out in time of hunger. 
 
This week marked our final food give outs to orphans and wid­ows in the Bala­ma and Melu­co Dis­tricts.  Our days start­ed at 3 a.m. so that the loaded food trucks could roll out before sun­rise to the remote vil­lages.  Corn and bean seeds were includ­ed in this give out so all can plant their fields.
 

Devo­tions before food give out.
 

Every­one helps get food and seeds back home. 
 

A bicy­cle makes it eas­i­er to the get food, corn and bean seeds home.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS MAKE THIS PROGRAM POSSIBLE. Thanks to you, these orphans and wid­ows have food to give them the ener­gy to plant their fields.
 
As always, our aim is to GIVE THEM A HAND UP, NOT A HAND OUT! Thus, food to help them gain strength, and seed to plant so they are more self, suf­fi­cient.
 
THE JOY OF HAVING EVERY NEED MET
 
Click the link below to see lit­tle Suzan­na look­ing beau­ti­ful.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Az4GQn0F0Vg 
 
A real beau­ty, Suzan­na at 15 months, is enjoy­ing hav­ing all her needs met, includ­ing learn­ing about the love of Jesus.  She is not crazy about bark­ing dogs though!  Turn on your sound!! 
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: NOVEMBER 12, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“DATE: NOVEMBER 12, 2022
 
FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: NOVEMBER 12, 2022
 
OUR CHILDREN ARE GROWING UP!
 
Here are the pho­tos of each of our 7 children’s homes. 
 

The Zebra house toddlers/infants.
 

Baby Leop­ards won’t be small for long!
 

    The Lions and they are a live­ly group!
 

The Buf­fa­lo herd!
 

The Rab­bits of Vic­to­ry House.
 

The Gazelles. Every child in this pho­to came there as an infant!
 

The Ostrich House. Baby Regi­nal­da on top, back row is the baby with the bro­ken femur. Thanks to prayer, God has straight­ened her femur and she is start­ing to put weight on it. Far right, bot­tom is 2‑year old Quis­tan. Fri­day night, he had 2 con­vul­sions not fever relat­ed and is in hos­pi­tal uncon­scious. More labs today will tell us if it is malar­ia. Prayers are need­ed for both.
 
ENJOY THE PHOTOS OF THE KIDS, FOR THEY ARE GROWING UP FAST!
 
The 1st through 6th graders are offi­cial­ly out of school as of yes­ter­day.
It was fun watch­ing the kids cut loose on the play­ground!  Sor­ry, no pho­to of that as it was very ear­ly, and too dark under the huge man­go tree that shades our play­ground.
 
FINISHING FOOD DISTRIBUTION BEFORE THE RAINS COME!
 
Our first storm of the rainy sea­son hit last night.  At our mis­sion, no rain was received, just a heavy thunder/lightning show with heavy winds.But rains are sup­posed to begin next week, if the weath­er­man is cor­rect. Because of this, we are hus­tling to get the Novem­ber food/seed give out com­plet­ed, as these fam­i­lies need their seeds to plant.  Our trucks left at 3:30 a.m. on Fri­day to be at the Impire dis­tri­b­u­tion site by dawn (4:30 a.m.) Remem­ber, rur­al Africa moves accord­ing to the sun, and waits for no clock.  If it’s day­light, every­one is mov­ing. This com­pletes 2 of the 5 coun­ty wide give outs.  The oth­er 3 are sched­uled for Mon­day to Wednes­day next week. Try­ing our best to beat the rains.
 
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 29, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 29, 2022
 
TWO OF OUR MOTHERS HAVING SURGERY
 
On Mon­day, Octo­ber 31, Fos­ter Moth­er Berti­na (Ostrich House), and Granny Feli­ciana, moth­er to her orphaned grand­chil­dren, will be tak­en by our Office Staff at 5 a.m. to the Region­al Hos­pi­tal in Mon­tepuez for surgery.
 

Fos­ter Moth­er Berti­na has abdom­i­nal tumor near her diaphragm.
 
Berti­na has an abdom­i­nal tumor just under her diaphragm that doesn’t appear can­cer­ous, but the Dr. won’t know for sure until he oper­ates.  Bertina’s surgery is very con­cern­ing to me, as it is not an easy one, due to it’s loca­tion in the abdomen.
 

Granny Felic­i­na hav­ing oper­a­tion on left hip on 31st.
 
Granny Feli­ciana has a large tumor on her left hip that needs to be removed.  Both women need prayer cov­er­age.     The out­come of these surg­eries will deter­mine how many days these 2 women must stay in the Mon­tepuez Region­al Hos­pi­tal.  Each women will be accom­pa­nied by a female fam­i­ly mem­ber who will help to care for them in hos­pi­tal. I will update you next week on their progress.
 
BBC GROUPS CONTINUE TO GROW IN NUMBERS
 

Pulling for all their worth! This game real­ly draws the crowds.
 
I am shar­ing a video that shows how the lit­tle ones are work­ing hard to learn how to run a relay race. Their attempt couldn’t be any cuter.
 
 

Lit­tle ones haven’t quite fig­ured out the relay race.
https://youtu.be/7m4sClE54FU
 
The devo­tions groups are get­ting big­ger thanks to the “cliff hang­er” sto­ries that Car­l­i­tos tells before the games start.
 

Telling a cliff hang­er sto­ry before devo­tions has drawn many more kids to stay longer and hear about Jesus.
 
Keep pray­ing for us, as our 2 motor­bike teams will be grow­ing into 4 motor­bike teams by ear­ly Novem­ber, thanks to a fuel dona­tion from one of our donors. Wait­ing on parts for the 4th bike, so as soon as that is fixed, we will orga­nize a sec­ond 4 man team.  This will allow EACH VILLAGE a week­ly pro­gram. At present, there are so many vil­lages, that it takes the 2 man bike team 2 weeks to vis­it all of them.
 
7th OF APRIL ORPHANS RECEIVE NEW SANDALS
 

Orphans liv­ing in 7th of April Vil­lage in their new san­dals.
 
There are 9 orphaned chil­dren cared for by their 3 Aunts who live in a small vil­lage way out in the bush. This vil­lage, named 7th of April,  sits at the foot of a moun­tain with­in sight of our mis­sion sta­tion, but is not easy to reach by road.  Motor­cy­cles can maneu­ver the road much bet­ter than a pick-up truck. Car­l­i­tos of the BBC dis­cov­ered these orphans in great need when he went there on his motor­bike to share the Gospel a few years back. He plant­ed a church there, and trained up a Pas­tor to teach the Word of God. One of the lit­tle boys couldn’t walk, and we are hap­py to announce that anoth­er orga­ni­za­tion has just donat­ed him a wheel­chair! This is a great help for him and his Aunt, as thanks to our week­ly food give outs to him,  he is now too big to car­ry. Car­l­i­tos told me last week that the children’s shoes were now worn out, so we orga­nized 9 new pairs of san­dals, so they can walk in the hot sand. The tem­per­a­tures are reach­ing above 96F/36C dai­ly, so the sand gets very hot around mid­day.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS AT WORK!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE GIFTS THAT KEEPS THESE CHILDREN HEALTHY AND HAPPY.
 BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 22, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 22, 2022
 
HIGH WINDS DAMAGE CHURCH ROOF
 

Remov­ing the secur­ing bricks and bro­ken beams from church roof.
 
Last Sat­ur­day morn­ing, our team of car­pen­ters and brick lay­ers had their hands full repair­ing 5 tin sheets and 3 bro­ken wood­en beams dam­aged by high winds on Fri­day after­noon.  We are grate­ful that none of the tin sheets came com­plete­ly loose from the roof as they become fly­ing razor blades when pushed by high winds.  The dam­age was repaired in 4 hours, as the brick lay­ers and car­pen­ters worked togeth­er to com­plete the work in record time. We are grate­ful it was ready for ser­vice on Sun­day, and that the dam­age was minor. High winds plague this area and rip off many roofs dur­ing the hot and dry sea­son that lasts until Decem­ber.
 
BBC MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF MANY
 
Our BBC (Bush Bik­ers for Christ) teams are gath­er­ing larg­er crowds this week as the word is out that they are back with games and great pic­ture books.
 

Drop­ping bean bags and oth­er assundry con­fu­sion as new kids learn relay rac­ing.
https://youtu.be/uL0GzZZpwHM
 
You can see from the pho­tos and video that the crowds are much larg­er, yet many kids aren’t stay­ing for devo­tions. 
 

Devo­tions and Bible sto­ries after Bawana Games.
 
I worked with the teams to “tweek” their pro­gram so that every­one hears the Word of God if they come to the games. So they are now start­ing a Bible sto­ry and leav­ing it as a “cliff hang­er” with the end­ing only giv­en in devo­tions. IT IS WORKING! 
 
Car­l­i­tos, leader of the BBC team, stat­ed that it worked very well today as they dou­ble the num­ber of chil­dren in devo­tions. 
 

Rais­ing hands to receive Jesus as Lord and Sav­ior!
 
Some chil­dren just need a spir­i­tu­al push to get them inter­est­ed in know­ing who Lord Jesus real­ly is.
 
LEARNING THE VALUE OF MONEY WHILE HELPING A WIDOW
 
Since we rep­re­sent the par­ents of the 58 chil­dren who live with us, it is our respon­si­bil­i­ty to teach them good morals as well as finan­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty. When the school year begins in Feb­ru­ary, each child receives shoes and a school uni­form.  If their shoes wear out, or become too small, it is then their respon­si­bil­i­ty to report it to our staff so they can earn a new pair. 
 

Clear­ing a farm­ing field for a blind wid­ow earns a pair of shoe as pay­ment.
https://youtu.be/vcjWZhz4U5M
 
The teens in our boy’s dorm are now busy work­ing for new shoes, and at the same time help­ing a blind wid­ow who lives in one of our improved mud hut homes.  This is a win-win for both par­ties, as the wid­ow gets her field pre­pared for plant­i­ng, and the boys get a new pair of shoes.  I call it LEARNING BY GIVING A HELPING HAND.
 
MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO HELP US TO HELP OTHERS.
 BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 15, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 15, 2022
 
LOCAL NUTRITIONIST MAKING WEEKLY VISITS
 

Dr. Mar­i­ano weighs and exam­ines each infant in our baby for­mu­la pro­gram.
 
Dr. Mar­i­ano of the Bala­ma Health Cen­ter is now vis­it­ing our mal­nour­ished infants in our Baby For­mu­la Pro­gram each Thurs­day.
Each infant is weighed, then giv­en a phys­i­cal exam.  Any infant found ill is tak­en back to the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal for treat­ment. He also does nutri­tion­al coun­sel­ing with the care tak­er of those infants not gain­ing weight like they should be on our high pro­tein milk and cere­als.
WE GREATLY APPRECIATE HIS HELPING HAND with all our infants and younger chil­dren. 
 
FOOD HANDOUTS COMPLETED FOR OCTOBER
 

Each food dis­tri­b­u­tion begins with devo­tions and a short Bible sto­ry.
 
For the last 2 weeks we spent much of our time load­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing the 20.5 TONS of corn and 3.78 TONS of beans it takes to sup­ple­ment the diets of the 1,144 orphans and wid­ows in our Vil­lage Food Assis­tance Pro­gram For Orphans.
 

3 orphan girls divide the food to help their Aunt get it to their mud hut.
 
 

Granny and orphaned Grand­son will divide their bag of corn before cart­ing it home. Weight is 60 kg. or 132 lbs.
 
 

Old­er child teach­ing the younger ones how to car­ry food on their heads.
 
It’s a great day for us once we know they all have food to help sus­tain them through­out the next 30 days. THANK YOU for give them a help­ing hand dur­ing these hot and dry months when noth­ing wants to grow.
 
2 BALAMA PASTORS TRAVELING TO TETE PROVINCE
 
As I write, our Pas­tors Gito and Ramadan are trav­el­ing 3 days by bus to a teach­ing con­fer­ence in Tete City.  Our Nation­al Bish­op, Zali­ra, select­ed them for a pro­mo­tion to REVERAND when he was vis­it­ing our mis­sion in May of this year. The AGUAS VIVAS CHURCH, which is our spir­i­tu­al cov­er­ing here in Mozam­bique, has 3 lev­els that a church leader may achieve accord­ing to his train­ing and accom­plish­ments.
First is Pas­tor, then Rev­erend, with BISHOP being the high­est lev­el.  Rev­erend is for lead­ers who have excelled in plant­i­ng church­es and evan­ge­liz­ing their areas.
 

Pas­tor Gito
 
Pas­tor Gito has plant­ed 5 church­es in 5 vil­lages, and has BAWANA GAMES pro­grams going in each of these areas.
 

Pas­tor Ramadan
 
Pas­tor Ramadan has plant­ed 2 church­es and assist­ed a less expe­ri­enced Pas­tor in plant­i­ng 2 addi­tion­al church­es in remote vil­lages. Ramadan has BAWANA GAMES pro­grams in 3 loca­tions in his very large vil­lage.
 
These 2 men are the first to be cho­sen from Bala­ma for this hon­or­able advance­ment, so we are super hap­py for them.
 
BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 8, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 8, 2022
 
HELDER NOW A TEACHER IN BALAMA!
 
Our first orphan to com­plete high­er edu­ca­tion, is now gain­ful­ly employed by the Bala­ma School Dis­trict.  He will be teach­ing math, nat­ur­al sci­ence, and art design to 7th graders in a vil­lage about 6 miles/9 km from Bala­ma. 
 

A very hap­py Helder with new bike as trans­porta­tion to his new teach­ing job.
 
Helder is now liv­ing with a rel­a­tive on the oth­er side of Bala­ma town, and is trav­el­ing to this vil­lage with the bicy­cle that we pur­chased to meet his trans­portion need as there is no hous­ing avail­able in this vil­lage.  This all came about this week, with Helder leav­ing our school chil­dren for this new job. Teacher Pedro had noth­ing but high praise for how well Helder interned under him.  It is very hard to see Helder go, as he has been a great con­trib­u­tor to our dorm for over 7 years, and to our staff since Feb­ru­ary.  We wish him well and made sure he had all that was need­ed to get a good start in life on his own.  He will receive food from us for the next 2 months as his first pay­check will be delayed. He also received pots and pans, bed­ding, and oth­er kitchen items.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR MAKING HELDER’S DREAM A REALITY!
 
BBC CROWDS ARE GROWING!
 
This week, the word is out that the fun times are back with our BBC teams!  The motor­bike teams saw their crowds DOUBLE to over 800 chil­dren per day.
 

Praise and wor­ship starts each BBC pro­gram.
https://youtu.be/BrlV6PyASN0
 
The pho­tos tell the sto­ry as our teams play games to attract the chil­dren, then teach them about Jesus under the near­est shade tree.
 

Teach­ing a new game to the Bawana vil­lage chil­dren.
 

Bible stores help the chil­dren vizual­ize what the Youth Leader is explain­ing.
 
MILK PROGRAM EXPANDING AS MORE TWINS ARE NEEDING HELP
 
Josi­na and her 3 week old twins, Vic­tor and Vic­to­ria, are the lat­est to be admit­ted into our INFANT MILK FORMULA PROGRAM.  This pro­gram serves most­ly orphaned infants that would per­ish if not for our help. We also assist moth­ers who are mal­nour­ished and there­fore have no breast milk.  The 3rd cat­e­go­ry assist­ed are moth­ers with twins who are approach­ing 30 days of age.  It is rare to find a moth­er in our Dis­trict with enough breast milk to sat­is­fy 2 fast grow­ing infants. With our help, the twins are able to flour­ish and main­tain a con­stant growth rate.
 

Moth­er Josi­na learns how to mix infant for­mu­la from Assis­tant Chil­dren’s Direc­tor, Fati­ma.
 
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO MAKE THIS PROGRAM POSSIBLE.
TOGETHER, WE ARE SAVING LIVES, 1 CHILD AT A TIME.
 
 BLESSINGS FROM BALAMA,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 1, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 1, 2022
 
BBC BRINGING MULTITUDES TO CHRIST
 
This week the BBC motor­bike team and bicy­cle teams vis­it­ed a new set of vil­lages lead­ing over 250 chil­dren to Christ.
 

10 Chil­dren accept­ed Jesus in Maco vil­lage this week.
 

Over 70 came to Jesus in Mariri vil­lage on Thurs­day this week.
 
On Sep­tem­ber 30th, I met with our 16 Vil­lage Pas­tors who eager­ly restart­ed their BBC pro­grams ear­li­er this month. They report­ed 47 new children’s sal­va­tions after min­is­ter­ing to 963 chil­dren in 30 vil­lages.  Many of the 963 chil­dren they min­is­tered too had already received Jesus before the Covid out­break stopped our pro­gram. 
 
Now the teach­ing begins of how to walk dai­ly with Jesus. Jesus is mov­ing in a pow­er­ful way among the Bala­ma youth, and it is AWESOME to watch. 
 
Tug-of-war
 

Teach­ing tug-of-war to the lit­tle ones.
https://youtu.be/oeENO54I_LI
 
Tak­ing Bala­ma for Jesus is our goal! For the chil­dren are the “good ground”, will­ing to lis­ten and open their hearts to the One who sent their lit­tle spir­its into this world.
 
SUNDAY SALVATION REPORTS FROM VILLAGE CHURCHES
 

Vil­lage Pas­tors receive their quar­ter­ly food allot­ment donat­ed by a very gen­er­ous man of God.
 
VILLAGE CHURCHES SUNDAY SALVATIONS
CHILDREN: 416 (Sun­day School Class­es)
TEENAGERS: 55
ADULTS: 38
 
DAVE DEBOER RETURNS TO THE USA
 
Dave was a great help and inspi­ra­tion to both me and the chil­dren dur­ing his 20-day vis­it.
 

Dave gave out bal­loons this last Sun­day to all the Sun­day School atten­dees mak­ing 50+ plus chil­dren very hap­py!
 
His gift is HELPS and he does it with gus­to! 
 

Dave Deboer was a great hit with the vil­lage wid­ows dur­ing the food give outs.
 
It was hard to keep him busy as he com­plet­ed any task giv­en in record time. Fly­ing out on Wednes­day night to land in Atlanta, Geor­gia, put his plane right in the path of Hur­ri­cane Ian. We are grate­ful to the Lord for guid­ing those pilots to bring the plane in safe­ly just before the storm crossed their flight path. Dave is now safe­ly at home in Michi­gan get­ting much need­ed rest after 43.5 hours of trav­el.
 
WORDS TO LIVE BY:
Keep your eyes con­tin­u­ous­ly on Jesus, for He is com­ing soon!
  
BLESSINGS FROM BALAMA,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: SEPTEMBER 24, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: SEPTEMBER 24, 2022
 
1000’S OF CHILDREN NOW HEARING GOD’S WORD
 
Thanks to gen­er­ous part­ners that assist­ed with motor­bike fuel, the 4 man/2 motor­bike BBC team min­is­tered to 4,390 chil­dren in 14 remote vil­lages over the last 2 weeks. Teach­ing from the Children’s Evan­ge­lis­tic Fel­low­ship (CEF) LARGE PICTURE BOOKS, the teams taught each of the vil­lage groups from Gen­e­sis on Cre­ation.
 
In Octo­ber, we hope to have 4 motor­bikes in ser­vice, so that these chil­dren can hear the Word of God week­ly vs. twice a month.
 

BBC team teach­ing Adam and Eve sto­ry using large pic­ture books.
 
BBC BICYCLE TEAMS got start­ed on Sept. 15th and were able to teach Cre­ation to 2,597 chil­dren in 12 vil­lages in 6 days.
 
CLARIFICATION:  The bicy­cle teams vis­it the vil­lages close to Bala­ma town, while the motor­bike teams teach in the vil­lages more than 10km/6 miles from our base.
 
As you can see in the videos the chil­dren dear­ly love the com­pet­i­tive games and lis­ten intent­ly to the Bible Sto­ries.  In one vil­lage, a child was ill, so the Pas­tors led the chil­dren in a heal­ing prayer for the sick child.
 

BBC teach­ing the chil­dren to pray for the sick. 
Learn­ing by doing.
https://youtu.be/sSHGhid6Eck
 
 
THE LORD IS MOVING IN A MIGHTY WAY AMONG THE CHILDREN.
 
SEPTEMBER FOOD GIVE OUTS COMPLETED THIS WEEK
 
 

Praise songs are a favorite way to begin devo­tions before each food give out.
https://youtube.com/shorts/J9O6r2QughI
 
 
Our Food Give Out Teams assist­ed the last 9 vil­lages on our list in the BALAMA DISTRICT this week.  They served 461 orphans and wid­ows by gift­ing them with 8.5 TONS of Corn, and 1 TON of dried Beans plus soap and salt.  These kids have grown up fast and are very mature for their ages.  You will note in the pho­tos that ALL the school age chil­dren are assist­ing their grand­moth­ers with car­ry­ing the food to their mud huts.
 

Every ophan helps granny car­ry­ing part of their corn gift to their mud hut.
 
 

Two orphan broth­ers divid­ing their corn before walk­ing home.
 
 
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVE GIFTS THAT MAKES ALL THIS POSSIBLE.
 
 
BLESSINGS FROM BALAMA,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: SEPTEMBER 17, 2022
 
BBC TEAMS UP AND RUNNING!
 
We received per­mis­sion to return to nor­mal church activ­i­ties includ­ing our Bush Bik­er for Christ (BBC) Teams using both bicy­cles and motor­bikes.
The lack of fuel is still a chal­lenge for the motor­bike team, but we man­aged to buy enough stock for 1 month for 2 bikes, and hope to expand that to 4 bikes in the near future.  At present the 2 motor­bikes with a 4 man team will vis­it each vil­lage they pre­vi­ous­ly went to over a 2 week peri­od ver­sus a 1 week peri­od.
 
ALL TEAMS were met with GREAT JUBILATION as the vil­lage chil­dren have been beg­ging them to come play games, and tell the Bible sto­ries for sev­er­al months now.
 

And the games are on! The chil­dren love the com­pe­ti­tion.
https://youtu.be/tBpm0ChxaEQ
 

Bible sto­ry time attracts all ages in large num­bers!
 
This was their first week in the field, but the chil­dren respond­ed well with more than a 100 per vil­lage hear­ing God’s Word at the devo­tion time that fol­lows the Bawana Team Games.  As word spreads that “THEY ARE BACK”, the groups will grow.  Before 2020, our teams had a fol­low­ing of over 21,000 chil­dren per week!
Keep these teams in your prayers, as they are the FRONT LINES in bring­ing chil­dren and teens to Christ.
 
DAVE DEBOER IS BACK IN TIME FOR FIRST FOOD HANDOUTS OF 2022
 
Our Food Dis­tri­b­u­tion Team tar­get­ed 4 major vil­lages this week, hand­ing out 14.46 TONS of corn and beans, along with 15 cas­es of bar soap, and 12 sacks (240kg/109lbs.) of salt.  A total of 776 orphans and wid­ows were served this week.
Dave Deboer hand­ed out 1 por­tion of soap for each fam­i­ly mem­ber that we serve, so he got to meet a lot of orphans and grannies.
 

Dave Deboer hand­ing out soap to the wid­ows who care for vil­lage Orphans.
 
The give outs will con­tin­ue next week as we vis­it the final 2 loca­tions where 469 wid­ows and orphans from mul­ti­ple vil­lages come to receive a help­ing hand from all of you who tru­ly love them.
 

Old­er Orphans help granny to car­ry their food gift back to their mud hut.
 
DAVE DEBOER is an Orphans Unlim­it­ed Board Mem­ber who has now been here 7 DIFFERENT YEARS to assist me in either food buy­ing or food give out.  His min­istry gift is HELPS, and that is sure­ly val­ued around here!  Dave will stay until Sep­tem­ber 28th, when he must return to the USA.
I GREATLY APPRECIATE HIS DEVOTION TO THE LORD AND TO ORPHANS UNLIMITED!
 
A SAD FAREWELL TO SISTER LIGUA, AN ANGEL IN DISGUISE!
 
Catholic Sis­ter Ligua (Lisha) has been a pre­cious friend to me, and a help­ing hand to our chil­dren for the last 8 years.  No mat­ter what time of night we called her, she was always will­ing to get out of bed to assist us.  Ligua has many tal­ents, and is excel­lent with start­ing IV’s in crit­i­cal­ly ill super small infants. That is a gift that has saved many a baby’s life here in Bala­ma.    We love her lots, but she has been trans­ferred back to Ecuador, her home coun­try, for the next 2 years.  At that time, God will­ing, we hope she will be able to return to Bala­ma as she desires to do so.
 

Sis­ter Ligua, an Angel in dis­guise!
 
God’s Bless­ings upon her as she is fly­ing this entire week­end (5 sep­a­rate flights) in order to return to Ecuador at mid­night on Sun­day.
Please keep her in your prayers for trav­el mer­cies.
 
BABY FRANCIANO IS HOME!
 
BABY FRANCIANO was released from the hos­pi­tal on Mon­day, and is eat­ing and gain­ing weight, PTL!  Thank you for your prayers for him.
 

Fos­ter Moth­er Esti­va­nia and a perky Fran­ciano hap­py to be home!
 
BLESSINGS FROM BALAMA,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: SEPTEMBER 10, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: SEPTEMBER 10, 2022
 
FRANCIANO GOES BACK TO HOSPITAL ON MONDAY
 
Fran­ciano awoke Mon­day with a fever and trou­ble tak­ing his bot­tle due to an upper res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion.   I was called imme­di­ate­ly by the Head Moth­er at House #7, so our staff wast­ed no time get­ting him to the hos­pi­tal.   He is much improved, but is still on IV antibi­otics till pos­si­bly Fri­day.
 

Fos­ter Moth­er Este­fa­nia and Fran­ciano must con­tin­ue their stay as of Wednes­day.
 
BABY ANCHA is his “roomy” in the open 10 bed Pedi­atric Ward at the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal.
Ancha has com­plet­ed her 5 day malar­ia treat­ment, but her lab tests revealed to the Doc­tors that she also had a blood infec­tion which extend­ed her stay until Wednes­day this week.  We are very hap­py to have her at home now.

Fos­ter Moth­er Cecelia and Ancha were released from hos­pi­tal on Wednes­day. PTL!
 
HIGH RISK BABIES who are super mal­nour­ished have lit­tle immu­ni­ty.
Fran­ciano and Ancha are in this group, as they remain very frag­ile and pick up sick­ness­es very eas­i­ly.  Even with iso­la­tion from the oth­er infants at our 2 “infant” homes, these lit­tle ones still man­age to get sick, no mat­ter how many pre­cau­tions we take. Keep them in prayer, as both of them are doing bet­ter, but need the immu­ni­ty that only God can pro­vide.
 
VEGGIES FOR EVERYONE!
 
Two weeks ago, I had a meet­ing with the Dis­trict Admin­is­tra­tor and so did a man named Richard, who is the own­er of RW Macham­bas (farm­ing fields) in Mon­tepuez. Richard and I hit it off, and he dropped by to see our pro­gram that very day.    Richard of Zim­bab­we and his wife, Car­o­line, along with 2 Amer­i­cans (Tots and Dan), have devel­oped a veg­etable and fruit out­let that includes frozen chick­ens and eggs!  All are Chris­tians, and love help­ing out the mis­sion­ar­ies liv­ing in Bala­ma and Mon­tepuez. 
 

The Chris­t­ian Team that made the veg­gies pos­si­ble. L. to R. Tots, Dan, BBB, Richard, and Car­o­line.
 
We pur­chased our first order of good­ies from them on Sept. 3rd and the chil­dren were delight­ed to get ALL ORGANIC veg­gies and fruits to eat!  A friend of mine in Bala­ma has allowed me to put the ministry’s small chest freez­er at his place, so that the chil­dren can get frozen chick­ens also!  This will be a once a month treat at this time, and we are all very grate­ful for it.  God always makes a way.
It was just a month ago that I asked the Lord how we could get veg­eta­bles and fruits all year round for our chil­dren.  Fresh fruits and veg­gies are only avail­able a few months of the year in Bala­ma.
 

7 box­es of fresh fruit and veg­gies arrive for our 7 chil­dren’s homes.
 
Meet­ing Richard was most cer­tain­ly the answer to that prayer!
 
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE!  GOD ALWAYS AMAZES ME AT HOW HE PROVIDES.
 BLESSINGS FROM BALAMA,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF