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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

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: SEPTEMBER 3, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: SEPTEMBER 3, 2022
 
ANCHA AND FRANCIANO IN HOSPITAL
 
Wednes­day morn­ing is food dis­tri­b­u­tion day for our 7 orphan homes, but we were met with an ear­ly morn­ing sur­prise when 6 month old Baby Ancha wouldn’t stop cry­ing, and Baby Fran­ciano was look­ing weak.  Both were rushed to the hos­pi­tal, and as sus­pect­ed, Ancha’s malar­ia had rebound­ed.  Since she is just under 5kg/11 lbs, she was unable to take the fol­low up med­ica­tions after her first malar­ia case. This made her vul­ner­a­ble for a 2nd case after 2 weeks time.  An infant MUST BE over 5kg to take an oral malar­ia med­ica­tion or it will dam­age their liv­er.  Fran­ciano was dehy­drat­ed as he had sores in his mouth, and had a diar­rhea stool at the hos­pi­tal.  IV’s were start­ed on both and appro­pri­ate med­i­cines giv­en. Ancha must stay at least 5 days for IV med­ica­tions since that is the required stay for this malar­ia treat­ment.
Thank­ful­ly, Franciano’s lab tests returned neg­a­tive for any infec­tion, so he was rehy­drat­ed with an IV solu­tion and released lat­er that after­noon.  Both are recu­per­at­ing well, and we THANK YOU for con­tin­u­ing to hold them up in prayer.  Both these lit­tle ones are still in the “dan­ger” zone as they are very under­weight for their age.
 
 

Ancha look­ing bright eyed after 2 days of malar­ia treat­ments
 
 

Fran­ciano home from the hos­pi­tal
 
 
MORE INFANTS NEEDING FORMULA
 
We have admit­ted 1 sin­gle birth and a set of twins into the Infant For­mu­la Pro­gram this week. Our Infant For­mu­la Pro­gram has 34 mal­nour­ished vil­lage infants at this time, so the local Doc­tor in charge of the Bala­ma Nutri­tion­al Pro­gram came to see them at our mis­sion this Thurs­day. Three were tak­en to the hos­pi­tal by the Dr. for fur­ther med­ica­tions, as they were sick, but NONE need­ed hos­pi­tal­iza­tion. The remain­der were deemed in improv­ing con­di­tion and allowed to go back to their vil­lage homes.  PTL!
Please keep all these pre­cious lit­tle ones in your prayers.
 
 

Chil­dren’s Direc­tor teach­ing new moth­er with no breast milk how to bot­tle feed
 
 
EVANGELISTIC TEAMS CAN RESUME TEACHING VILLAGE CHILDREN!
 
JUMPING FOR JOY!, the VILLAGE PASTORS AND THE BBC BICYCLE TEAMS will begin cir­cu­lat­ing in the vil­lages next week if all goes as planned.
 

Hap­py Pas­tors as they can now con­tin­ue their bawana games Bible teach­ing to 100’s of vil­lage chil­dren
 
 
BBC MOTORBIKE TEAMS will make a slow­er start as NO GASOLINE is avail­able in the Bala­ma pumps.  The price has jumped to $5.90 per gal­lon due to the short­age. The BBC’s nor­mal dai­ly con­sump­tion is 4 liters/bike/day. Using 4 bikes over a 5 day pro­gram = 80 liters or 20 gallons/week.    Know that we are pray­ing for a solu­tion as the pumps in the next town over (Mon­tepuez) have a lim­it­ed sup­ply of gaso­line. Many pump own­ers are not allow­ing cus­tomers to buy in bulk.  It is a 60 mile/120 km round trip dri­ve to Mon­tepuez. 
 
GOD CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS, so join with us in find­ing some­one who will SPONSOR THE PRICE OF THE FUEL, AND FOR A FUEL STATION THAT WILL ALLOW US TO FILL AT LEAST EIGHT, 5 GALLON CONTAINERS at one time. (2 weeks fuel for the team).  The PERFECT SOLUTION would be if our Bala­ma fuel sta­tion received fuel, but as of now, there is no fuel at the Nacala Port where the fuel is off loaded.  UGH!
 
THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO BY KEEPING OUR CHILDREN AND PASTORS IN YOUR PRAYERS!
 BLESSINGS FROM BALAMA,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: AUGUST 20, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: AUGUST 20, 2022
 
BABY ANCHA RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL
 

Baby Anch now with her Fos­ter Moth­er, Ceclia, at House #7.
 
FINALLY, 5 month old BABY ANCHA enters her new home and meets her new fos­ter moth­er, Cecelia. ANCHA is still very tiny (4 kg) and frag­ile, but is gain­ing weight with fre­quent feed­ings. Tak­en by Social Ser­vices from a men­tal­ly ill moth­er who wasn’t feed­ing her, Ancha has suf­fered tremen­dous­ly in the first 5.5 months of her life.  She was removed 2 weeks ago from her home when she pre­sent­ed at our milk pro­gram with a HIGH FEVER because she had Malar­ia which caused severe Ane­mia (Hbg of 6.6), AND she was in seri­ous res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­tress. 
 We plan to start her on rice cere­al in a few days, hop­ing to advance her to the super for­ti­fied Hypo Cere­al in the next 2 weeks.  The Hypo Cere­al is vit­a­min and pro­tein for­ti­fied, and for­mu­lat­ed espe­cial­ly for mal­nour­ished infants and chil­dren in Africa. 
Ancha must be watched close­ly, for ANY infec­tion could send her plum­met­ing back into a life threat­en­ing sit­u­a­tion.
This is what I mean when I say that we care for HIGH RISK BABIES that no one else wants to care for.
Since she is way behind the nor­mal weight for a 5 month old baby, she has a lot of catch­ing up to do.
PLEASE KEEP BABY ANCHA IN YOUR PRAYERS.
 
TODDLER MOVES UP
 
Fati­ma, now 2 years old, has grad­u­at­ed to a “Junior Bed” and sleeps in a room with 2 Fos­ter Moth­ers car­ing for old­er babies Gil­da and Juma. 
 

L to R. Fati­ma, Gil­da, and Juma.
 
BABY ELSA BACK IN THE HOSPITAL WITH MALARIA
 

Baby Elsa in hos­pi­tal with Fos­ter Moth­er Lucin­da.
 
This lit­tle one pre­sent­ed on Wednes­day this week with a high fever, res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­tress, and diar­rhea.  She is in sta­ble con­di­tion with IV med­ica­tions being giv­en for malar­ia and her res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion.  PLEASE KEEP HER IN PRAYER, AS SHE NEEDED A BLOOD TRANSFUSION, due to the malar­ia drop­ping her blood count to 7.6.  She looks bet­ter today, but has a ways to go to be back on top of all these ill­ness­es.
 
BABY SUZANNA NOW WALKING
 

 Susan­na shows us how well she walks.     
https://youtube.com/shorts/1aH3UixuyrU
 
SUZANNA is the last of the orig­i­nal 13 crit­i­cal infants we received in Feb­ru­ary and March, 2021.  Suzan­na has now joined the offi­cial Dirty Dozen who are all walk­ing, mak­ing it a Baker’s Dozen (13).  Our tod­dlers with their new found free­dom keeps them play­ing in the sand­box­es as well as the dirt!  Next year sev­er­al of them will be old enough to join our Lit­tle Dis­ci­ples learn­ing pro­gram for 3 to 5 year olds.  How time flies for these lit­tle ones are grow­ing up quick­ly.
 
 
BUNNY IS OFF TO SOUTH AFRICA FOR 3 DAYS NEXT WEEK
 
NO BLOG will be post­ed next week as I will fly to RSA on Wednes­day and return Fri­day, arriv­ing in Bala­ma only on Sat­ur­day.  It’s time to fetch a new sup­ply of the pre­cious HYPO CEREAL which we are almost out of.  With many, many mal­nour­ished babies in our pro­gram since last Novem­ber (when our sup­ply truck deliv­ered the Hypo), we are unable to con­tin­ue dis­trib­ut­ing this won­der­ful life sav­ing high pro­tein cere­al unless I go fetch more.  Babies lives lit­er­al­ly depend on it.
It will be a fast trip, but there is much to do in Bala­ma with food dis­tri­b­u­tions begin­ning in Sep­tem­ber, and de Bun­ny can’t be gone for long.  With only 2 flights/week, (Wednes­day and Fri­day), I don’t have an option but do it all in one day!  JOY!
 
BLESSINGS FROM BALAMA,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: AUGUST 13, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: AUGUST 13, 2022
 
 CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION RECEIVED
 

Cer­tifi­cate of Recog­ni­tion giv­en by Bala­ma Admin­is­tra­tor to our church
 
The Bala­ma Admin­is­tra­tor hon­ored us with a Cer­tifi­cate of Recog­ni­tion for all that our pro­gram (Igre­ja Aguas Vivas/Living Waters Church) has con­tributed to assist Balama’s chil­dren and wid­ows over the last 21 years.  It is a great hon­or to receive such recog­ni­tion as it is not giv­en light­ly.  NONE OF WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED would have been pos­si­ble with­out our “behind the scenes” part­ners (you)!  It is an hon­or to serve the Lord in help­ing young­sters have hope of a bet­ter life when they have lost all that real­ly mat­ters to them, their par­ents. 
 
BABY ANCHA NEEDS PRAYER
 

Baby Ancha
 
This lit­tle 5 month old girl has had a tough start in life, as her mother’s men­tal ill­ness kept her from being prop­er­ly cared for.  Only 3.6kg/8 lbs when we received her last week, Ancha has fought off malar­ia, diar­rhea, and an upper res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion.  But in her fight to sur­vive, her first trans­fu­sion made no improve­ment in her blood count when her 2nd set of lab tests were received.  A SECOND TRANSFUSION was giv­en on Tues­day of this week with bet­ter results (Hbg 8).   On Fri­day, Ancha once again had a fever, vom­it­ing, and diar­rhea.  The hos­pi­tal had only a small amount of a very strong antibi­ot­ic that she need­ed, so our Pastor/Driver Manuel left at 4 a.m. this morn­ing to pick up more of that med­i­cine from a phar­ma­cy in Pem­ba.  PTL that they had it in stock!
 
UPDATE: Ancha is show­ing improve­ment after two dos­es of strong antibi­otics
 
PLEASE PRAY FOR BABY ANCHA’S FULL RECOVERY.  SHE NEEDS A MIRACLE TO PULL HER OUT OF THIS.
 
TODDLER CHABANY DEVISES A CAR…
 

Chevany’s new car
 
From an old cook­ing pan of all things!  This just goes to show us that when a boy wants a car, he will make a plan!  Love his inge­nu­ity!
 
BLESSINGS FROM BALAMA,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: NOVEMBER 4, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: NOVEMBER 4, 2022
 
2 REVERENDS RETURN TO BALAMA
 
Rev­erends Gito and Ramadan returned to Bala­ma late Mon­day after­noon after an adven­tur­ous trip to Tete City, then on to Malawi for their ordi­na­tion. The trip was suc­cess­ful, but not with­out chal­lenges.  


L. to R. Rev­erend Gito, Bish­op Zali­ra, and Rev­erend Ramadan.
 
A Cholera out­break made cross­ing the bor­der a bit chal­leng­ing due to restric­tions that helps pre­vent the dis­ease from spread­ing. We are very proud of both our men, as they are hard work­ing evangelist/church planters with lots more work to do for the Lord.

More on the work ahead of them after I debrief them this week­end, and we set up a plan of evan­ge­lis­tic action.
 

BOTH MOTHERS CAME THROUGH SURGERY WITHOUT COMPLICATIONS
 
Thanks to your prayers, both Fos­ter Moth­ers Berti­na and Feleci­na had no com­pli­ca­tions from their surg­eries. 


            Fos­ter Moth­er Berti­na                        Granny Felic­i­na
 
Bertina’s chal­leng­ing tumor turned out to be a SIMPLE TUMOR, with­out com­pli­ca­tions.  PRAYERS ANSWERED, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!  She has been released to her home, and will return in 7 days for suture removal. Feleci­na is still in hos­pi­tal, as her hip tumor was quite large and involved. I don’t have many details on that, but will update once I know more.
 

TINY 2 DAY OLD NEEDS YOUR PRAYERS
 

Tiny 2 day old baby girl Esper­an­ca needs your prayers.
 
Two day old Esper­an­ca (HOPE) was brought to us on Mon­day by her Aunt Ernesti­na for milk assis­tance. A neigh­bor had suck­led the child from birth, as the moth­er died short­ly after Esper­an­ca was born. Esper­an­ca nev­er received the mother’s colostrum milk, so her immu­ni­ty is com­pro­mised. Our staff was THRILLED to see Esper­an­ca at our Thurs­day infant for­mu­la weigh in.  She had gained 50 gms since Mon­day, and was look­ing more active. Please prayer for her immune sys­tem to strength­en rapid­ly.
 
MOVING 40 TONS OF CORN IS A BIG JOB
 

Mov­ing 40 tons of corn to keep it cool­er.
 
With 20 strong men, who made it look easy to lift 132 lb./60kg bags of corn, we did our year­ly shift­ing to get the corn low­er to the ground, thus keep­ing it cool­er. The 4 stacks of corn were reduced from 15 rows to 10 rows in height, with the extra corn being stacked in the free area avail­able after 2 months of food dis­tri­b­u­tions.

The front stacks are easy, as the men removed the top sacks and made a new stack next to it. The 2 back stacks required some jug­gling to keep the men safe while toss­ing the sacks from the back stack to the front stacks for eas­i­er trans­port.  The pho­to shows the men mov­ing sacks from one stack to anoth­er. It was a relief when it was all done, as no stack shift­ed or fell, nor was any­one injured. That’s a great day in my book!
 
WE ARE MARCHING ON FOR JESUS BECAUSE YOU CARE.
 BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: NOVEMBER 4, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: NOVEMBER 4, 2022
 
2 REVERENDS RETURN TO BALAMA
 
Rev­erends Gito and Ramadan returned to Bala­ma late Mon­day after­noon after an adven­tur­ous trip to Tete City, then on to Malawi for their ordi­na­tion. The trip was suc­cess­ful, but not with­out chal­lenges.  


L. to R. Rev­erend Gito, Bish­op Zali­ra, and Rev­erend Ramadan.
 
A Cholera out­break made cross­ing the bor­der a bit chal­leng­ing due to restric­tions that helps pre­vent the dis­ease from spread­ing.  We are very proud of both our men, as they are hard-work­ing evangelist/church planters with lots more work to do for the Lord.

More on the work ahead of them after I debrief them this week­end, and we set up a plan of evan­ge­lis­tic action.
 

BOTH MOTHERS CAME THROUGH SURGERY WITHOUT COMPLICATIONS
 
Thanks to your prayers, both Fos­ter Moth­ers Berti­na and Feleci­na had no com­pli­ca­tions from their surg­eries. 


            Fos­ter Moth­er Berti­na                        Granny Felic­i­na
 
Bertina’s chal­leng­ing tumor turned out to be a SIMPLE TUMOR, with­out com­pli­ca­tions.  PRAYERS ANSWERED, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!  She has been released to her home, and will return in 7 days for suture removal. Feleci­na is still in hos­pi­tal, as her hip tumor was quite large and involved.  I don’t have many details on that, but will update once I know more.
 

TINY 2‑DAY-OLD NEEDS YOUR PRAYERS
 

Tiny 2‑day-old baby girl Esper­an­ca needs your prayers.
 
Two-day-old Esper­an­ca (HOPE) was brought to us on Mon­day by her Aunt Ernesti­na for milk assis­tance. A neigh­bor had suck­led the child from birth, as the moth­er died short­ly after Esper­an­ca was born. Esper­an­ca nev­er received the mother’s colostrum milk, so her immu­ni­ty is com­pro­mised.  Our staff was THRILLED to see Esper­an­ca at our Thurs­day infant for­mu­la weigh in.  She had gained 50 gms since Mon­day, and was look­ing more active. Please prayer for her immune sys­tem to strength­en rapid­ly.
 

MOVING 40 TONS OF CORN IS A BIG JOB
 
With 20 strong men, who made it look easy to lift 132 lb./60kg bags of corn, we did our year­ly shift­ing to get the corn low­er to the ground, thus keep­ing it cool­er. The 4 stacks of corn were reduced from 15 rows to 10 rows in height, with the extra corn being stacked in the free area avail­able after 2 months of food dis­tri­b­u­tions.


Mov­ing 40 tons of corn to keep it cool­er.
 
The front stacks are easy, as the men removed the top sacks and made a new stack next to it.   The 2 back stacks required some jug­gling to keep the men safe while toss­ing the sacks from the back stack to the front stacks for eas­i­er trans­port. The pho­to shows the men mov­ing sacks from one stack to anoth­er. It was a relief when it was all done, as no stack shift­ed or fell, nor was any­one injured. That’s a great day in my book!
 
WE ARE MARCHING ON FOR JESUS BECAUSE YOU CARE.

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: AUGUST 6, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: AUGUST 6, 2022

NEGLECTED BABY ANCHA JOINS THE FAMILY
 

Baby Ancha when 1st admit­ted to milk pro­gram in mid April
 
Ancha’s moth­er ran out of breast milk when Baby Ancha (born March 6) was 5 weeks old.  Social Ser­vices request­ed that we admit her to our Infant For­mu­la Pro­gram, which we did in mid-April.
Baby Ancha only comes in every 2 weeks due to liv­ing in a vil­lage 17 miles from Bala­ma.  She con­cerned us with her slow weight gain as she weighed only 4.1kg/9 lbs. at her weigh-in two weeks ago.

This week (at 5 months old) she weighed  3.6 kgs/7.9 lbs, which is a loss of .5 kg/1.1 lbs, so it was time for intense action.  Our staff imme­di­ate­ly called me to bet­ter access the sit­u­a­tion.  The now ane­mic infant had a fever and was very, very weak.  I rushed her to the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal where she was admit­ted imme­di­ate­ly as her Rapid Malar­ia Test turned POSITIVE with­in sec­onds.

She was so dehy­drat­ed that flu­ids had to be giv­en before fur­ther lab test­ing could be done.  Lab tests lat­er that day revealed that Ancha need­ed blood (Hgb only 6.6, nor­mal is 12), had seri­ous diar­rhea,
and a res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion as well.

Social ser­vices inves­ti­gat­ed, and a trip to the fam­i­ly revealed the moth­er has men­tal prob­lems.  My staff and I agreed to take over the care of the infant, and the moth­er was removed from parental care due to seri­ous neglect and inabil­i­ty to prop­er­ly care for an infant. PLEASE PRAY FOR ANCHA AS SHE IS IN A FRAGILE STATE, BUT SLIGHTLY STRONGER AFTER HER EMERGENCY TRANSFUSION. 
 
This lit­tle girl is tru­ly a sur­vivor with lots of fight. Just try to remove her bot­tle before she is full, and she instant­ly lets you know that was NOT a good move! I’ll keep you informed as to how she pro­gress­es.
 

7TH OF APRIL GROUP LOOKING STRONGER
 

9 Orphans show off the food and nice clothes your Love Gifts pro­vide
 
The nine orphans liv­ing with 3 Aunts in a vil­lage called 7th of April are all healthy and going to school THANKS TO YOUR HELP! The 3 feed sacks con­tain 2 weeks of corn flour and beans, plus salt, and the chil­dren are hold­ing the bars of soap need­ed to keep their new clothes nice and clean. Your love gifts also pro­vide them with school mate­ri­als so the old­er chil­dren can go to school.

Their vil­lage sits at the foot of a moun­tain about 1 hour dri­ve from Bala­ma by motor­bike.  Two of our Bush Bik­ers for Christ lead­ers take these gifts to them every 2 weeks on their motor­bikes as the road is a bit rough on pick-ups.
 
THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING FOOD, CLOTHING, AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR THESE CHILDREN.
 
BUSH BIKERS FOR CHRIST UPDATE
 
Our Office Admin­is­tra­tor, Cape­na, and I met with gov­ern­ment offi­cials on Tues­day of this week to ask per­mis­sion for our BBC Teams to return to the vil­lages with the BAWANA Pro­gram of games and Bible Sto­ries.  At the moment we are wait­ing to meet with oth­er offi­cials as this requires 3 dif­fer­ent agen­cies to give their per­mis­sion.  I will keep you informed as those meet­ings are delayed due to 1 offi­cial being in meet­ings in the cap­i­tal city, Pem­ba.  PATIENCE is the name of the game. 
 
PRAY FOR FAVOR AS WE CONTINUE THIS JOURNEY THIS COMING WEEK.
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 30, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JULY 30, 2022
 
WHAT CAME IN NOW GOES OUT
 
Our barns are FULL!!!
 

308 TONS OF CORN!
 

108 TONS OF BEANS!
 

Last but not least. 90 TONS OF RICE IN THE HULL!
 
The food has already start­ed going out to those orphans and wid­ows in the Bala­ma area as they have only small farms which can­not sus­tain them for over a month. Our staff dis­trib­utes food each Wednes­day to our Children’s Homes at our mis­sion, and each Thurs­day to the wid­ows and orphans liv­ing near us. 

AGAIN THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO TO MAKE OUR “JOSEPH PROJECT” pos­si­ble.  In the Bible, God told Joseph to store up food for the next 7 “good years”, because a famine was com­ing that would last anoth­er 7 years. Each year we store up for the “time of hunger” that we know is com­ing from Octo­ber to Decem­ber. This is the peak of the dry sea­son when noth­ing will grow, and many wid­ows run out of even their star­va­tion food (casa­va root). The Joseph Project pro­vides those wid­ows and orphans with life sus­tain­ing food so they won’t starve before the rains begin in late Decem­ber and food can be grown again.

LISTENING TO THE LORD is what makes our pro­gram such a big help to all.  But it takes YOU lis­ten­ing to the LORD also, for this pro­gram “takes all of us” to make it a huge suc­cess. THANK YOU LORD FOR LISTENING EARS!
 
GOD’S ANGELS PROTECT EVA FROM NEAR DEATH DISASTER
 

Sweet Eva ® and her Grand­moth­er Elisa. Eva is hap­py to be almost healed after being hit by a bad dri­ver on a motor­cy­cle.
 
Eva was one of the first orphans we began to help in 2002 when I first start­ed the Joseph Pro­gram.  Her Grand­moth­er Elisa had to raise Eva after her moth­er died of dysen­tery while vis­it­ing from anoth­er area.  Eva was born with Cere­bral Pal­sy, but is remark­able in that she talks, sings, walks, runs, jumps, and helps her Grand­moth­er with house­hold chores.  Eva was doing one of those “chores” when a motor­cy­clist using bad judge­ment hit her as she returned from the local mar­ket with toma­toes for their evening meal. 

Eva was walk­ing where she was sup­posed to be on the shoul­der of the road, when a motor­cy­clist passed on the WRONG SIDE of the road, cross­ing the yel­low stripe, and strik­ing her as she left the mar­ket.  FIFTEEN STITCHES LATER ON THE BACK OF HER HEAD, HER LEFT ARM, AND LEG, PLUS A HUGE SKIN ABRASION ON HER BACK where she slid on the tar road, Eva was released from the Emer­gency Room and sent home. I change her dress­ings dai­ly to pro­tect her stitch­es and treat her “road burn”.  Most peo­ple hit by a speed­ing motor­bike are not so for­tu­nate as our EVA, for many are killed upon impact. 

THANK YOU JESUS FOR GUARDIAN ANGELS AROUND OUR CHILDREN!
 

REMOTE VILLAGE EAGER TO KNOW JESUS!
 

 
Our Pas­toral Team of 14 Pas­tors and 2 assis­tants came to our month­ly meet­ing yes­ter­day with some fab­u­lous sto­ries of vil­lagers eager to know JESUS!  Pas­tor Gito request­ed help in a new area he was serv­ing called “Mumbe” (Mum-bee) where the adults and chil­dren have request­ed he tell them all about Jesus.  All the Pas­tors report­ed a steady influx of new peo­ple into their church­es.
SALVATIONS IN JULY:  ADULTS-58, TEENAGERS-75, CHILDREN-420!

The chil­dren are beg­ging for our Bush Bik­ers for Christ (BBC) to come have “Sun­day School” with them.  PRAY, for we hope to get per­mis­sion to restart this fan­tas­tic evan­ge­lis­tic out­reach again in August.  We hope to talk with gov­ern­ment offi­cials this com­ing week to get their deci­sion on this.  Before the Covid out­break which shut down this pro­gram, our teams were reach­ing over 21,000 chil­dren in many vil­lages EACH WEEK with the love of JESUS!
 
WITH GOD, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, so please join with us in ask­ing God to reopen this door.
 BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF