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Author Archives: Kim Hartman

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 18, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 18, 2022
 
FINALLY! BRINGING IN THE BEANS!
 
Bet­ter late than nev­er, as the 108 TONS of beans are final­ly dry and ready for stor­age! With a team of 43 men, we had 1,200 sacks (72 TONS), in the barn over the last 2 days. 
 

Cape­na, Office Man­ag­er, weighs 3 sacks of beans at a time while Car­l­i­tos Jorge holds the 🔦 torch.​
 
Mov­ing 600 sacks weigh­ing 132 lbs./60kg EACH, is no easy task, but these super strong men made it look easy. We begin prepar­ing these beans for long term stor­age on Mon­day, June 20th, and will receive the final 600 sacks on Tues­day.  So no need to count sheep next week, we will be count­ing beans in our sleep!
 

Ear­ly bird start at 5a.m. on 2nd day of bean buy­ing. Two of our pick-ups pro­vide lights along with 3 🔦 torch­es.​
 
Keep us cov­ered in prayer, for if all goes as planned, we will move ALL 108 TONS into our bean barn by Wednes­day noon.
 

1st day’s beans in the barn. 600 sacks total.
 
 
A BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF OUR MISSION STATION
 
The VP of Orphans Unlim­it­ed blessed me this week with a satel­lite pho­to from Google Earth of our Bala­ma mis­sion sta­tion. I decid­ed to share it with you, so you can see where we live with­out hav­ing to fly over here.
 
The BIG GREEN SQUARE in the low­er half of this pho­to is our 40 acre/16 hec­tor mis­sion sta­tion. The town built around us many years after we had pur­chased this land in 2002. The children’s homes are NOT on our mis­sion prop­er­ty as the chil­dren live in the vil­lage area just out­side our fence.
 

Satel­lite pho­to of our 40 acres/16 hectare mis­sion sta­tion in Bala­ma.
 
THE FAR LEFT UPPER CORNER of this GREEN SQUARE shows the food ware­hous­es, which we are work­ing in right now to fill with corn, beans, and rice by the end of July.
 
Fol­low the dirt road down to the mid­dle of our mis­sion prop­er­ty and the FIRST LONG TIN ROOF in the trees is our office and my home (all under 1 roof).  The oth­er build­ings are guest homes, and the cov­ered areas where our trucks are parked.  
 
THE FAR RIGHT UPPER CORNER (sandy area) is our soc­cer field, with the All Pur­pose Food Distribution/Education/Playground Cen­ter sit­ting just north of the soc­cer field.
 
If you turn LEFT at the Food Cen­ter, the dirt road takes you to the LONG BUILDING in the mid­dle of the prop­er­ty.  That is our church build­ing.
 
I hope this satel­lite tour helps you to under­stand bet­ter where every place is that I speak about in my blogs.
 
KEEP THOSE PRAYERS COMING! IT’S LOTS OF WORK TO BRING IN 500 TONS OF FOOD BY END OF JULY!
 
BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 11, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 11, 2022
 
PRE-TEENS COME FOR A VISIT
 
Nation­al Children’s Month in Mozam­bique helps to “open the eyes” of the local young peo­ple to the impor­tant pro­grams in their coun­ty. Hav­ing these young­sters vis­it our facil­i­ty was a first for us, and the chil­dren were tru­ly sur­prised to see such nice homes and lov­ing fos­ter par­ents.
 

17 chil­dren from Bala­ma received a tour of 2 of our homes plus the play­ground.  They were tru­ly amazed at our program​.
 
Their one-hour vis­it includ­ed our “Vic­to­ry Home”, the teenage boy’s dorm, and our play­ground/all-pur­pose teach­ing facil­i­ty. All but one of the chil­dren didn’t know such a facil­i­ty exist­ed in Bala­ma. I found that tru­ly amaz­ing!
 
 
MOTHERS CONTINUE TO FLOW IN FOR FORMULA 
 
Our Baby For­mu­la Assis­tant Pro­gram most­ly serves Grand­moth­ers hav­ing to raise orphaned Grand­ba­bies, but we do get the occa­sion­al moth­er who doesn’t pro­duce breast milk after birth.
Why? Poor nutri­tion most­ly accounts for their lack of breast milk, mak­ing it essen­tial to place the infant on a baby bot­tle.   
 

Aban­doned moth­er and Uncle are shown by Anna how to mix for­mu­la for 1.3kg/2.5 lb. Infant​.
 

I was amazed this 1.3 kg/2.5 lb. Infant could bot­tle feed. Super tiny lit­tle girl​.
 
Baby girl, Augus­ta, was born weigh­ing only 1.3 kg/2.5 lbs., but despite her tiny size, she man­aged to grasp bot­tle-feed­ing imme­di­ate­ly. THAT was a relief! This lit­tle girl needs all our prayers, for she is a high-risk infant due to her size, and the cold tem­per­a­tures that exist here at this time.
 
 
HAND POUNDING PRODUCES NUTRITIOUS RICE
 
In our area, Hand Hulling the local­ly grown rice is the best way to pre­serve the many nutri­ents God placed in those tiny ker­nels. Once a month, we have a “Hulling Par­ty” where all the local wid­ows from our church come togeth­er for 5–6 hours to use one of their best skills.
 

Remov­ing the rice hulls by hand leaves all its good­ness intact for our children​.  See video here —>  https://youtu.be/TOqgc-JLmGw
 
It’s a great social time, as well as pro­vides them a way to earn some pock­et mon­ey. The rice stays untouched by the heat of hulling machines, and thus pro­vides more nutri­tion for our chil­dren. I call that a “WIN/WIN” sit­u­a­tion for all.
 
 
SALVATION REPORT FOR MAY, 2022
 
Our 15 Dis­trict-Wide Vil­lage Pas­tors met on May 31st to give me their sal­va­tion reports.
 
CHILDREN: 286
TEENAGERS: 48
ADULTS: 58
 
GOD IS MOVING STRONGLY AMONG THE YOUTH OF BALAMA DISTRICT! THE WORD SAYS: Raise up a child in the way they should go, and they will not depart from it. The “good ground” (youth) is yield­ing a large har­vest. 
 
Please keep these “ten­der hearts” in your prayers as our lead­ers show them the Jesus Way to live their lives.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG JUNE 4, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 4, 2022
 
NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY FEAST A SUCCESS
 
June 1st is Nation­al Children’s Day in Mozam­bique. The 1st to 7th graders are giv­en a hol­i­day as it is a day of fun and feast­ing for the younger chil­dren. With 28 fat chick­ens, 220 lbs/100kg of rice, 33 lbs/15 kgs of Mon­te­ga beans, and all the “fix­ings”, these kids had a won­der­ful par­ty.
 

Always fun watch­ing our lit­tlest ones tack­le those chick­en pieces.
 

Baby Fati­ma (pink hoody) thor­ough­ly enjoyed the feast!​
 

From the youngest to the old­est, every­one feast­ed and enjoyed the fel­low­ship!​
 
Our Chil­dren’s Day Cel­e­bra­tion begins by singing God is so Good. 
See the video at this link—>  https://youtu.be/klCmxzGlQmA
 

Baby Fran­ciano cel­e­brates his first Chil­dren’s Day cel­e­bra­tion.​
 
It’s a bit cool, as it is our “cold sea­son” in Mozam­bique with chilly tem­per­a­tures mak­ing a sweat­shirt nec­es­sary, espe­cial­ly for the younger ones. Thanks to your gen­eros­i­ty, a 2nd set of warm clothes has now been pro­vid­ed to each child so that the Fos­ter Moth­ers can “wash one, while the chil­dren wear one”.  
 
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS WONDERFUL PARTY A HUGE SUCCESS!
 
 
BABY REGINALDA NEEDS OUR PRAYERS
 
“Reg­gie”, as we call her, was born with frag­ile bones. Her left femur broke 4 weeks ago but, even with treat­ment, it has healed bent to the left.
 
MAF (Mis­sions Avi­a­tion Fel­low­ship) very gen­er­ous­ly offered to fly her to see an ortho­pe­dic sur­geon in Nam­pu­la, 7 hours south of Bala­ma. Going by road was out of the ques­tion with such frag­ile bones as this child has.
 

Baby Reg­gie takes a plane ride with Mis­sions Avi­a­tion Fel­low­ship. She is the only orphan in our fam­i­ly to fly. Fos­ter Moth­er Angeli­na thought it was pret­ty great to make a 7‑hour-dri­ve in 45 min­utes with the plane.
 
This sur­geon felt that with her being only 15 months old, we should wait before try­ing to cor­rect the prob­lem. With great dis­ap­point­ment, Reg­gie was flown back 2 days lat­er, with instruc­tions to be extreme­ly care­ful when lift­ing her. She is on the best min­er­al sup­ple­ments avail­able to help increase her bone strength.
 
WE NEED A JESUS MIRACLE, and ask that you join with us in pray­ing for her left femur to straight­en out, AND for the strength­en­ing of all her bones. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD! THANK YOU and I will keep you post­ed on her progress.
 
 
JUNE FOOD BUYING DELAYED UNTIL THE 20TH.
 
With cold tem­per­a­tures (55°F/15°C night­ly and 72°F/23°C dai­ly) and grey cloudy skies, there has been lit­tle sun to dry the beans prop­er­ly. Many may laugh, but for peo­ple use to very HOT tem­per­a­tures, and only thin cot­ton cloth­ing, this is VERY COLD. That’s why your LOVE GIFTS are so val­ued, for it allows us to buy the need­ed cloth­ing to keep our kids warm and healthy.  
 
Hav­ing to patient­ly wait for the beans to dry has all of us a bit frus­trat­ed. WE NEED STRONG SUNSHINE, so that is also a prayer request. I’ll keep you post­ed on how it goes over the next 2 weeks. 
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MAY 28, 2022

JESUINO SUFFERS FEBRILE CONVULSIONS
 
On Mon­day at lunchtime, our exec­u­tive staff was meet­ing out­side under a cashew nut tree, also known as our 2nd office. I was fac­ing our entrance road when I saw our Fos­ter Father, Nuro, run­ning towards us with a child in his arms. 
 
Cape­na and I ran to meet him with Cape­na car­ry­ing the con­vuls­ing Jesuino to the near­by table under the cashew nut tree. Anna, Children’s Direc­tor, and I raced into my house to grab a large basin and a buck­et of water.
 
Out­side, Cape­na was strip­ping Jesuino’s clothes off him. Putting him into the basin, we began pour­ing the cool water over his body. His fever was high, as the water turned warm with­in 1 minute, but his con­vul­sions stopped as the water cooled his body. Praise the Lord, for high fever is a sign of rapid onset Malar­ia. 
 

Jesuino, age 4, hap­py at home after his febrile seizure.​
 
Wrapped in a cot­ton “Caplana” (wrap around skirt), we rushed him to the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal where a Dr. and Sis­ter Ligia met us at the emer­gency room. An IV was start­ed, and life-sav­ing med­ica­tions and flu­ids were giv­en. A Rapid Malar­ia Test turned pos­i­tive imme­di­ate­ly, prov­ing what we all suspected—a strong case of malar­ia.
 

Jesuino’s Malar­ia Rapid Test turned pos­i­tive imme­di­ate­ly.​
 
Jesuino was admit­ted for 24-hour obser­va­tion. He slept until 8pm when he thank­ful­ly awoke hun­gry, and ful­ly aware of every­one around him. The next morn­ing he was released with the nor­mal oral med­ica­tion that kills the malar­ia lar­vae, and had no fur­ther prob­lems.
 
Malar­ia has attacked many chil­dren this year in Bala­ma, and not all had such a quick recov­ery as our Jesuino. OUR STAFF’S QUICK RESPONSE AND THEIR PRAYERS AS WE WORKED TO STOP THE CONVULSIONS, were key in Jesuino’s fast recov­ery from this killer dis­ease. We are very grate­ful to the Lord Jesus for answer­ing our prayers for this lit­tle boy.
 
 
BALAMA’S LOCAL LEADERS VISIT OUR CHILDREN
 
The Bala­ma Chief of this Admin­is­tra­tion Post (a pow­er­ful posi­tion), as well as the Pri­ma­ry and Sec­ondary School’s Direc­tors request­ed to vis­it all 7 of our children’s homes this week. They said they were impressed after read­ing our 1st quar­ter­ly report, and desired to meet all of us.
 
They were tru­ly impressed by all they saw and those they talked with. The Chief said she was very hap­py to assist Helder, who has com­plet­ed teacher’s col­lege, to be placed in a job near our mis­sion.  Helder is cur­ren­ly work­ing to tutor our pri­ma­ry school chil­dren with their lessons.
 

Cape­na,  far left, speak­ing to our 4 vis­i­tors  on Thurs­day this week.​
 
With many com­pli­ments and encour­ag­ing words, they left after spend­ing 2 hours talk­ing with the chil­dren and their fos­ter moth­ers.  It was great that this influ­en­tial group now tru­ly knows us and our chil­dren, for they have a heart to help them excel.
 
 
PERSEVERANCE AND PERSISTENCE IN ACTION
 
GRANNY MINIAH (Mee-nii-ah) lost her right leg many years ago dur­ing the Mozam­bi­can civ­il war. Instead of sit­ting at home wait­ing for a hand­out, she began to work her farm­ing field sit­ting down.
 
We met her over 10 years ago, as she was rais­ing her 2 orphaned grand­sons in a vil­lage about 5km/3 miles from our base. Since she strug­gled to grow enough food for the 3 of them, we imme­di­ate­ly placed her into our week­ly food pro­gram.
 
We expect­ed her to send a friend to pick up the food, but she actu­al­ly WALKED the 3 MILES to our give-out on her crutch­es!  Her friend came with to car­ry the food. 
 
NOW THAT IS BEYOND AWESOME, AND SHOWS A TRUE HEART OF LOVE FOR HER GRANDSONS! We soon orga­nized an improved mud hut near our mis­sion sta­tion, (mud brick walls with con­crete floor and tin roof), to ease her bur­den, and assist her with the 2 boys who were near­ing school age.
 
HER FORTITUDE, AND DOING WHAT SHE COULD TO PROVIDE FOR HERSELF AND OTHERS, DEFINES PERSISTENCE AND PERSEVERANCE.
 

Per­sis­tence and Per­se­ver­ance are this wid­ow’s mot­to. BE GRATEFUL TO JESUS, and do what you can with what you have.​
 
When she came to live with us, she imme­di­ate­ly asked for a farm­ing field. I took this pho­to on Wednes­day this week as she walked home from her farm­ing field with a tub of bean leaves on her head that she had just har­vest­ed from that very same field. It is an hon­or to assist such a strong woman of God, as is our Mini­ah.
 
YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVE GIFTS MAKE ALL THIS POSSIBLE.  THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US AT ORPHANS UNLIMITED.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MAY 21, 2022

HARVEST DELAYED 
 
The rainy sea­son in Bala­ma began 30 days lat­er than nor­mal, which means the har­vest is just now being tak­en from the fields to be dried. Result: Beans will hope­ful­ly be dry by mid­dle of June. All corn will only be dry by July.
 
God has pro­vid­ed our chil­dren’s June corn needs via our 7‑ton truck dri­ver, Pas­tor Manel of the Assem­bly of God. He knows a man who had stored up some of his 2021 corn and talked him into sell­ing it to us. We are most grate­ful for this awe­some pro­vi­sion! 
 

Buy­ing last year’s corn to hold us over until 2022 har­vest is ready in July.
 
Our 2021 corn will be fin­ished the first week of June, when we nor­mal­ly would be receiv­ing the 2022 har­vest. GOD KNEW WE WOULD NEED CORN, AND HAD A TOTAL STRANGER STORE IT FOR OUR CHILDREN. PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!
 
 
BREAKING GROUND FOR NEW TEEN BOYS DORM 
 
With over 3 weeks until the food-buy­ing can begin, our brick­lay­ers and I cleared the land and marked the new build­ing site for the old­er teen boy’s dorm. This land is 2km or 1.2 miles from our mis­sion sta­tion on the new main high­way, thus easy access for all.
With Bala­ma town grow­ing at a fast rate, this is the near­est plot of land that was avail­able, and it was pur­chased 5 years ago!
 

Break­ing ground for new teen boys dorm.
 
This dorm will be specif­i­cal­ly for old­er teen boys who are in the final 3 years of school, and for those going to technical/professional schools. This leaves the orig­i­nal dorm near our mis­sion for the 5th to 9th graders, as we have at least 5 young boys near­ing the 5th grade with anoth­er 5 to fol­low in a few years. The time to take action is now!
 
Our objec­tive is to have this dorm ready by the end of 2022.
 
 
FRAGILE FRANCIANO RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL 
 
This lit­tle boy, now 5.5 months, weighs only 3 kg/6.6 lbs.  He’s fought and won after 2 bouts of malar­ia, thanks to 2 life-sav­ing blood trans­fu­sions dur­ing his first hos­pi­tal stay when we received him into our fam­i­ly. 
 

Baby Fran­ciano show­ing weight gain after a week out of the hos­pi­tal.
 
Since he is so tiny, he can’t take the stronger malar­ia meds that would wipe out this dead­ly lar­vae. Our goal is to help him reach 5kgs/11 lbs. as soon as pos­si­ble by giv­ing him plen­ty of milk and high pro­tein infant food (Hypo). Once he is at this weight, he can take the stronger malar­ia treat­ment. 
 
PLEASE KEEP HIM IN PRAYER AS HE IS EXTREMELY VULNERABLE RIGHT NOW. 
 
Your prayers for all of us are great­ly appre­ci­at­ed.  THANK YOU for help­ing us make a dif­fer­ence in 1000’s of chil­dren’s lives.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MAY 14, 2022

THE 2 BISHOPS ARRIVE AT LAST!
 
INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR OF MISSIONS, DAVID KAZIMA, AND NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF MOZAMBIQUE, IMMANUEL ZALIRA, were our guests for 5 days this week. 
 

Bish­op Kaz­i­ma, Bren­da, and the tall Bish­op Zali­ra at Indi­an Ocean in Pemba​.
 
Our church and orphan projects are all under the umbrel­la of LIVING WATERS CHURCH, based in Blan­tyre, Malawi. Our nation­al head­quar­ters is in Tete city, Mozam­bique.
 

Rough draw­ing of Mozam­bique with Malawi in the mid­dle of the Y. Mozam­bique has the same land mass as Texas, just stretched out. It is BIG!
 
Arriv­ing in Pem­ba on Mon­day after­noon with the MAF (Mis­sions Avi­a­tion Fel­low­ship plane), gave us time to get to know each oth­er as we had to stay overnight.
 

Red and White MAF plane land­ing at Pem­ba.
 
The dis­tance from Pem­ba to Bala­ma is a 4 to 5 hour intense dri­ve (lots of pot holes), and it is not wise to trav­el after dark. Arriv­ing in Bala­ma on Tues­day, we wast­ed no time, as lunch was already pre­pared for us (chick­en and rice). We then vis­it­ed all 7 orphans homes, where these men held and hugged the Tod­dlers who came to them on their own! This is not nor­mal as they shy from those they don’t know and shows that “God­ly love” flows from them.  Then off to the hos­pi­tal to lay hands on, and pray for Baby Fran­ciano. He is tak­ing IV treat­ment for malar­ia. 
 
Wednes­day,  the 2 Bish­ops taught a 3 hour church lead­er­ship class to all 16 vil­lage Pas­tors, and the 11 BBC Youth Evan­ge­list team. Wednes­day after­noon was spent answer­ing the many ques­tions the Bish­ops had about all aspects of our pro­gram. 
 

Bish­op Kaz­i­ma with Inter­pre­tor Whitey, impart­ing Lead­er­ship Train­ing to our Pas­tors.
 
Ear­ly Thurs­day it was a 5 hour trek back to Pem­ba,  where I con­tin­ued to answer more ques­tions. These 2 men are VERY HAPPY with our pro­gram, and want­ed to glean from our evan­ge­lism expe­ri­ence in the Bush vil­lages.
 
EARLY FRIDAY MORNING, MAF flew into Pem­ba from their home base, Nam­pu­la, whisk­ing them off to Tete City, 3 hours flight away.
 
It was an intense, pow­er-packed 5 days that I thor­ough­ly enjoyed. Due to the great dis­tance, it is only the 2nd time that Exec­u­tive Church Offi­cials have been able to vis­it us. Their Words of Wis­dom will long be remem­bered by all of us.
 
BABY FRANCIANO NEEDS PRAYER 
 
FRANCIANO was admit­ted last week­end with con­firmed malar­ia. At 3.9kg/8,5 lbs. at 5.5 months, he must receive 7 days of IV treat­ment, not pills, thus admis­sion is manda­to­ry to save his life.
PLZ PRAY for the heal­ing of this frag­ile lit­tle one, as he is not digest­ing his food well.
 

Fos­ter Moth­er Esti­va­nia and Baby Franciano​.
 
GOD’S HEALING POWER IS THE BEST MEDICINE IN THE WORLD! The PRAYER OF AGREEMENT is more pow­er­ful than any of us can imag­ine. THANK YOU for your lov­ing sup­port of our chil­dren. 
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MAY 7, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: MAY 7, 2022
 
9 LITTLE DISCIPLES LEARNING PORTUGUESE 
 
Through song and play time, these 9 lit­tle sponges, ages 3, 4, and 5, have mas­tered sev­er­al Por­tuguese songs. See video at this link  https://youtu.be/f8fgdlgexSI  

Singing from their hearts with all their might! Click pho­to for video.
 

Lit­tle Dis­ci­ples in their classroom​.
 
 
INTRODUCING JANDIRA
 
JANDIRA (Jan Dee rah), is a new addi­tion to our staff with a love for the wee ones, and mul­ti­ple teach­ing tal­ents. Her degree in Occu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­py along with her Portuguese/English lan­guage skills, has her widen­ing the hori­zons of the Lit­tle Dis­ci­ples as she assists in their learn­ing pro­gram.
 

Jandi­ra, new teacher for the wee tykes and high schoolers​.
 
JANDIRA also assists our high school class­es by help­ing them with their Biol­o­gy and Chem­istry lessons. I PRAISE THE LORD for send­ing us such a “gem” of a teacher.
 
 
HIGH SCHOOL TEENS NEW GARDEN 
 
Our indus­tri­ous young men decid­ed they want­ed to grow their own let­tuce vs. spend­ing their house mon­ey on it. Their small, but effi­cient­ly planned gar­den, and the inge­nious mak­ing of a sprin­kler can, shows us they are learn­ing to be inde­pen­dent and eco­nom­i­cal thinkers. I am very proud of them for mak­ing these deci­sions all on their own.
 

Dorm boys with their pri­vate gar­den. Note their spe­cial sprin­kler can. 
 
FUN IN THE SUN!
 
A few of our pri­ma­ry school­ers had a fun day on our 16 foot/4.8 meter high super slide this week, as we believe the rainy sea­son is now over. It’s a joy to have activ­i­ties back in full swing!
 

Pri­ma­ry school kids enjoy­ing the super slide!​
 
BECAUSE OF YOUR LOVE, OUR CHILDREN ARE FLOURISHING!
 

From last week’s blog. Pas­tor Car­los with Granny and her orphaned grandson​.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BREND BLOG: APRIL 30, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: APRIL 30, 2022
 
DOING WHAT JESUS WOULD DO
 
Pas­tor Car­los lives in a large vil­lage about 30km/18 miles from our base, and has church­es in 2 areas. While mak­ing his rounds, he met a 47-year-old grand­moth­er who was going hut to hut beg­ging food for the 7 chil­dren now liv­ing with her. 
 
When she told Car­los her sto­ry, and that she urgent­ly need­ed milk for a new­born, he imme­di­ate­ly “did what Jesus would do”.
  
A swift ride to Bala­ma on his motor­bike with grand­moth­er and baby brought him ALMOST to our our mis­sion sta­tion, as he blew a tire when with­in walk­ing dis­tance. We quick­ly pro­vid­ed emer­gency milk for the tiny 2.9kg/6.3lb. infant boy named Jes­si. 
 
After hear­ing the WHOLE STORY about Jes­si’s 4 orphaned sib­lings (under 9 years) and Gracin­da’s 3 chil­dren (under 10),  it was obvi­ous this wid­owed Granny could­n’t cope with­out help! Because of the dis­tance, and the fact that there was no oth­er fam­i­ly to help, Car­los eager­ly agreed to bring Gracin­da and baby Jes­si in every 2 weeks on his motor­bike for milk and food assis­tance. There was no way she could han­dle 2 weeks-worth of corn flour and beans for 7 peo­ple (24kg/52lbs.), and the infant with­out a man’s help.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS HELPED RESCUE THIS FAMILY FROM A VERY BAD SITUATION. 
 
Not only did your gifts pro­vide life-sav­ing baby for­mu­la and food, but also the fuel (and a new bike tire), so that Gracin­da and the 8 chil­dren could stay in the pro­gram. Going the “extra mile” means we do what­ev­er it takes to save chil­dren in a des­per­ate sit­u­a­tion.  We are grate­ful to Pas­tor Car­los for going “those extra miles” with us.
 
The relief I saw in Gracin­da’s face today, tells me our help took a great bur­den off her shoul­ders. Baby Jes­si is thriv­ing, as he now weighs 3.2kg/7lbs! Gracin­da tru­ly loves the chil­dren dropped at her door and is doing a great job with rais­ing Jes­si.
 
 
CLEAN WATER = LIFE!
 
Manel and helpers worked for 4 hours to retrieve a bro­ken water well rod and oth­er debris that left a big part of 5,000 fam­i­lies with­out water for 2 days. When our Nac­ca­ca Pas­tor called us for help, it was pour­ing bar­rels of rain! 
 
Tlhe next day, cloudy skies pre­vailed, but the rain had stopped, allow­ing our team and the vil­lagers to make the repairs. 
 

Water well team and vil­lagers work togeth­er to repair the main vil­lage well.
 

Water at last! Every­one is hap­py, and the non stop pump­ing begins!
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS AT WORK!
CLEAN WATER IS ESSENTIAL FOR GOOD HEALTH.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: APRIL 23, 2022

GOD’S MIGHTY HAND SAVES 3 LIVES
 
On Tues­day, the MAF (Mis­sions Avi­a­tion Fel­low­ship) pilot took off from their base in a sin­gle engine Cess­na to fetch our vis­it­ing Bish­ops from Tete, a 3‑hour flight away.  Just 10 min­utes out of the air­port, the pilot, Ryan, noticed an oil leak com­ing from the engine. Doing a quick turn-around, he head­ed back to their base.
 
Oil leaks in plane engines caus­es the engine to “seize” if the oil lev­el drops below a cer­tain point.  If you are in the air when the engine stops, down you go with lit­tle con­trol! Ryan’s super alert­ness and lots of prayer for this trip, saved his life!  
 

Pilot Ryan of MAF. A man of God who lis­tens when the Holy Spir­it speaks​
 
After receiv­ing the call (I had left at 3:30a.m. and was just 15 miles/33 kms from Pem­ba), I noti­fied the Bish­ops that the plane wasn’t com­ing. They would have to resched­ule. I was just super thank­ful that the Lord showed Ryan the leak at the ONLY pos­si­ble moment when a crash could be avoid­ed!
 
So Bush Bun­ny and her faith­ful side­kick, Mario, a 2nd dri­ver who always trav­els with me, changed plans and went on a shop­ping spree! Flex­i­bil­i­ty is a key item every mis­sion­ary needs if they are to make the most of rapid­ly chang­ing plans.
 
I hadn’t been in Pem­ba since Decem­ber 15th due to the rainy sea­son road con­di­tions, so much need­ed gro­ceries and oth­er sup­plies which are only avail­able in Pem­ba were pur­chased. The local children’s cloth­ing store sur­prised us with the ear­ly arrival of win­ter sweat­pants, so an hour lat­er, we left $200 lighter, but with most of the need­ed sizes for our 58 chil­dren.  
 
Our Vis­i­tors should arrive on May 10th, as that is the next date that both they and a dif­fer­ent plane are avail­able.
 
 
BABY FRANCIANO JOINS OUR FAMILY
 
AT 5 MONTHS, this orphaned tyke had the high fever of malar­ia, was super ane­mic (blood count of 4), and only weighed 2.6 kgs/5.7 lbs! His very ancient grand­moth­er and a mid­dle age Uncle had brought him to us, request­ing baby for­mu­la.  
 
In crit­i­cal con­di­tion, this lit­tle boy need­ed more care than they could pro­vide. I rushed him off to the hos­pi­tal, where he was imme­di­ate­ly admit­ted and a blood analy­sis with blood type was ordered. By a mir­a­cle, a B+ donor was quick­ly locat­ed. By 5pm, he was receiv­ing a life-sav­ing trans­fu­sion. Still in a frag­ile state 2 days lat­er, he received a 2nd trans­fu­sion bring­ing his blood count up to a safe 10. 
 

Tiny Fran­ciano with Fos­ter Moth­er Este­va­nia, hap­py to be home from the hospital​
 
Released from the hos­pi­tal on Mon­day, April 18th with no resid­ual malar­ia, every­one is now hope­ful that he will sur­vive after such over­whelm­ing chal­lenges. Fran­ciano is way too frag­ile to live in the bush, so with Social Service’s assis­tance, his fam­i­ly agreed to leave him in our care on April 22nd.
 
GOD’S PLANS ARE ALWAYS THE BEST PLANS!
Thank YOU, for your Love Gifts saved the life of this lit­tle boy.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: APRIL 16, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: APRIL 16, 2022
 
MALAWIAN MOTHER CHURCH SENDS VISITORS 
 
Inter­na­tion­al Mis­sions Direc­tor,  Bish­op David Kaz­i­ma, and our new­ly appoint­ed Nation­al Bish­op, Emmanuel Zali­ra, will arrive in Pem­ba on April 19th for a 3‑day vis­it. Nei­ther has ever been here to see our pro­gram. 
 
Liv­ing Waters Church of Blan­tyre, Malawi, is the found­ing church for Igre­ja Aguas Vivas (Church of Liv­ing Waters) in Mozam­bique. 
 
IT IS A GREAT HONOR to have these men vis­it, as Bish­op Kaz­i­ma was on the mis­sions Board who allowed me to reg­is­ter their church in this Province/State way back in 1999. That birthed this mas­sive orphan/church pro­gram. 
We haven’t seen each oth­er since 1999 due to the phys­i­cal dis­tance between our min­istry posts and dif­fi­cul­ties in trav­el­ling to this area.
 
Both men will tour our entire pro­gram as well as meet with our Vil­lage Pas­tors and the BBC while here.
 

Bish­op David Kaz­i­ma, Inter­na­tion­al Mis­sions Direc­tor
 
 

Bish­op Emmanuel Zali­ra,  Nation­al Pas­tor for Mozam­bique
 
FRUITS OF OUR PASTORS’ LABOR
 
From Jan­u­ary to March, the “rainy sea­son”, our Pas­tors have trudged through the mud to reach 100’s with the gospel. 
 

Vil­lage Pas­tors in group prayer.
 
Many refugees are now able to return to their north­ern homes, so our time to reach them with God’s Word has come to an end.
 
SALVATION NUMBERS ARE:
    ADULTS 206
    TEENAGERS 224
    CHILDREN 954
    REFUGEES 52
 
A MAJOR MIRACLE occurred when a moth­er in need of a C‑section was prayed for by one of our Pas­tors. As the staff was prepar­ing her for the very rough 40km/24 mile ride to the Region­al Hos­pi­tal,  THE BABY TURNED IN THE WOMB and was deliv­ered imme­di­ate­ly! HALLELUJAH! Thank you Jesus!
 
 
LARGE PYTHON TRIES TO STEAL A CHILD!
 
The 2 brave men who walk our fence each day heard a woman scream­ing from her field that a snake was after her baby!  The men raced to the area and grabbed the child before this 2.8 METER/9 FT. PYTHON could harm the 1 year old. They then bashed in the snake’s head. 
 

2.8 meter/9 foot python killed by our fence guards.​
 

Coura­geous python killers.​
 
It is rare to find a python this long in our area, so it was shown all around our area before final­ly being buried. Non poi­so­nous, but still dead­ly, it has a grip­ping bite that holds a small ani­mal, or child, while they squeeze their prey until they suf­fo­cate. 
 
Moral: Not ever­thing that hugs means to say “I love you”.
 
Hap­py Res­ur­rec­tion Day!
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF