TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

Author Archives: Kim Hartman

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: AUGUST 21, 2021

 
WHAT CAME IN, NOW GOES OUT!
 
Our mas­sive coun­ty wide food give out to orphans liv­ing in the remote parts of Bala­ma Dis­trict has begun.
 
In 4 days this week, our team used both the 6- and 7‑ton-trucks, plus 2 Land Cruis­ers to move the fol­low­ing life-sav­ing food gifts.
 
    343 sacks dried corn (19 TONS)
 
    64 sacks dried beans (4 TONS)
 
    25 sacks salt (500kg/1,100 lbs.)
 
    1,145 pieces of bar soap
 

Excit­ed orphans touch­ing the life-sav­ing food your gifts pro­vide.​
 

So pre­cious in God’s sight.​
 

Ded­i­cat­ed staff hard at work.​
 
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS fed 1,145 orphans and wid­ows this week, and we aren’t done!
 
Next week, we have 1 more give out in the Kwe Kwe (Quay-quay) area.
 

Guard the food means “sit on it” to these young orphans.​
 

Big broth­er bal­ances the bike, while lit­tle broth­er looks on as their Aunt can load it up!​
 
THANK YOU AND PRAISE THE LORD FOR PROVIDING GOD’S PRECIOUS ORPHANED CHILDREN WITH THE LOVE OF JESUS THROUGH A LIFE-SAVING GIFT.
 
 
HOUSE NUMBER 7 RECEIVES THE “CREATION” MURAL IN THE BOY’S ROOM.
 
Painter Vicente has begun bright­en­ing each wall of the boy’s room with a spe­cial mur­al. 
 

“CREATION” bright­ens the boys room of house #7​
 
The murals most loved by our chil­dren are the Bible sto­ries with ani­mals in them. He will be paint­ing the girl’s room next week. What we plan for those walls will be revealed in the next blog.
 
BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: AUGUST 14, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: AUGUST 14, 2021
 
ALFERES FIGHTING MALARIA CONVULSIONS
 
Thurs­day morn­ing, 10 a.m., Alferes, our con­struc­tion trainee who was receiv­ing treat­ment for malar­ia, began hav­ing severe spasms in his right arm. Our staff rushed him to the hos­pi­tal where all 4 of his limbs began to spasm as he tried to walk into the emer­gency  room. 
 

Alferes, our hero (above left) who saved baby Angel­i­ca when she had a febrile seizure.
 
He remained con­scious, but seemed men­tal­ly dis­tant. IV malar­ia meds along with pow­er­ful IV antibi­otics and anti-seizure meds were imme­di­ate­ly giv­en. It took repeat­ed IV meds and fer­vent prayer before his body became calm about 6pm, 8 hours after these episodes began. 
 
He will con­tin­ue IV treat­ments for the next 6 days, and only a mild arm spasm was seen once on Sat­ur­day.  PTL ALFERES is improv­ing, but not “out of trou­ble yet”.
 
PLEASE keep him in your prayers this week. He has a bright future and needs his body work­ing 100%.
 
 
THE RACE IS ON AS MOTHERS CORRAL 5 TINY TOTS!
 
All but 3 of the 8 tiny tots in the Zebra House are now walk­ing!  We praise their advance­ment, but it does keep the moth­ers hop­ping! In the after­noon lull between meals, it is PLAYTIME with these pre­cious lit­tle ones.
 
PLAYTIME PHOTO SHOWS ALL BUT CHEBANE, WHO WAS SLEEPING. 
 

PLAYTIME at the Zebra House! They won’t be small for long. All but 3 now walk­ing. 
 
FRONT  (L to R): Gil­da, Juma, Fati­ma.
MIDDLE: Adeli­na, Jul­ho, Maez­in­ha
FAR BACK: Tiny Suzan­na, our youngest at 15 weeks, now 4kg/8.8 lbs. That is an incred­i­ble increase of 1.4kg/3lbs since July 10th when we received her into our fam­i­ly.
 
They are growing/changing so fast, it is hard for me to fath­om that they all came here as mal­nour­ished infants.
 
 

Room­mates Maz­in­ha, left, and Adeli­na on right, brav­ing a cold morn­ing to be first in the sand­box.​
 

Julio decides he likes the girls next door!​
 

Chebane super hap­py in his new home.​
 
THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THEM IN PRAYER, AND SUPPORTING THIS TINY TOT HOME THAT GIVES THEM A PLACE TO LIVE.
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF H BUNNY BRENDA“DATE: AUGUST 14, 2021
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 25, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JULY 25, 2021
ABANDONED BABY AT HOSPITAL 
 
In Sat­ur­day’s blog, I told of an infant in our milk pro­gram who has malar­ia and severe ane­mia with a Hemo­glo­bin of 4.4. His blood type is O Neg­a­tive, which is not avail­able in this area.
 
He was blood test­ed on Thurs­day, but the father dis­ap­peared from the hos­pi­tal with the infant before he could be admit­ted. The father returned on Fri­day with the infant, agree­ing to hos­pi­tal­ized him after much con­vinc­ing by our staff. I knew it was a frag­ile sit­u­a­tion, but prayed the father would coop­er­ate. 
 

BABY CHEBANE, cute even when not at his best.
 
At 4pm Sat­ur­day, July 24th, I received a fran­tic call from Fati­ma, our Assis­tant Chil­dren’s Direc­tor who is the night moth­er for Baby Susana. She told me the father was mak­ing a big scene at the hos­pi­tal, demand­ing to take the baby home to die. 
 
A call to Social Ser­vices brought them rapid­ly to our aid. After much con­vinc­ing, the father agreed to leave 8‑month-old baby CHEBANE (She-ban-ee) in our care. Our 2 moth­ers watch­ing Susana now have 1 infant each. 
 
Babies can sense the emo­tions of those car­ing for them, mean­ing they know when they are not loved. As soon as I gave that lit­tle boy a bot­tle, he stopped cry­ing, and smiled when the bot­tle was emp­ty. He was con­tent.
 
Assis­tant Chil­dren’s Direc­tor Fati­ma, took him into her arms where he fell into a peace­ful sleep. She told me Sun­day a.m. that he woke at 2 a.m. want­i­ng to play with the baby toy I gave him last night. Big change from the lethar­gic infant I saw on Sat­ur­day night.
 
Chebane has a good chance of sur­viv­ing the ane­mia once the malar­ia is erad­i­cat­ed. Born Decem­ber 12, 2020, his age, weight, and “fight­er atti­tude” makes his ane­mia “cur­able” with a bal­anced high pro­tein diet, much love, and prayers. 
 
Chebane needs a spon­sor of$40/month as we declare he will live, in Jesus’ name!
 
Thanks to your Love Gifts, we are able to con­tin­ue RESCUING JESUS’ PRECIOUS INNOCENT ONES who would oth­er­wise per­ish.
 
Bless­ings, 
BUSH BUNNY “Mama” BRENDA 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 24, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“DATE: JULY 24, 2021
FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JULY 24, 2021
 
WEE LITTLE ONES NEED YOUR PRAYERS 
 
Baby Susana is doing slight­ly bet­ter after her blood trans­fu­sion 2 days ago. The malar­ia she con­tract­ed in her home vil­lage caus­es a delayed ane­mia, as the amoe­ba destroys red blood cells before the treat­ment can kill it out. Her blood tests still reveal an infec­tion, so she will remain in hos­pi­tal until that is erad­i­cat­ed. 
 

Father of Susana when he left her in our care.​
 
Each Thurs­day is when all 26 infants in our baby for­mu­la pro­gram come in to be weighed, and receive their for­mu­la. The tiny twin girls, received last week weigh­ing only 1.9kg EACH had lost 1 lb. Or 500gms EACH in 7 days! The moth­er is hand­i­capped with only 1 hand, and lat­er found to be severe­ly anaemic (hos­pi­tal test showed hemo­glo­bin of 3!), so her Sis­ter was tak­ing care of all of them.
 

Tiny twin girls now in hos­pi­tal with sick moth­er (far right) and Aunt (fore­ground) look after them.​
 
We rushed all 3 to the hos­pi­tal along with anoth­er very ane­mic infant boy who has only his father car­ing for him. All were admit­ted, and blood was arranged for the twin’s moth­er. One of the twins has an infec­tion and is receiv­ing IV antibi­otics also.
 
The ane­mic baby boy has malar­ia, and is receiv­ing treat­ment. How­ev­er he has O‑negative blood, which is very rare. His hemo­glo­bin is 4.4!
 
Only 2 peo­ple in our Dis­trict of over 130,000 are known to have    O‑negative blood. Nei­ther of these peo­ple can con­tribute at the moment as they gave recent­ly. 
 
This lit­tle one needs a Jesus trans­fu­sion!
 
Please keep them all in prayer, and I will update you next week.
 
 
RICE IN THE BARN
 
Our team did a mar­velous job of fill­ing our rice ware­house with 16.5 tons of rice this week. When rice comes direct­ly from the field and is left in its hull (unprocessed), God’s nat­ur­al shell keeps it safe from all bugs.
 
Our barns are full, offi­cial­ly clos­ing our food buy­ing for 2021.
 
THANKS TO ALL OUR DONORS WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE SO ORPHANS IN 2 DISTRICTS/COUNTIES, will have nutri­tious food for the next 12 months.
 
 
ORPHAN HOUSE #7 IN FINAL STAGES
 
Paint­ing has begun for the lunchroom/kitchen as well as the bath­rooms. Our car­pen­ters are com­plet­ing the roof over the clothes wash­ing area as I write. Just the side­walks, kitchen sink, and toi­lets are left to install once the paint­ing is com­plete. 
 

Car­pen­ters com­plet­ing roof over laun­dry area for House 7.​
 

Lunchroom/kitchen gets 1st of 3 coats of paint.​
 

Bath­rooms await doors and toi­let instal­la­tion when paint­ing is com­plete.​
 
THANK YOU AUSTRALIAN DONORS for mak­ing this pos­si­ble!
 
BLESSINGS,
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 10, 2021 URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JULY 10, 2021
 
URGENT PRAYER NEEDED FOR TEREZINHA / TERESA
 
Tere­sa (Terezhi­na) was rushed back to the hos­pi­tal about 2 hours ago and is in dire, urgent need of a mir­a­cle.
 
She was fine a cou­ple of hours before that and eat­ing well. Then her stom­ach began hav­ing tremen­dous bloat­ing, she was in pain, and refus­ing a bot­tle. 
 
Sis­ter Lisha has start­ed IV antibi­otics and Bren­da and team have prayed over her. Please join us in prayer as Bren­da says her symp­toms tell them the most like­ly won’t make it oth­er­wise.
 

Tere­sa before she devel­oped stom­ach prob­lems.​
 
 

Baby Tere­sa after her last hos­pi­tal­iza­tion.
 
Thank you for your prayers.
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 10, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JULY 10, 2021
 
TEREZINHA HOME AT LAST
 
This lit­tle girl is a fight­er, over­com­ing her gas­troen­teri­tis in 7 days so she could return to The Zebra House on Tues­day, July 6th. Eat­ing eager­ly she now weighs 3.4 kg/7.4 lbs. as she decreased to 3kg/6.6 lbs. in the hos­pi­tal. 
 
Born April 1, 2021, Terez­in­ha’s Grand­moth­er decid­ed to change her name offi­cial­ly to TERESA on her birth records. This is the name we must use now.
 
Our Mir­a­cle Moth­er, Vaneza, was unable to take the emo­tion­al strain of her 3rd assigned infant, Tere­sa, being sick in the hos­pi­tal. An excel­lent moth­er, Vaneza has cared for 2 VERY HIGH RISK INFANTS, who are now in the arms of Jesus.
 

VANEZA with Tere­sa before she devel­oped stom­ach prob­lems.​
 
We offered her sev­er­al solu­tions, hop­ing she would stay, but Vaneza resigned when Tere­sa had to be hos­pi­tal­ized.
 
 OUR PRAYERS con­tin­ue for Vaneza as she took these infan­t’s deaths as a sign that she is not a fit moth­er. Please pray that Jesus can show her oth­er­wise. 
 
BABY TERESA was cared for in the hos­pi­tal by Fati­ma, our Assis­tant Chil­dren’s Direc­tor, who her­self is an excel­lent moth­er.
 
 
Sal­vador and Baby Fati­ma neck-to-neck to see who will walk first!​
Watch video—>   https://youtu.be/eOefMKof1C4
 
 
JESUS SENDS US FOSTER MOTHER ERNESTINA 
 
The very next day, ERNESTINA came to our office with excel­lent cre­den­tials for a Head Moth­er. She has work expe­ri­ence in a large pre-school in Nam­pu­la, and loves babies! When the virus closed her pre-school last year, she returned to Bala­ma where her extend­ed fam­i­ly lives.
 

ERNESTINA, new Fos­ter Mom with Baby Tere­sa.
 
We are very grate­ful for God’s pro­vi­sion as ERNESTINA hap­pi­ly received the frag­ile Tere­sa into her arms when she was dis­missed from the hos­pi­tal. Remem­ber, in this cul­ture,  to smile in a pho­to means you are not tak­ing your respon­si­bil­i­ty seri­ous­ly. 
 
 
SACK IT AND STACK IT!
 
Our corn barn is now full after a gru­el­ing 5 days of sack­ing and stack­ing 187 Tons of super dry corn with a small group of men.
Dis­tri­b­u­tion to vil­lage orphans will begin in August. These vil­lage orphans grew enough food to last their house­holds until August by plant­i­ng the seeds YOU pro­vid­ed for them last Novem­ber. 
 

Last stack of July corn almost com­plete on Fri­day.​
 
Note: The July corn was pro­vid­ed by our 11 Vil­lage Pas­tors and a few staff mem­bers who are all part of Christ’s fam­i­ly.  Our church­es are grow­ing!
 
JUST RECEIVED A TINY 3‑WEEK-OLD GIRL from 20 miles/44 km away. That awe­some sto­ry will be in next week’s blog.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JULY 3, 2021

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG:

JULY 3, 2021

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO ALL IN USA! But here in Mozam­bique, it is cer­tain­ly not a hol­i­day as we gear up to begin Phase 2 of our food buy­ing while try­ing to keep 10 infants healthy. 
Hap­py feet as baby Fati­ma learns to stand.​
Click link for video.——> https://youtu.be/idr-J_fyX3s  

BABY TEREZINHA, 2.5 MONTHS IN HOSPITAL WITH INFECTION  
She is receiv­ing a trans­fu­sion as I write, since her hemo­glo­bin has con­tin­ued to drop slow­ly over the last 72 hours. The exact cause of her infec­tion is unknown, and she des­per­ate­ly needs your prayers. I have been with her all morn­ing, assist­ing in orga­niz­ing a donor for her blood type. 


Baby Terez­in­ha receives transfusion​.  

BABY JUMA, 11 WEEKS, PRESENTS WITH FEVER EARLY A.M. TODAY 
After a trip to the Emer­gency Room this a.m., Juma’s test results show he has a res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion which is very com­mon in this cold weath­er. After 2 con­sul­tants saw the lab results, the they decid­ed that we should keep Juma at home, (to pre­vent addi­tion­al infec­tions), but under con­stant super­vi­sion for any breath­ing prob­lems.  He is receiv­ing strong, broad spec­trum oral antibi­otics. So far, so good. Pray for his rapid recov­ery. 


Baby Juma does­n’t need a 2nd hos­pi­tal­iza­tion.  

MORE INFANTS POURING INTO BABY FORMULA PROGRAM.  
TWO INFANTS from sep­a­rate fam­i­lies were in dire need this week of the pre­cious for­mu­la that your love gifts pro­vide. Orphan Baby Frenk, (pro­nounced ‘Freenk’), 11 weeks old, lost his moth­er to severe ane­mia. His 4.6kg/10.1 lbs. is good for his age.
 
Baby Frenk with his Aunt as she learns how to mix his for­mu­la. 

The oth­er infant received is very mal­nour­ished as the moth­er has mas­ti­tis. I did­n’t pho­to­graph him at his moth­er’s request.  

OUR STAFF are ded­i­cat­ed to res­cu­ing and sav­ing these inno­cent ones. Please keep these pre­cious ones in your prayers.   

YOUR LOVE GIFTS are their sav­ing Grace. 

BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

“BUSH BUNNY BRENDA” BLOG: JUNE 26, 2021

 FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 26, 2021
 
HOSPITAL RELEASES BABY JUMA
 
Nine-week-old Juma suf­fered from gas­troen­teri­tis vs. Malar­ia as first diag­nosed. His treat­ment was changed and he recov­ered rapid­ly, PTL! Thank you all for your prayers.  
 

Baby Juma ready to leave the hos­pi­tal.​
 
Our 10 infants are all home and healthy. Just a few run­ny noses which hap­pens as this is our “win­ter”. Night­time temps are around 50ºF/14ºC. Days are in the 70’s/20’s with a breeze. It’s very cold for our chil­dren, as they are accus­tomed to tem­per­a­tures in the 90’sF/32ºC or greater. 
 

Dave with Baby Adeli­na (who does­n’t like strangers,  but she took to Dave imme­di­ate­ly!)​
 
 
BUMPS IN THE AIR, BUT DAVE IS HOME
 
Dave flew out of Pem­ba on Wednes­day to face a gru­el­ing trip home. Just before board­ing, he received noti­fi­ca­tion that his next flight from Johan­nes­burg to Eng­land had been can­celled!
 
I had to awak­en our USA sec­re­tary at 2:30 a.m. USA time, who prompt­ly called the air­line to request anoth­er flight.
 
Dave made the new flight at 11pm to Hol­land where he caught a flight to Atlanta, then to Grand Rapids. Exhaust­ed, but thrilled to be home, Dave is will­ing to come again next year if pos­si­ble. 
 
I PTL FOR HIS HELP AND DEDICATION WITH FOOD BUYING THIS YEAR. THANKS TO ALL WHO PRAYED FOR HIS SAFE RETURN. 
 
 
TRIPLETS REDUCED TO TWO
 
On Thurs­day, 24th, the aunt and uncle of our lat­est triplets only came to weigh-in with 2 infants. Donito, the first­born infant, had been admit­ted to the Mon­tepuez Region­al Hos­pi­tal with breath­ing dif­fi­cul­ties.
 
Sad­ly, on Fri­day, a fam­i­ly mem­ber dropped by to tell us that Donito did­n’t sur­vive. His sib­lings, who were born by Cae­sar­i­an sec­tion vs. nat­ur­al birth for Donito, are both gain­ing weight, and doing well.
PLZ PRAY FOR THIS FAMILY IN THEIR TIME OF MOURNING, AND FOR THE OTHER 2 INFANTS TO GROW STRONG. 
 

Donil­to (1.9kg/4.18lbs.) and Denil­ta (2kg/4.4lbs) are get­ting stronger.​
 
YOUR LOVING PRAYERS AND EMAILS FOR ALL OF US ARE MUCH APPRECIATED. 
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
 AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

“BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“DATE: JUNE 19, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JUNE 19, 2021
 
TEREZINHA NEEDS A HOME
 
Two-month-old Terez­in­ha was sud­den­ly orphaned last Sat­ur­day night when her moth­er died at the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal from post par­tum com­pli­ca­tions. The father aban­doned them both when the moth­er became ill, and the only female rel­a­tive is too elder­ly to care for her.
 
A fam­i­ly friend brought her to my door ear­ly Sun­day morn­ing with a let­ter from Social Ser­vices ask­ing us to accept her into our care. Healthy, but small for her age, Terez­in­ha greed­i­ly attached her­self to the bot­tle of for­mu­la I offered her.
 

 
Terezhi­na needs a home.
 
Fos­ter Moth­er Vaneza accept­ed this lit­tle one as her own. She had a nor­mal week at the Zebra House, now bet­ter known as the ‘Baby House’ with 7 of our 10 infants resid­ing there.
 
TEREZINHA NEEDS A $40/MONTH SPONSOR. Please email me if you would like to spon­sor her.
 
 
BABIES SALVADOR AND JUMA BATTLED  MALARIA THIS WEEK. 
 
Mon­day at 11:45pm, Head Fos­ter Moth­er of the ‘Baby House’, called me to say Sal­vador was very sick just 24 hours after com­plet­ing his 3‑day-course of malar­ia med­ica­tion. This meant he had “resis­tant” malar­ia and need­ed IV treat­ment IMMEDIATELY.  He recov­ered well and is now hap­pi­ly back at his home with us.
 

Sal­vador sleeps peace­ful­ly after rough start with malar­ia.​
 

SALVADOR IS BACK!​
 
JUMA, who has only been with us a short time, was rushed by Cape­na to the Hos­pi­tal on Fri­day, as Sal­vador was being released. 
PLEASE PRAY for Juma as he has a sen­si­tive stom­ach mak­ing it hard for him to keep flu­ids in his tum­my. He is on IV flu­ids as I write.  Malar­ia is noto­ri­ous for caus­ing vom­it­ing, as rapid dehy­dra­tion is part of the rea­son it kills so eas­i­ly. 
 
 
BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS:
 
1. Our 7‑ton-truck car­ried our corn pro­cess­ing team to Melu­co this week. Melu­co is our remote orphan sta­tion in a coun­ty north of us, feed­ing 500+ orphans week­ly. 
 

7‑ton loaded with corn chute head­ed to Melu­co on Tues­day.
 
2. Maez­in­ha still work­ing on walk­ing Inde­pen­dent­ly,  but want­ed to show off her new dress.
 

Maez­in­ha shows off her new dress. She strug­gles to walk Inde­pen­dent­ly but is game to keep try­ing.​
 
3. Wid­ows with orphans received blan­kets this week as Bala­ma is deal­ing with record low tem­per­a­tures this June. No one look­ing for­ward to July as the tem­per­a­tures usu­al­ly drop even low­er as our cold sea­son peaks.
 

Blan­ket give-out to our wid­ows and orphans as cold­est win­ter on record begins.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS AT WORK AS WE WATCH OVER GOD’S CHILDREN. 
 
Bless­ings, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JUNE 12, 2021

 TRIPLETS SURVIVE A WILD ENTRANCE!
 
The preg­nant moth­er went to the vil­lage hos­pi­tal as she began her labor. Short­ly, a tiny 1.6kg/3.5 lb lit­tle boy was born. To the amaze­ment of the nurse on duty, there was anoth­er unborn infant sit­ting cross­ways that could not enter the birth canal.
 
Bala­ma’s ambu­lance rushed to the scene to take her to the region­al hos­pi­tal for a C‑section. How­ev­er, the region­al hos­pi­tal real­ized there were 2 more infants to deliv­er, so this young moth­er was rushed to the state hos­pi­tal in Pem­ba.
 
Mirac­u­lous­ly,  moth­er and all 3 infants sur­vived!
 

Moth­er holds a baby boy, and Sis­ter holds 1 boy, 1 girl. All born 1.6kg/3.5 lbs.
 
A week lat­er, Social Ser­vices received them in Bala­ma, plac­ing them in our infant for­mu­la pro­gram. 
 
All 3 are hold­ing their weight after the first 3 days, but they are far from being at a “safe weight”. Please keep all of them in prayer, as their Mom is also weak after this ordeal. It will take some time for her to over­come her ane­mia even with vit­a­mins. 
 
The father came to fetch the 2 women and 3 babies in the pho­to after fuel­ing up down the road. It was a “hold your breath” moment as he tied 1 infant onto his chest, then had the 2 women load up, each with 1 baby tied onto their backs. They were back 3 days lat­er using the same trans­port, for it is required that all infants weigh in to receive more for­mu­la. 
 
Pray for their trav­el safe­ty as well! Updates to be giv­en as they devel­op. 
 
 
ROUGH START THAT ENDS WELL
 
Say­ing we had a rough 2 weeks of food buy­ing since June 1st would be putting it mild­ly.
 
RAIN STORMS WITH HIGH WINDS hit us both Mon­days!
 
First, it isn’t nor­mal for heavy rains to hit us in June. 
 
Sec­ond, the June 1st rain was tol­er­a­ble since we were only buy­ing beans and had them all under the roof of our corn barn, PTL! This June 1st rain last­ed only dur­ing the ear­ly morn­ing, so except for wet ground, it did­n’t even delay the Chil­dren’s Day Par­ty.
 
June 7th was s dif­fer­ent sto­ry!
 
A beau­ti­ful sun­rise was whisked away by high winds that pushed heavy rain clouds over our area by 6 a.m. (We start at 5a.m.) As the light rain began, Manel and I remem­bered the “ERIC IDEA” from 5 years ago when rain hit us dur­ing food buy­ing. The 2 of us raced to our base, grab­bing 10 tarps, rolls of rope, and the 7‑TON TRUCK!
 

Food buy­ing in the rain.​
 
The pho­to shows the emer­gency tarp­ing method that our Assis­tant Direc­tor taught us to use dur­ing bad weath­er at the barns.
 
Tying the front of the tarps to the roof­ing beams, we use our 7‑ton truck as the “anchor”.  It gives us the abil­i­ty to con­tin­ue work­ing, although at a slow­er pace. 
 
The 2 tarps placed over the weigh­ing area just behind the 7‑ton truck were RIPPED OFF the weight-room roof by the high winds dur­ing this storm. Thank­ful­ly,  the trucks wait­ing to unload at our weigh-in spot were all tarped, so the corn stayed dry. We PTL that the storm passed in about 90 min­utes, so we were able to fin­ish our pro­gram for the day. 
 

Up the corn stair­case, and throw it on top! The bag weighs 60kg/132lbs. And they make it look easy.​
 
The Bala­ma staff thanks all of you for your prayers for our safe­ty and the fact that 132 TONS of corn and 108 TONS of beans are all safe­ly in their prospec­tive barns.
 
More food fun com­ing in July!
 

Corn Barn after June buy­ing.  More to come in July.​
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF