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Author Archives: Kim Hartman

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 25, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 25, 2023
 
BABY #19 AN URGENT RESCUE
 
FELICIO (Fe-lee-cee‑o), now 11 months old, lost his moth­er back in April 2022, cause unknown. The only female in the fam­i­ly was his elder­ly grand­moth­er, so she took over his care. All was going well until Feli­cio had fre­quent ill­ness­es, and began los­ing weight in late Jan­u­ary.  His fam­i­ly claimed he was not digest­ing his food well, and was treat­ed for his con­stant diar­rhea. I sus­pect­ed, but couldn’t prove, that his grand­moth­er wasn’t feed­ing him prop­er­ly, as our infants EXCEL when giv­en this same diet. 
 

11-month-old Fele­cio with Fos­ter Moth­er Marceli­na at the Lion House.
 
On Feb. 16th, when the fam­i­ly brought Feli­cio for his weigh-in, he had lost weight even after the diar­rhea had stopped. I imme­di­ate­ly took them for a con­sult with our Mal­nu­tri­tion Spe­cial­ist at the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal. After his exam­i­na­tion, the Doc­tor demand­ed the fam­i­ly bring this mal­nour­ished baby in for a 2nd con­sult the fol­low­ing week. He sus­pect­ed the family’s sto­ry wasn’t total­ly true. 
 
On Feb. 23rd, the infant had lost 400 gms/0.7 lbs. IN THE PAST 7 DAYS! That now put him in a CRITICAL STATE as his 4.4 kg/ 9.7 lbs weight was just bare­ly above his 3.16kg/7 lb. birth weight! REMEMBER, he is 11 months old! A nor­mal weight for an 11-month-old is around 11kgs/24 lbs. The Doc­tor stat­ed that the baby should be removed from this fam­i­ly imme­di­ate­ly, and Social Ser­vices was called in. All were in total agree­ment that if the baby wasn’t removed from the cur­rent care­tak­er that day, there was lit­tle hope for his sur­vival. After a long talk, the fam­i­ly agreed to release the infant into our care, so Feli­cio became urgent baby res­cue # 19. 
 
Our 2 baby homes are too full of infants and under 3‑year-old tod­dlers to receive anoth­er crit­i­cal infant. THANKFULLY, Fos­ter moth­er Marceli­na, who lives across the street from House #7, opened her arms and eager­ly accept­ed Feli­cio since her 2 youngest orphans are now 4 and 5 years of age. These moth­ers do love to cud­dle babies!

There was no truth to the infant’s inabil­i­ty to digest food, as Feli­cio ate, drank, and soaked in all the love that the moth­ers of the LION HOUSE could show­er on him. He was sim­ply hun­gry and love-starved. RESCUE #19 WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE YOU CARE. IF FELICIO COULD TALK, I KNOW HE WOULD TELL YOU HOW GRATEFUL HE IS TO HAVE A SAFE HAVEN WITH ALL THE NUTRITION AND LOVE HIS BODY DESIRES.
 

ANNUAL PHYSICALS FOR OUR CHILDREN
 
Each year, an annu­al phys­i­cal by a Bala­ma Doc­tor is required for all res­i­dents of any orphan­age.  It took about 5 hours to accom­plish the task for all 51 of our chil­dren, but it is great to know that they are all healthy. Enter­tain­ing the tod­dlers was a blast, as some of the chil­dren expe­ri­enced the swing sets for the first time!
 

Cape­na hold­ing baby Joao just after his phys­i­cal.
 

Three-year-old Adelide, an expe­ri­enced swinger, shows Chebany and Sal­vador how it’s done.
 

Sal­vador takes his first swing with Chebany look­ing on.
 

Chebany’s first time in a swing!
https://youtube.com/shorts/GcMDkYIUU1s
 

Me doing self­ies with the tod­dlers.
 
THANK YOU FOR LOVING OUR CHILDREN THROUGH YOUR LOVE GIFTS, AND FOR PRAYING FOR THESE PRECIOUS LITTLE ONES.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 18, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 18, 2023
 
A VALENTINE’S GIFT NO ONE EXPECTED
 
NELCIA, the infant I spoke of last week, was released into our care from the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal on Valentine’s Day! The rea­son: Nelcia’s fam­i­ly real­ized, after talk­ing with the Doc­tor, that their Granny couldn’t care for such a frag­ile lit­tle one. Due to Nelcia’s moth­er pass­ing away before this infant had any of it’s mother’s milk, her immune sys­tem became very com­pro­mised. That is why she became severe­ly ill so quick­ly in her first week of life. We must keep her iso­lat­ed from all oth­er chil­dren for the next 30 days while her lit­tle body builds some immu­ni­ty.
 

Baby Orlen­cia has just arrived at her new home.
 
Nel­cia, now called ORLENCIA, was renamed on Wednes­day by her fam­i­ly when they reg­is­tered for her birth cer­tifi­cate. Bare­ly 19 days old as I write this, Orlen­cia is doing well with her new fos­ter moth­er, Gil­da. PRAY FOR ORLENCIA AND FOSTER MOTHER GILDA. Malar­ia is strik­ing infants as young as 1 month, (malar­ia matures once a per­son is bit­ten in 10 to 14 days), so Orlencia’s pro­tec­tion from mos­qui­tos is para­mount.
 

Mal­nu­tri­tion Doc­tor comes to the car to check out our frag­ile lit­tle Orlen­cia on her 3rd day in our care. Fos­ter Moth­er Gil­da is hold­ing her.
 

SCHOOL DAYS IN FULL SWING!
 
Our tutor­ing class­es start­ed this week after the stu­dents were set­tled in their new class­rooms for 2023. A new face is on the scene as ALFERES, our 2022 teacher-grad­u­ate, is now get­ting prac­ti­cal class­room expe­ri­ence under the watch­ful eye of pro­fes­sion­al teacher, Pedro.  Alferes is present­ly in the inter­view process for a job with the Bala­ma school, but this takes lots of patience and time as we learned when Helder applied.
 

Teacher Pedro explains a point while Alferes and stu­dents lis­ten and write.
 
3‑YEAR-OLDS JOIN THE PRESCHOOL!
 
It’s fun and games for the teach­ers as they work with our 3‑year-old “tiny tykes” as they try their best to learn new games, songs, and Por­tuguese! Each child spends 3 years in our preschool prepar­ing for first grade in the gov­ern­ment school. Learn­ing Por­tuguese and respect for oth­ers both in the class­room and at game time are key objec­tives that our teach­ers pass along to these under 5‑year-olds.
 

The 4 and 5‑year-olds help teach­ers guide the 3‑year-olds in learn­ing their first song.
https://youtu.be/ShW2Aaxo-PY
 
THANK YOU FOR BELIEVING IN US, AND PROVIDING THE NEEDS OF OUR EVER-GROWING CHILDREN.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 11, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 11, 2023
 
5 INFANTS RECEIVED YOUR HELPING HAND
 
On Thurs­days, the infants in our milk for­mu­la pro­gram from all over the county/district come to our mis­sion sta­tion to be checked, weighed, and giv­en their milk for­mu­la and baby cere­al. The fol­low­ing 5 infants all came to us this last Thurs­day.
 
FIRST was the 3‑week-old orphan, Joao, whom you read about 2 weeks ago. Joao’s Aunt has her own 6‑month-old baby, and it was obvi­ous that baby Joao was not receiv­ing the care he need­ed. He had con­sis­tent­ly lost weight since his Aunt took over his care three weeks pri­or, AND he has had a low grade fever for sev­er­al days which she did noth­ing about. It was time for action on Joao’s behalf. Cape­na, our office man­ag­er, took Joao and the Aunt straight to the hos­pi­tal. Social Ser­vices was imme­di­ate­ly noti­fied, and they came right over to see the infant. They agreed that Joao need­ed care that the Aunt wasn’t able to pro­vide. The Aunt grudg­ing­ly allowed the infant to be admit­ted into our fam­i­ly once Joao’s oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers agreed he should live with us. 
 

Newest mem­ber of our fam­i­ly, Joao/John, just 1 month old with Fos­ter Moth­er, Mar­i­ano.
 
SO WE HAVE 1‑MONTH-OLD JOAO NOW LIVING IN HOUSE NUMBER 6!
 
JOAO/JOHN needs a $40/month spon­sor since he will stay per­ma­nent­ly with us.
 
SECOND, the now 9‑day-old infant girl, Nel­cia, who was admit­ted into the milk pro­gram as a 1‑day-old infant last week, is now very sick and unable to take a bot­tle. She was brought in with a mouth full of thrush (fun­gus), and an infect­ed umbil­i­cal cord. BOTH are life threat­en­ing if not treat­ed. She was admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal, and our sub­sti­tute moth­er, Mari­amo, is assist­ing her. This sto­ry will con­tin­ue as this lit­tle one fights for her life.
 

9‑day old Nel­cia now in hos­pi­tal for thrush and umbil­i­cal infec­tions.
 
THIRD, Noon time:  A PREMIE NAMED JANETA, WEIGHING 1 KG/2.2 LBS was brought to us.   Her moth­er died after being trans­ferred from the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal to the Mon­tepuez Region­al Hos­pi­tal due to her com­pli­cat­ed pre­ma­ture labor.  
 

Pre­ma­ture Jane­ta, 8‑days old. Sad­ly, the bot­tle is big­ger than her 1kg/2.2lb. body.
 
This extreme­ly frag­ile lit­tle girl could bare­ly suck a bot­tle, so prayers are need­ed for her sur­vival. She is in the care of her fam­i­ly, and her chances in this envi­ron­ment are not good.
 
AT 3 PM, I thought my work­day was done, when in walks a cou­ple with their TWO-DAY-OLD TWIN GIRLS! This fam­i­ly was sent by Social Ser­vices to our mis­sion sta­tion because the moth­er has mul­ti­ple abscess­es on both breasts and can­not breast feed. These girls, Rosel­da and Rosa, both weighed in at 2.7 kg/5.9 lbs. each.  
 

Twin girls receive 1st milk for­mu­la as Fati­ma, Assis­tant Chil­dren’s Direc­tor, teach­es the moth­er how to pre­pare the bot­tle.
 
They should do very well if the par­ents are dili­gent in clean­ing the bot­tles and using boiled water. Only time will tell.
 
Need­less to say, my staff and I were EXHAUSTED by the end of this day!
But it was a hap­py tired, as we had helped 5 lit­tle lives, giv­ing them a chance to sur­vive.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS MAKE THIS POSSIBLE, AND FOR THAT MY ENTIRE STAFF SENDS THEIR THANKS!
 

SNEAKY SNAKE COMES CALLING
 
This very fat ADDER (Rat­tlesnake fam­i­ly but no rat­tle) was hid­ing in the tall grass that had grown up in a few days around our Moringa trees. The fos­ter moth­ers use the very nutri­tious Moringa leaves in our children’s food, so it is nec­es­sary to keep the grass cut down in the rainy sea­son so they can safe­ly get to the trees. Due to mul­ti­ple days with heavy rains, we were unable to keep the fast-grow­ing grass under con­trol, thus it was over 1.5 meters/5 feet tall by this last Fri­day.


Sneaky Snake met his match!
 
Sneaky Snake was enjoy­ing his good hid­ing place in the grass as he searched out fat rats for his meals.  We don’t mind him eat­ing the rats, but because the ADDER is one of the biggest killers in all of Africa, his pres­ence was unwant­ed. So, our men cut­ting the grass found him, mak­ing short work of this ven­omous killer.
 

PREPARING FOR PRE-SCHOOL

ON A HAPPY NOTE, tod­dlers Julio and Fati­ma are super hap­py as they get to start pre-school next week! Our orig­i­nal 13 infants are grow­ing up fast!
 

Almost 3, Julio and Fati­ma start pre-school!
 
BLESSINGS, AND MUCH THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND KINDNESS IN GIVING TO OUR PROGRAM.
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 4, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 4, 2023
 
20-HOUR-OLD INFANT BROUGHT TO OUR DOOR
 
ERMESIA, born on Jan­u­ary 31, lost her moth­er imme­di­ate­ly after she was born in her vil­lage. Erme­sia, 2.7kg/5.9lbs. nev­er nursed or received any flu­ids before com­ing to us at noon the day after her 4pm birth. This put her in a very dehy­drat­ed state. Our two Children’s Direc­tors, Anna and Fati­ma, were at the mar­ket buy­ing baby clothes for our fast-grow­ing group of 16 infants and tod­dlers. While Cape­na, our Office Man­ag­er raced to fetch them, I sprang into action.
 

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da feed­ing twen­ty hour old Erme­sia.
 
This baby need­ed flu­ids NOW! I quick­ly mixed up 2 ounces of for­mu­la and sat down to offer the bot­tle to the infant. Erme­sia didn’t even hes­i­tate! Suck­ing hard, she drank the for­mu­la with gus­to! Anna and Fati­ma arrived, and gave detailed instruc­tions to the Aunt on how to feed and care for her. Anna asked the Aunt to return the next day since they lived close, so that the infant could be checked. 

WHY? The first week an infant is on for­mu­la is CRITICAL as these Aun­ties and Grannies don’t under­stand the dan­ger of feed­ing sour for­mu­la that’s been left in the bot­tle or in not wash­ing the bot­tle between feed­ings. We like to check the bot­tles and infant with 2 days of enter­ing the pro­gram, ESPECIALLY on a new­born like Erme­sia. Sad­ly, the fam­i­ly didn’t come the next day as request­ed, so we must wait until they do come to find out if the infant is OK. Will update you on this sto­ry next week.
 

MILK PROGRAM SAVES ANOTHER INFANT
 
Old­er infants, like 3‑week-old girl, NILCIA, who was admit­ted Jan. 31 because her mother’s breast milk had dried up, usu­al­ly adjust very well from being breast fed to being bot­tle fed. AGINA, the moth­er, is a refugee and fam­i­ly mem­ber of our Pas­tor Car­los who has 2 church­es in the Kwe Kwe area of Bala­ma. With­out for­mu­la, this lit­tle girl would not have stood a chance at sur­vival.


Nil­cia get­ting first good feed­ing in sev­er­al days.
 
BOTH OF THESE INFANTS, PLUS THE 37 OTHER INFANTS IN OUR MILK PROGRAM HAVE A CHANCE AT LIFE BECAUSE OF YOUR LOVE GIFTS. THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE!
 

70-YEAR-OLD CHURCH MEMBER DOING HIS PART
 
GENONO was car­ried to our office on a motor­bike, as he can no longer walk the 3 km/1.5 miles from Rovu­ma to our mis­sion sta­tion. But his hands work very well, as he still weaves very stur­dy grass bas­kets for our church’s offer­ings! I’ll be dis­trib­ut­ing them to the new­er vil­lage church­es lat­er this month.
 

GENONO brings us his hand­made offer­ing bas­kets for our vil­lage church­es. At 70 he can still weave a great bas­ket! 
 
Genono was blessed with an AWESOME HEALING over 15 years ago when we first began evan­ge­liz­ing the Rovu­ma area. A Mus­lim, Genono was car­ried to the tree where we met for church because his legs had no strength, but he want­ed to hear about Jesus the heal­er. Receiv­ing prayer at the end of our ser­vice, Genono stat­ed his legs felt stronger, and he was able to stand. With­in 2 days he was WALKING AND DANCING TO JESUS, for he had been healed! A devot­ed believ­er, Genono nev­er miss­es a church ser­vice. PROVES YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD TO SERVE THE LORD IN WHATEVER WAY YOU CAN.
 

BBC EVANGELISM REPORT
 
With school begin­ning this week, the BBC’s saw increased atten­dance num­bers LAST WEEK, as those chil­dren returned who had been help­ing their fam­i­lies plant their fam­i­ly farms. Here are two videos of last week’s activ­i­ties, as both the motor­bike team, and the bicy­cle teams saw an aver­age of 200 ADDITIONAL chil­dren com­ing to their pro­grams.
 

BBC TEAM real­ly gets the kids excit­ed before game time begins.
https://youtu.be/DmNaCNQjf30
 

Bean bag toss is a game that chal­lenges the throw­ing accu­ra­cy of the kids.
https://youtu.be/nxka0OELu6c
 
At the request of the vil­lage school offi­cials, we can­celed our pro­gram THIS WEEK so they could get the chil­dren focused and orga­nized into their class­es. Once the chil­dren set­tle into their class­es, our teams will con­tin­ue their vil­lage pro­grams.
 
MANY BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL AND KEEP WARM USA!
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 28, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 28, 2023
 
WEE WITTLE NEWBORNS RESCUED JUST IN TIME
 
A Granny and Aunt came to us last week with a 4‑day-old orphaned boy named Joao (John, in Eng­lish). Sad­ly, Joao’s moth­er passed away on the 2nd day after his birth. Thank­ful­ly, Joao had not lost weight, as he was being nursed by his Aunt who has her own healthy infant on her back.


Aunt hold­ing 7‑day-old Baby Joao and car­ry­ing her baby on her back.
 
The Granny was over­whelmed with grief, AND the fact that she now has 5 orphans ages 9, 6, 4, and 2, as well as the new­born to care for. Granny stayed home this week to care for the 4 chil­dren while the Aunt brought in new­born Joao along with her own infant.

The lit­tle one only gained 50 grams in the last 5 days, but the Aunt showed us a clean baby bot­tle, which tells us Granny is doing a good job with hygiene. PTL! Fur­ther teach­ing was done to make sure the Granny feeds Joao more fre­quent­ly. Most lit­tle ones per­ish in the first week if the fam­i­ly doesn’t keep the bot­tle prop­er­ly cleaned. If the Granny will feed him more fre­quent­ly, Joao should grow at a steady rate.
 

Chil­dren’s Direc­tor Anna weigh­ing Baby Can­dia as Granny looks on.
 
The 2nd orphan received was a very frag­ile 1.8kg/3.9 lb. new­born girl named Can­dia, brought in by her Granny. Social Ser­vices sent the Granny to us as the infant’s moth­er is men­tal­ly unsta­ble, and refused to nurse the infant. Our staff and I were elat­ed to see that this tiny lit­tle one had gained 200 grams in the last week bring­ing her up to 2 kgs/4.4 lbs. We told Granny Fati­ma to keep up the great work, and this lit­tle one will grow up quick­ly.
 
Our infant milk pro­gram is essen­tial if orphaned/abandoned infants are to sur­vive. Infants can only tol­er­ate milk for­mu­la until they are 90 days old. As they pass 3 months, we get them to eat­ing rice cere­al fol­lowed by the super high pro­tein Hypo Cere­al. This increas­es their gain weight very rapid­ly. At present we have 37 INFANTS in our pro­gram who would have all per­ished if not for the help that you pro­vid­ed them.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS ARE SAVING LIVES! ON BEHALF OF THESE INNOCENT ONES,
WE THANK YOU!
 

SCHOOL DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!
 
Giv­ing out school sup­plies to our chil­dren is ALWAYS A BIG DEAL. Have you ever tried out­fit­ting 53 kids with school sup­plies in one morn­ing? Our staff has it down to an art for sure as we com­plet­ed it in about 2 hours.


Pas­tor Arman­do and Bren­da hand­ing out school sup­plies.
 
The chil­dren were so excit­ed that they showed up AN HOUR EARLY! They want­ed to be the first in line for their new back­packs filled with note­books, a math set, pens, col­ored pen­cils, and oth­er items that gives them the opti­mum chance to do their best in school.


Mon­i­ca, 4th grad­er, and San­dra, 2nd grad­er, wait in line to receive school sup­plies. It was sup­per windy, thus the hood­ies.
 
Our chil­dren brought in TOP GRADES this year thanks to our tutor­ing class­es. We plan to con­tin­ue their tutor­ing to help them EXCEL even more this year, as it real­ly improved their math and Por­tuguese grades.
 

Edward and his sis­ter Anna are super hap­py with their new back­packs that your love gifts pro­vid­ed.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS ARE TRULY MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE IN MANY LITTLE LIVES!
 
BLESSINGS FROM ALL OF US,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA TEAM

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 21, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 21, 2023
  
A PEANUT IN THE NOSE!
 
Julio put a peanut up his nose last Wednes­day night, caus­ing me to be called out at 8:30pm when the fos­ter moth­ers dis­cov­ered it. I called the local Emer­gency Room Direc­tor for expert advice, and he came in per­son to the Zebra House to remove it so we didn’t have to go to the hos­pi­tal.

Mak­ing a hook out of a reg­u­lar syringe nee­dle, he expert­ly removed the peanut with no trau­ma to Julio’s lit­tle nose. It didn’t even bleed! I could tell this is not the first time the Emer­gency Room Direc­tor has been con­front­ed with such a case. He spoke to the moth­ers about keep­ing peas, beans, and peanuts away from tod­dlers, as they like stick­ing them in ears and noses!
 

Julio, peanut lover, on left. Chebany on right, bet­ter known as Mr. Ali­gria (Mr. Hap­py).
 
The pho­to shows Julio along with his bud­dy, Chebany, the day after his peanut fias­co. FYI: Julio will begin pre-school in a few weeks. He is the old­est of the 13 infants we received 2 years ago.  How fast they grow up!
 

LEARNING WHILE PLAYING
 
It rained from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Fri­day, but thanks to sandy loam soil, part of the soc­cer field was dry enough to play on by 8 a.m. This time of year, you take what you can get as far as dry places for kids to play.
 
The fol­low­ing videos show our kids hav­ing fun while learn­ing. First, they played what we know as “Simon Says” with a Mozam­bi­can theme, as this teach­es them to lis­ten and fol­low ver­bal instruc­tions.   
 

Our chil­dren play­ing “Simon Says” the Mozam­bi­can way.
https://youtu.be/VgxRrJgDeaQ
 
For me, the count­ing song that came next gave them the most joy!  When I showed them the videos, they laughed with glee, for see­ing their own faces and hear­ing their voic­es is for­eign to them.
 

Count­ing to 13 the fun way!
https://youtu.be/voDWBQExL9E
 
These kids are a fun bunch for sure, and it is THANKS TO ALL OF YOU that all those smil­ing faces are healthy and receiv­ing a fun edu­ca­tion.
 

BBC DODGING THE MUD
 
The BBC Teams con­tin­ue their great work as weath­er per­mits. Fri­day, the ear­ly morn­ing rain hit the vil­lages around Bala­ma, leav­ing lots of mud behind. This is the only day the team missed this week.
 

Tug-of-war for the young teens. Very com­pet­i­tive!
 
Enjoy this video, as our Youth Pas­tors con­tin­ue to bring sto­ries of the life of Jesus to over 1,000 chil­dren per day. On aver­age this week, the teams saw 20–30 chil­dren receive Christ EACH DAY.  It is a won­der­ful sight as these chil­dren are the “good ground” that Jesus tells us about.
 

BBC Team teach­ing chil­dren to be a leader.
https://youtu.be/B91IexBAtAw
 
BLESSINGS FROM ALL OF US,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA TEAM

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 14, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 14, 2023
 
FUN IN THE SUN FOR A MOMENT
 
We final­ly had a break in the morn­ing rains that kept our kids off the play­ground.  When I opened the play­ground, it was like turn­ing loose a herd of wild hors­es!
 

Hap­py chil­dren enjoy the slide.
 
 

San­dra in front came to us as an infant. Now a 2nd grad­er!
 
The giant slide was opened, and the old­er chil­dren lined up to go down 2 by 2 with BIG SMILES on their faces. 
 

Our preschool­ers took over the swing set.
 
The lit­tle ones ran to the swings, and it was non-stop action for a whole 2 hours!  As they tired of the slide and swings, the old­er chil­dren were giv­en a soc­cer ball, and sent out with a Pas­tor Jose to play on a dry part of the soc­cer field.  The lit­tle ones were orga­nized into a kick­ball team which was a bit chaot­ic.   No one cared that the ground was a bit damp, and that the sandy loam stuck to your shoes.  IT WAS PLAY TIME!

I was so grate­ful they had those 2 hours, for the rains returned at lunch time, turn­ing the ground into mush where they had been play­ing.  Such is our life dur­ing the 4 months of the rainy sea­son.  GRAB THE MOMENT, for the weath­er won’t last!
 

BBC TEAMS DODGING THE RAINS TO BRING CHILDREN TO CHRIST
 
Even though we’ve had mul­ti­ple rain out days for the BBC Teams in the last 2 weeks, our Youth Pas­tors are still bring­ing new chil­dren to know Jesus.
 

BBC team teach­ing “I love God, and God loves me”.
https://youtu.be/0WLUjQ2L24U
 
The two BBC Bicy­cle Teams work in the vil­lages close to Bala­ma town. They report crowds of 200 to 400 chil­dren per vil­lage with an aver­age of 15 to 20 chil­dren accept­ing Jesus at each Bala­ma Game Event.
 

Vil­lage young­sters enjoy an intense com­pe­ti­tion.
https://youtu.be/cDZ3r5Uq7kM
 

Lit­tle ones learn­ing the ropes in tug-of-war.
 
The 4‑man BBC Motor­bike Team has increased their pres­ence in the Dis­trict by going to three vil­lages in the same area instead of two. Gaso­line is still very lim­it­ed in our area, pre­vent­ing us from expand­ing to our nor­mal 4‑man Motor­bike Team.

In the larg­er vil­lages, the Motor­bike Team aver­ages 500 to 800 chil­dren per event. The small­er vil­lages aver­age 275 to 430 per event. The Motor­bike Team is reach­ing between 800 and 1000 chil­dren with the Gospel each day. Sal­va­tions for this team aver­age from 10 to 30 per vil­lage.

No mat­ter the weath­er, our young men are ded­i­cat­ed to bring­ing God’s lit­tle ones to know who Jesus is.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITHFUL SUPPORT OF THESE TEAMS!
 
BLESSINGS FROM ALL OF US,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA TEAM

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 7, 2023

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 7, 2023
 
HAPPY 2023 FEAST FOR THE CHILDREN
 
Rain and more rain was last week­end’s sce­nario for Bala­ma. Plan B was a fat frozen chick­en for each chil­dren’s home along with all the “fix­ins”. Mud may have can­celed the group par­ty, but the chil­dren enjoyed their cook­ies, can­dy, and bal­loons, so all was fine with them.
 

All 7 homes received a feast and good­ies on New Year’s Eve Day.
 
THANK YOU to all who pro­vid­ed the Love Gifts that made this pos­si­ble.
Pray for our safe­ty as cyclone sea­son is here and the weath­er ser­vice pre­dicts a pos­si­ble 5 cyclones ( hur­ri­canes) could bring seri­ous trou­ble to this coun­try.
 
PLANTING TIME FOR OUR TEENS
 
Our dorm boys man­aged to get their bean field plant­ed just days before Christ­mas, when the heavy rains hit. Every teenag­er in our pro­gram must learn Agri­cul­tur­al Skills, as their sur­vival once they leave us will depend on it. No mat­ter what your paid job might be, farm­ing is an essen­tial part of every­one’s life in this part of Mozam­bique if you want to have nutri­tious food like corn and beans.
 

Beans plant­ed just 1 day before the rains began. Tim­ing is every­thing in farm­ing.
 

EARNING TO LEARN
 
A main objec­tive for our high school stu­dents is to teach the val­ue of mon­ey. These 3 teenagers, Neto, Man­in­ho, and Eralio, are in our orphan food pro­gram. They live with a fam­i­ly mem­ber who has­n’t the means to pay their high school fees. They request­ed assis­tance which we gave in exchange for a few hours of work. Work­ing for school fees teach­es them to earn what they need, and not to expect a hand out.
 

Work­ing to earn school fees teach­es invalu­able Life Skills.
 
The teenagers in our orphan­age do the same, giv­ing 2 hours a week to help oth­ers as a com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice. Rais­ing chil­dren car­ries many respon­si­bil­i­ties in prepar­ing them to sur­vive on their own. Our staff is doing a great job in teach­ing these youth what chil­dren’s par­ents teach them in every­day life.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING EDUCATION POSSIBLE FOR HUNDREDS OF ORPHANS.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 31, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 31, 2022
 
YOUNG EVANGELISTS BRINGING THEIR FRIENDS TO CHRIST
 
Our Sun­day School chil­dren have risen to the chal­lenge to help their friends know Jesus! Each Sun­day, we are see­ing new faces in the class­room, and atten­dance has gone from 40 to almost 100 each week.


Our ever grow­ing Sun­day School on Christ­mas Day!
 
All ages from infants to 12-year-olds attend our class, as all are on the same lev­el as far as know­ing the Bible. They enjoy the Bible sto­ries and the songs they sing (see video). 
 

Singing “Jesus I Love You” in Eng­lish and then in the local lan­guage of Makua.
https://youtu.be/645s417gKA0
 
They tru­ly put their hearts into it! The chil­dren are the fer­tile ground taught in the Para­ble of the Sow­er. The dev­il wants the chil­dren to be his, so please reach out to all the lit­tle ones you know and make sure they know JESUS IS THE TRUTH, THE LIFE, AND THE ONLY WAY! It is so much eas­i­er to show them the way when they are young, then to wait until their hearts are hard and stuck in the sin of the world.
 

TOYS FOR THE TOTS
 
It was a joy giv­ing out presents to our chil­dren this week. Infants received their first Christ­mas presents.
 

Our youngest, Ancha, 9 months, likes her new rat­tle toy.
 

Baby Elsa, almost 10 months old, was a bit over­whelmed with all the excite­ment.
 
The most fun was see­ing the faces of the many tod­dlers who were only infants last Christ­mas. Watch the video for their fun inter­ac­tions, as 20-MONTH-OLD AMBROSIO, got so excit­ed about get­ting a toy car that the stood up and WALKED for the first time in his life. 
 

The mighty tod­dlers of House #6 see Ambro­sio  walk!
https://youtube.com/shorts/Lc1pGZbH83s
 
All the moth­ers gasped with JOY as they watched him stand­ing inde­pen­dent­ly look­ing at his toy car.  Every­one knew he could do it, he just need­ed a rea­son!
 

Fati­ma hap­py receiv­ing her hand­made doll.
 
The under 7‑year-old chil­dren received toys. The old­er chil­dren received mon­ey to go to the mar­ket and pick out what they want­ed. Thank you to all of you who made this fun time hap­pen. 
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL, AND MAY IT BE FILLED WITH BLESSINGS THAT ONLY OUR LORD CAN ORGANIZE.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 24, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 24, 2022
 
TRUE GRIT GETS REPAIRS FINISHED FROM STORM 8 DAYS AGO!
 
The final nails were dri­ven in on Tues­day morn­ing, PTL, and then the rains came tum­bling down. We thanked Jesus for hold­ing off the wet stuff until all was com­plet­ed. It’s hard enough doing roof work when it means walk­ing on slip­pery tin sheets, but you add rain to the mix, and all must come to a halt!


Final fix by car­pen­ters. This was only the front sec­tion of the bean/rice ware­house that was dam­aged. The back wall to your left was com­plete­ly rebuilt by Tues­day (8 days total!)
 
 
BEANS ARE BACK IN REPAIRED BEAN BARN
 
On Decem­ber 23rd,  26 men worked for 3 hours to get all the 132lb./60kg bean bags back into their prop­er barn. Now we have room to move more corn as need­ed. With 1000 sacks of beans in the corn ware­house, we could bare­ly get into the door!


1000 bean sacks (132 lbs./60 kg. each) being walked from the corn ware­house to the bean ware­house, a total roundtrip of 70 yards by 26 men in 3 hours time.
 
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO GAVE TO THESE REPAIRS SO THAT DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN CAN STILL RECEIVE LIFE SAVING FOOD.
 

ALFERES RECEIVES TEACHERS CERTIFICATION
 
It’s been a suc­cess­ful year of hard work for Alferes to achieve his heart’s goal of becom­ing a pri­ma­ry school teacher. He will stay in our boy’s dorm while receiv­ing excel­lent teach­ing expe­ri­ence by tutor­ing our chil­dren.


Alferes grad­u­ates Teach­ers Col­lege on Decem­ber 20th. Our 2nd young man to do so.
 
Our retired school­teacher, Pedro, will give Alferes the same great teach­ing instruc­tion that our first grad­u­ate, Helder, received. This stu­dent teach­ing expe­ri­ence, while wait­ing for a job open­ing, is an excel­lent learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty. It also helps our stu­dents glean from the newest teach­ing meth­ods that Alferes learned. Thanks to YOUR LOVE GIFTS, ALFERES HAS A GREAT FUTURE THAT WILL BENEFIT OTHERS.
 

CHRISTMAS PARTY RAINED OUT, SO BUNNY ACTIVATES PLAN B!
 
We resched­uled the par­ty twice this week, but a fore­cast of anoth­er 8 days of rain direct­ed us to use plan B. On Decem­ber 24th, two frozen chick­ens with all the fix­ings will be dis­trib­uted to each of our 7 homes. CHRISTMAS toys and treats will be giv­en out as well. Not the per­fect solu­tion, but the only one that keeps every­one dry while hav­ing a great feast. More on this next week.
 

LIFE IS FULL OF CHALLENGES
 

Life is full of chal­lenges that pull you here and there. Nev­er lose sight of the Mas­ter of Solu­tions, JESUS, and He will show you how to over­come them!
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF