TwitterFacebookLinkedInEmail

Author Archives: Kim Hartman

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: NOVEMBER 28, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: NOVEMBER 28, 2020
 
MURALS BRIGHTEN BEDROOMS TOO!
 
Your lov­ing response to our mur­al project was won­der­ful! THANK YOU FOR BRINGING JOY TO OUR CHILDREN’S FACES! Your gifts cov­ered the cost of the large lunch­room murals of Noah with the Ark, and Adam in Cre­ation. 
 

Daniel in Lions room in boys’ room House #6.​
 
Murals for House 7 will be done as soon as paint­ing can begin. Our builders are in the final stages of com­ple­tion for this chil­dren’s home.
 
The extra gifts are being used to dec­o­rate the chil­dren’s bed­room walls. Due to the bunk beds in the bed­rooms, small­er, kid activ­i­ty designs were cho­sen. Each girl’s bed­room received a young girl jump­ing rope, (their favourite), while the boys all around fun thing is play­ing soc­cer. 
 

Girls’ bed­room mur­al.​
 

Boys’ bed­room mural​.
 

Cre­ation almost com­plet­ed in Study Room for boys’ dorm​
 
Marceli­na, house moth­er for “The Lion House”, told me that after their lunch room mur­al was com­plete, all 11 chil­dren bunched onto the lunch­room bench fac­ing their Cre­ation mur­al, and began nam­ing the ani­mals. So now we can say the murals are a teach­ing tool also.
 
Again, thank you! This is a love gift that will keep on giv­ing all year long.
 
 
BABY SALVADOR JOINS OUR FAMILY
 
SALVADOR, 6 lbs (2.8kg), was orphaned at 2 days of age, for his moth­er had seri­ous post­par­tum com­pli­ca­tions after his birth. Sad­ly, she pass­ing away in our local hos­pi­tal. His elder­ly grand­moth­er is not well her­self, so relin­quished him into our care last Thurs­day. 
 

SALVADOR,  2 days old, in arms of elder­ly grand­moth­er.​
 
At just 4 days of age as of today, he is respond­ing well to baby for­mu­la, and is now well hydrat­ed. Pray for his immune sys­tem to strength­en, as he did not receive the first 3 days of spe­cial,  immune-build­ing milk that only his moth­er could give.
 
SALVADOR NEEDS A $30/MONTH SPONSOR. Please email me if you are led to pray and sup­port lit­tle Sal­vador.
 
 
BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS
 
     1. Vaneza, who received the mir­a­cle heal­ing last week has been per­form­ing her nor­mal child­care duties with NO RESIDUAL AFFECTS from her head injury. We con­tin­ue to praise the LORD JESUS for His heal­ing touch.
 
     2. Many have asked about Mon­i­ca. Thanks to your prayers, she is now stronger than I have ever seen her and DEMANDED to help with house­hold chores. One chore is fetch­ing water from our well that is only 50 yards/meters from her house.
 

Mon­i­ca shows off her strength with her 2 liter water buck­et.​
 
This pho­to shows her car­ry­ing a small, 2 litre buck­et of water to help out with clothes wash­ing. She was not able to do this before her last res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion. 
 
THANKSGIVING IS A 365 DAY GIFT THAT JESUS GAVE US TO BRIGHTEN ANOTHER PERSON’S LIFE. GIVE FREELY OF YOUR TIME AND RESOURCES EVERYDAY, FOR THE HARVEST IS RIPE AND THE TIME IS SHORT. 
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: NOVEMBER 21, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: NOVEMBER 21, 2020
 
JESUS RAISES FOSTER MOTHER FROM CERTAIN DEATH
 
VANEZA, head moth­er of House #6, was hit behind the right ear this last Mon­day, at 9 a.m. by an out-of-con­trol woman yield­ing a strong piece of fire­wood. At the police sta­tion, Vaneza gave her tes­ti­mo­ny, and was then prompt­ly sent to the hos­pi­tal. 
 
Treat­ed and released with no obvi­ous symp­toms, Vaneza was at our chil­dren’s home, when at 3 p.m. she start­ed with a mild headache and pain in her right thigh where she had also been hit. The hos­pi­tal staff approved a painkiller and she fell asleep. Our Chil­dren’s Direc­tor lives near House #6 so she checked on her fre­quent­ly. 
 
All was fine until 6 p.m. when Vaneza­’s whole body stiff­ened and she had a seizure. I was imme­di­ate­ly called. I called our office man­ag­er,  Cape­na, who went to fetch a nurse who lived near­by. I raced to House #6 to assess her con­di­tion and pre­pare her for trans­port to our hos­pi­tal. The nurse imme­di­ate­ly called the Doc­tor,  who met us at the emer­gency room.
 
Imme­di­ate IV treat­ment stopped the seizure. Treat­ment to reduce her obvi­ous cere­bral ede­ma was giv­en, and all seemed nor­mal for the next 48 hours. NOTE: Cere­bral ede­ma can build up slow­ly,  thus the rea­son Doc­tors tell fam­i­lies to close­ly observe the per­son for the first 24 hrs.
 
As Vaneza pre­pared to leave the hos­pi­tal at 9 a.m. on Wednes­day,  she sud­den­ly stiff­ened and seized again! The increased activ­i­ty seemed the cul­prit. IV med­ica­tion stopped this seizure, but she showed obvi­ous signs that her cere­bral ede­ma was increas­ing. 
 
A call to Pem­ba hos­pi­tal orga­nized a strong IV med­i­cine that could reduce the swelling. Our truck was dis­patched imme­di­ate­ly to fetch it, but it is a 7‑hour round trip from Bala­ma to Pem­ba. Would it be in time?
 
Three more seizures occurred on Wednes­day between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. with only tem­po­rary relief from IV meds. The sit­u­a­tion looked very grim after the 4th seizure.
 

Vaneza in 4th seizure, 2:30 p.m., Wednes­day.
 
A Chris­t­ian nurse and I laid hands on Vaneza and asked God for a mir­a­cle, using our author­i­ty in Christ’s name to stop the seizures and heal her com­plete­ly. We had all been pray­ing for her, but now the 2 of us went into spir­i­tu­al war­rior mode, for it was clear that a mir­a­cle from Jesus was her only hope. 
 
She received no fur­ther med­ica­tions as her seizures did not return after we prayed. In fact, we both left the hos­pi­tal for an hour to get a late lunch, total­ly trust­ing our Lord to deal with the sit­u­a­tion. 
 
TO EVERYONE’S AMAZEMENT, WITHIN THAT HOUR, VANEZA AWOKE, SAT UP, DRANK AND ATE, AND TALKED CLEARLY TO EVERYONE!!!
 

4 p.m.. Wednes­day. Vaneza TOTALLY HEALED 90 min­utes after prayer.
 
As a past ICU nurse with much expe­ri­ence car­ing for head injuries,  I can tell you THIS IS NOT A NORMAL recov­ery sce­nario. The Chris­t­ian nurse and I were the only ones who “knew in our hearts” that Jesus had com­plete­ly healed her when we prayed. THE SPEED AT WHICH HE HEALED HER, took even us by sur­prise!
 
Vaneza stayed in hos­pi­tal at Doc­tor’s orders, even though she begged to go home. The Doc­tor want­ed her to receive the anti-ede­ma meds over the next 36 hours, which passed with­out inci­dent for she was ful­ly recov­ered. 
 
Released on Fri­day, Vaneza is her cheer­ful self, but on light duty for a few days until she regains her strength from being in bed for 5 days. 
 
The pho­tos tell the whole sto­ry. 
 

Vaneza, Sat­ur­day morn­ing at House #6. Hap­py to he alive, thanks to Jesus!
 
I would not nor­mal­ly take a pho­to of some­one in crit­i­cal con­di­tion, but felt “led by the spir­it ” to do so. IT IS NOW PROOF TO ALL DOUBTERS THAT JESUS HEALS IF WE ASK IN HIS NAME AND SIMPLE BELIEVE HE WILL DO IT!
 
No one with severe cere­bral ede­ma goes from comatose with con­sec­u­tive seizures to TOTALLY HEALED in an hour unless JESUS touch­es their body. 
 
PRAISE THE LORD, HALLELUJAH!
 
BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU, AND A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
All of us have much to be thank­ful for, even in these tough times.  Share your thank­ful heart with oth­ers and “make their day” a bit brighter.
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: NOVEMBER 14, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: NOVEMBER 14, 2020
 
A YEAR ROUND GIFT THAT DELIGHTS ALL
 
A mur­al paint­ed on a wall delights all who see it. A month ago, I saw a mur­al some­one had paint­ed at the local high school. One of our staff found out who the painter was, so I invit­ed him to our office to find out if he could paint ani­mal scenes and at what price. (I fig­ured his quote would be too high for our bud­get, but would­n’t hurt to ask.)
 
I had held onto a gift giv­en over a year ago specif­i­cal­ly for dec­o­rat­ing the chil­dren’s homes, but I was nev­er able to find a painter who could do designs. So when Vicente quot­ed a Noah’s Ark scene that cov­ered an 18 ft/5.5 meter wall for $100 includ­ing the paint, I sealed the deal for house #6.
 

Vicente ® and helper with Noah’s Ark Scene​
 
AMAZED BEYOND WORDS was my reac­tion when I saw Vicen­te’s paint­ing.  He just looked at the pic­ture I showed him from our evan­ge­lis­tic book, and drew it on the wall! After his Noah’s Ark job, a $100 remained of the paint­ing gift, so he agreed to do a Cre­ation scene for anoth­er of our homes. Anoth­er super mur­al!
 

Adam and God’s Cre­ation
 
But now the funds are fin­ished, and there are 5 homes with­out a mur­al. Num­ber includes house #7 which is in its final con­struc­tion phase.
 
Our chil­dren don’t ask for much, but they are super excit­ed after see­ing the murals, so Mama Bren­da is get­ting many requests from the chil­dren whose homes don’t have a “pret­ty pic­ture”. With Christ­mas com­ing up, I want­ed to put this “Christ­mas gift idea” to all of you.
 
Any size gift is just fine, for I will com­bine all gifts ear­marked “mur­al” for this fund. Total need­ed is $500 to com­plete the 5 hous­es. Plz email me if you are able to help. It’s a gift that will touch many all year round.
 
 
TRIPLETS ENTER THE SAFETY ZONE 
 
All 5 babies in the 2 pho­tos are now eat­ing and grow­ing rapid­ly. Only by the grace of God, your prayers, and love gifts have we been able to raise all 3 sets of triplets into the “safe­ty zone”.
 

Rosa and Ros­ali­na are sur­viv­ing triplets. 6kg each.
 

Felis­mi­na, Filom­e­na, and Fil­is­mi­no all at 6 kg/13 lbs at 5 months.​
 
This means they are eat­ing baby food, gain­ing weight and strength,  so their immune sys­tems are strong against dis­eases. The old­est set of triplets are not shown as they slipped in to receive their food today while I was called away to deal with a sick child.
 
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EXTENDING A HELPING HAND TO THESE PRECIOUS LITTLE ONES. 
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: NOVEMBER 7, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: NOVEMBER 7, 2020
 
BABY QUISTON JOINS OUR FAMILY 
 
Begin­ning to look like a baby nurs­ery in all 5 of our chil­dren’s homes for young chil­dren. With 8‑month-old Quis­ton (Key-ston) join­ing our fam­i­ly on Thurs­day, we now have 11 babies in our care.
 
Quis­ton’s Granny has strug­gled since May to han­dle this lit­tle boy, as she is elder­ly her­self and the youngest fam­i­ly mem­ber remain­ing. Know­ing she did not have the means or ener­gy to raise him, she released him to us as he was sick with an upper res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion. 
 

Baby Quis­ton in arms of Grand­moth­er.
 
He’s very small and under­weight, 4.6kg/10 lbs., 8 months old, born March 3, 2020. This lit­tle man is tough, and doing much bet­ter after 3 days of med­i­cine for his res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion.
 
God already answered our prayer for a spon­sor through a Chris­t­ian School in Okla­homa. I am always encour­aged when some­one emails to say they would like to spon­sor a baby, for that is what hap­pened in this case. The spon­sor wrote the same day we received QUISTON.
 
Coin­ci­dence? No way! That’s God!
 

Baby Quis­ton feel­ing much bet­ter after 3 days of med­ical care.​
 
All our chil­dren need your prayers, and we are grate­ful for it. THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SPONSORS who make it pos­si­ble for our chil­dren to have their needs met.
 
 
BLOCKED BRIDGE DELAYS DELIVERY​
 
Manel and his team took off at 4 a.m. Wednes­day to take a load of corn to the Melu­co orphans. They trav­elled well until 30 km (18 miles) from Melu­co town, where the team encoun­tered a bro­ken down log truck block­ing a one way bridge. No one knew when the truck would be repaired, as it was too heavy with its log load to be towed.
 
No car or truck could pass, and no alter­na­tive road exists, so Manel hiked up onto a near­by hill to get phone sig­nal to call me. I gave the order to turn around and come home, for the area they were in was a known ele­phant cross­ing as well as home to oth­er dan­ger­ous “crit­ters”.
 

Mas­sive log truck block­ing the road on Wednes­day.​
 
By 8 p.m. that night,  the team was safe­ly back at our base. The fol­low­ing after­noon,  we were delight­ed to hear that the truck had been moved, and traf­fic was flow­ing. Our team pre­pared the truck and took off at 4 a.m. Fri­day, suc­cess­ful­ly deliv­er­ing their load to the Melu­co orphan sta­tion. They are on their way to Bala­ma as I write.
 
Dai­ly, we face many unknowns in the res­cue work we do to save vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren. YOUR PRAYERS do more to help us than you will ever know while on this earth. PLEASE KEEP US COVERED IN PRAYER. Our last food truck of the year will leave Mon­day for Melu­co. It essen­tial that this food be deliv­ered before the heavy rains begin this month. THANK YOU!
 
 
BABY NELITA THRIVING
 
Baby Neli­ta is a true tes­ti­mo­ny of how well our moth­ers care for mal­nour­ished infants. Neli­ta’s immune sys­tem was com­pro­mised and she was in a severe­ly mal­nour­ished state when she came to us 1 year ago.
 
Med­ical per­son­nel were skep­ti­cal that she would sur­vive. WITH LOTS OF PRAYER FROM ALL OF YOU, and in con­junc­tion with our lov­ing fos­ter moth­ers, God raised her up! She is now walk­ing short dis­tances and play­ing out­side with oth­er chil­dren.  Her immu­ni­ty has returned in force!
 

Baby Neli­ta thriv­ing after almost los­ing her life.​
 
Her favourite game is talk­ing to oth­ers via her toy tele­phone.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR POWERFUL PRAYERS TOWARDS THIS LITTLE ONE.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 31, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 31, 2020
 
BABY MAEZINHA JOINS OUR FAMILY

Last Sun­day,  Granny Aluina, whom I intro­duced you to last week, walked in from her vil­lage with the very ill baby girl, Maez­in­ha. (An error on the paper­work had me report this baby as a boy in last week’s blog.) Maez­in­ha, 6 months old, is mal­nour­ished as she weighs only 5.2kg/11.4 lbs.

She had a high fever, was very irri­ta­ble and refus­ing a bot­tle.  Granny told us she was too old to han­dle this baby, and asked us to take her into our fam­i­ly. Our Chil­dren’s Direc­tor and I agreed this was best for the sake of the infant. Social Ser­vices agreed, treat­ment for malar­ia was giv­en, and after 5 days, our newest fam­i­ly mem­ber is eat­ing well and begin­ning to smile at times.
 

Baby Maez­in­ha held by Fos­ter Moth­er Maria.​

She’s had a rough life, los­ing her moth­er 3 weeks ago, then chang­ing fam­i­lies twice in the fol­low­ing 3 weeks. Maria is an excel­lent moth­er and it is obvi­ous that Maez­in­ha is very hap­py with her. This morn­ing, Maez­in­ha grabbed my hand, let­ting me know she accept­ed me too. While sick she want­ed noth­ing to do with me.

SPONSOR NEEDED FOR MAEZINHA. $30/month will pro­vide her for­mu­la and food. Plz email me if you would like to spon­sor this sweet lit­tle girl.
 

Maez­in­ha hold­ing my fin­ger, tells me I am now accept­ed by her.​


VILLAGE PASTORS PRAY FOR USA AND MOZAMBIQUE LEADERS

Our faith­ful Vil­lage Pas­tors always end our month­ly meet­ings with intense prayer for our most urgent needs. They know how impor­tant it is to pray for gov­ern­ment lead­ers, so that was the basis of this mon­th’s prayer ses­sion. 
 

Faith­ful Vil­lage Pas­tors pray for Mozam­bique and USA.​

GOD IS MOVING. Our Namuno Coun­ty Pas­tor, Alber­to,  report­ed that the vil­lage of Ocua request­ed his help in begin­ning a shade tree church. Their area has 20 adults, 18 teenagers,  and 22 chil­dren who want­ed to receive Jesus as Lord and Sav­iour!
This is the 5th vil­lage to come to Christ in this District/County, PTL!

Bala­ma Sal­va­tions in Octo­ber 
   Adults: 25
   Teenagers: 26
   Chil­dren: 71

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO GIVE SO THAT OTHERS CAN KNOW JESUS!


LIFE SKILLS TEACHES “HELP THY NEIGHBOR“

Last week, 23 teenagers, all orphans liv­ing near our mis­sion sta­tion, joined our Life Skills group. Octo­ber is “pre­pare your fields for plant­i­ng”, so our lessons not only includ­ed farm­ing tech­niques,  but help­ing one anoth­er. Our staff split them into 2 groups to help wid­ows and sick, elder­ly peo­ple to pre­pare their fields.  
 

Ter­rif­ic Teen Pow­er in our 23 youth learn­ing Life Skills.​
 
Every­one ben­e­fits as these young peo­ple seem super-pow­ered in how much they accom­plish in a 2‑hour class time.  Once these fields are plant­ed, then we will intro­duce the group to oth­er skills.

CHANGING A NEIGHBORHOOD, 1 CHILD AT A TIME.

BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 24, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 24, 2020
 
JOSEPH PROGRAM 2020 NOW COMPLETED!

The Joseph Pro­gram is the name the Lord gave me for our Vil­lage Food Dis­tri­b­u­tion Pro­gram: Fill the barns in time of plen­ty and give out in the time of hunger. 
 
Our staff has been busy doing just that since August 1, 2020. Orphans and wid­ows assist­ed TOTALED 1,864 in Bala­ma and Melu­co Dis­tricts. The pho­tos in today’s blog show us giv­ing out the final sacks of food this last week to some of the wid­ows and orphans, as the rainy sea­son is upon us. Our team dis­trib­uted TWICE to each child in Octo­ber so that all could have food and seed for plant­i­ng before the rains begin in Novem­ber.

YOUR LOVE GIFTS MAKE THIS PROGRAM POSSIBLE! THANKS TO YOU, these 1,864 orphans and wid­ows have full tum­mies AND the ener­gy need­ed to plant their fields in Novem­ber.
Our aim is to GIVE THEM A HAND UP, NOT A HAND OUT! Thus, food to help them gain strength, and seeds to plant so they are more self-suf­fi­cient.
 

Each wid­ow car­ing for more than 3 orphans receives 60kg/132 lbs of corn.

These grannies are doing a great job of train­ing up their grand­chil­dren in the food-grow­ing tech­niques they must learn in order to become suc­cess­ful farm­ers. Vil­lage pop­u­la­tions depend on the par­ents pass­ing on to their chil­dren these life-sus­tain­ing farm­ing tech­niques. That “life­line of infor­ma­tion” is bro­ken when the par­ents pass away, so who will teach them?
 

Grate­ful Granny receives food and soap for the 4 orphans in her care.
 
If you don’t grow it your­self around here, then you have noth­ing to eat. My hat goes off to these faith­ful, lov­ing Grand­moth­ers and Aunts who accept the respon­si­bil­i­ty to care for and train up their orphaned fam­i­ly mem­bers. It is NOT an easy process.

NOTE: The chil­dren who live with us are all giv­en train­ing in these same tech­niques by the Fos­ter Moth­ers who care for them.
 

Wid­ow receives life sav­ing beans for her 3 orphaned grand­chil­dren.
 

RESCUES CONTINUE WEEKLY

This week, Granny Aluina (Ah-loo-ee-nah) asked Social Ser­vices for food help as both par­ents of her 3 grand­chil­dren are now deceased. The mal­nour­ished 6‑month-old baby boy, Maez­in­ho (Ma-eh-zeen-you), was in dire need of milk for­mu­la, as the moth­er had nev­er intro­duced him to baby food.
 

Alci­na, 8, broth­er Alci­no, 6, with Granny and baby Maez­in­ha.
 
The 6‑year-old boy, Alci­no, and his 8‑year-old sis­ter, Alci­na, are both thin, but noth­ing that 2 to 3 weeks of good meals wouldn’t fix. The father passed away last year before Maez­in­ho was born. The moth­er passed away at home on Oct. 10th from an unknown ill­ness as she didn’t seek med­ical help. Granny Aluina tried to man­age the baby with the help of sev­er­al vil­lage women who nursed him, but it clear­ly wasn’t enough. He refused to eat the local baby por­ridge, but is now eat­ing the tasti­er Hypo Baby Por­ridge that we pro­vide to infants.

I am very proud of Granny Aluina for seek­ing help BEFORE the sit­u­a­tion for the infant became crit­i­cal. THANKS TO YOUR LOVE GIFTS, Granny Aluina and her 3 grand­chil­dren are all being cared for through our Bala­ma Food and Infant For­mu­la Pro­gram. EACH LOVE GIFT YOU SEND TRULY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Know that all of us are most grate­ful for each of you, and that our staff prays for you each week.
 

ROOF ON ORPHAN HOUSE #7 IS COMPLETE!

This huge job took 9 days total with 6 car­pen­ters, mak­ing it pos­si­ble to COMPLETE THIS 4 BEDROOM HOUSE dur­ing the fast approach­ing rainy sea­son. The fin­ish­ing work will begin next week, so my “hope” is to open this orphan home by Jan­u­ary, 2021.
 

Orphan Home #7. Roof com­plet­ed.

Around here, we have learned that dur­ing the “rainy sea­son”, you must be patient and take it one day at a time. But we will forge ahead as is pos­si­ble, for our mot­to is to “nev­er leave for tomor­row, what can be done today”. Our team WILL make it hap­pen with God’s help.

THANK YOU TO THE SPONSORS OF THIS HOME WHOSE LOVING KINDNESS IS MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO HELP MORE CHILDREN IN NEED.

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 17, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 17, 2020
 
ORPHAN HOUSE #7—ROOFING IN PROGRESS!

It’s a big job putting a roof on a house that is 71 feet/22 meters long. On Mon­day, Oct. 12th, I took video footage of the brick-lay­er team help­ing the 6 car­pen­ters lift up the 6 (SIX!!) 200 lb./90 kg truss­es onto the walls for prop­er posi­tion­ing. The car­pen­ters spent the next 4 days secur­ing the cross beams into place which will sup­port the tin roof­ing sheets.  Mon­day, Oct. 19th, the car­pen­ters begin nail­ing the 140 tin sheets into place. After that is done, we are secure to com­plete this house even if the rains begin ear­ly.
 

Roof truss going up on House #7
https://youtu.be/uegU4YHyiJw
 

Putting the roof truss into its prop­er place​.
https://youtu.be/65h2wMGiMe4
 
 
NOVEMBER FOOD GIVE OUTS 75% DONE

It’s been a super busy week with our days start­ing at 3 a.m. so that the loaded food trucks could roll out before sun­rise to the remote vil­lages where the orphans live. Four major food give outs were com­plet­ed this week as well as the 2 Bala­ma dis­tri­b­u­tions on Wednes­day and Thurs­day. Our days were full of load­ing and unload­ing trucks so that orphans would not go hun­gry, and have the seeds they need to plant their fields.  Nine more vil­lages to go next week, and our 2020 food pro­gram for the vil­lages will be com­plete.
 

Grannies with orphans, social­ly dis­tanced, lis­ten­ing to God’s Word.
 

Our helpers car­ry­ing food/seeds for the wid­ows.​
 

Orphans help­ing Grannies get food divid­ed into small­er pack­ages for easy trans­port.​

BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS:

1. THE FABULOUS FIVE wast­ed no time get­ting their field cleaned and ready for plant­i­ng this week. They were well trained by their Grand­moth­er before she passed. The pho­to shows them in the far dis­tance with Din­ha, the old­est, push­ing the group to get the job done. I took the pho­to of them work­ing  with­out them know­ing it, as  I want­ed to show you how much area 5 teenagers can clean by hand with 5 hoes in a few hours. They have almost 1.5 acres for food rais­ing. Goes to prove that Teenagers are a mighty force when they put their mind to accom­plish­ing a goal.
 

THE FABULOUS FIVE hard at work, prepar­ing their farm­ing field for plant­i­ng.​

2. ANGELINA (Angel), our youngest orphan, will be 1 year old on Oct. 19th. She is just begin­ning to walk inde­pen­dent­ly, but wasn’t inter­est­ed in walk­ing for our pho­to, as she was “busy” with her toy. How time flies, for it seems like just yes­ter­day when we had 9 babies in dia­pers run­ning around here.  Now all 9 are WALKING!
 

Baby Angeli­na (Angel) cel­e­brates 1 year on Mon­day, Oct. 19!
 
 
3. MONICA NEEDS PRAYER. HEALTH DIMINISHING. 
Mon­i­ca has a birth defect (non-oper­a­ble hole in her heart). She is now 8 and weighs only 11kgs/24 lbs. Last week she became sick with a cough/respiratory infec­tion which the hos­pi­tal treat­ed. But her strength is dimin­ish­ing.  Please keep her in prayer. 
 

Mon­i­ca today. Pray for increased strength.​
 

YOUR LOVE GIFTS ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE, FOR NONE OF THESE CHILDREN HAD A CHANCE TO GROW UP HEALTHY WITHOUT THE HELP THAT YOU PROVIDE.  THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 10, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 10, 2020
 
FABULOUS FIVE MOVE INTO NEW HOME

Wednes­day, the Fab­u­lous Five Teenagers hap­pi­ly moved into their new home. Our staff helped them extend mos­qui­to nets over their new beds, and get all their belong­ings moved to the new site. You can see many of the gifts 4 of the teens showed off on mov­ing day.

New home, many gifts for Child Head­ed house­hold.
 
Four­teen year old Fer­nan­do is not in the pho­to as he left ear­ly that a.m. to vis­it a friend, not real­iz­ing it was time to move them. Fer­nan­do returned late after­noon to find his old house desert­ed and every­one gone. Neigh­bors told him where to find his fam­i­ly. Shocked, he came to my house and apol­o­gized (rare occur­rence around here) to me for not being around to help with the move. After 2 days, the Fab­u­lous Five are well set­tled in and enjoy­ing their new home.
 
THANK YOU TO THEIR MONTHLY SPONSOR, AS WELL AS THOSE WHO CONTRIBUTED “start-up gifts” so these young adults could have the basic items need­ed to begin a much bet­ter life.

Din­ha, the 17 year old “head of house­hold”,  seemed very relieved that Anna, our Children’s Direc­tor, lives so close by.  Being respon­si­ble for 4 oth­er teens is a BIG respon­si­bil­i­ty as many of you know.
 

THE NORM IN OUR LIVES

Each week we receive an aver­age of 1 or 2 babies into our for­mu­la 
pro­gram. New orphan chil­dren come in about twice a month because their Mom has died from some dis­ease or dur­ing child­birth. CV-19 is not a prob­lem in this area, PTL!
 

A wid­owed aunt with her 4 chil­dren and her sis­ter’s 4 orphans.  Your gifts tru­ly make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of this fam­i­ly.​

This week, Granny Assum­ia (Ah-soo-mia) report­ed to Social Ser­vices that she need­ed food help for her 2 orphaned Grand­chil­dren. One year old Jonas and 3 year old Muamede (Moo-ah-med‑y) hap­pi­ly left wear­ing new clothes and car­ry­ing a bag full of food that your love gifts pro­vid­ed.
 

Granny Assum­ia holds 1 year old Jonas with 3 year old Muamede at her side.​
 
The before and after pho­tos are shown here. I want­ed to show you the trans­for­ma­tion that takes place when they put on new clothes. Don’t be fooled by the lack of smiles for in this cul­ture, a smile means you are not tak­ing the gift seri­ous­ly. But know they were super hap­py for Muamede hap­pi­ly skipped off as his Granny head­ed them towards home.
 

Your gifts pro­vide new clothes for these 2 lit­tle boys.​
 

RAINY SEASON COMING EARLY.
 
The Octo­ber food give-outs were com­plet­ed today for more than 1,000 orphaned chil­dren in 22 remote vil­lages. Due to dark clouds hov­er­ing over Bala­ma all week with only mid­day sun­shine, our staff “took God’s hint” know­ing this means the rains will soon begin.
 

Food give-outs keeps orphans/grannies healthy.​
 
Novem­ber is seed give-out time, so our plan is not to wait, but push on with the final food dis­tri­b­u­tion start­ing next Wednes­day. If heavy rains hit before the 1st 2 weeks of Novem­ber, we won’t be able to get to many of the vil­lages as the roads are hard packed clay. Clay and water make for slip­pery mud roads which our trucks can’t nego­ti­ate. Even 4‑wheel-dri­ve pick­ups strug­gle in some of the deep­er mud holes.
 
But I am hap­py to announce that for the 1st time EVER, Bala­ma has a paved road all the way through our town that con­nects it to oth­er parts of the Province/State!Rainy sea­son will no longer be a major chal­lenge if we need to go to the Cap­i­tal of Pem­ba between Decem­ber and March. 
 
BECAUSE YOU CARE,  1000’S OF CHILDREN NOW KNOW THAT JESUS LOVES THEM.
 
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THAT POSSIBLE. 
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: OCTOBER 3, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: OCTOBER 3, 2020
 
HEALTHY TRIPLETS THANKS TO YOUR HELP

Triplets Mar­cia, Marceli­na, and Marce­lo are now very healthy at 6 months as they all weigh over 14.5 lbs/6.6kg  thanks to your help.
As you can see from their pho­to, they are chub­by lit­tle tykes, who began life at only a lit­tle over 2 kgs/4.5lbs each.
 

Bala­ma town triplets Mar­cia, Marceli­na, and Marcelo​.

The 2nd set of triplets from Rovu­ma vil­lage, Felis­mi­na, Filom­i­na, and Filomi­no, are close behind them in weight at 5kg (11lbs) each even though they are 7 weeks YOUNGER than the first set of triplets. I take my hat off to this moth­er and 2 old­er sib­lings of the Rovu­ma fam­i­ly, for they have done an excep­tion­al job of rais­ing these 3 lit­tle ones up to now.
 

Rovu­ma triplets are gain­ing weight rapid­ly.

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR BABY FORMULA PROGRAM, FOR IT LITERALLY MEANT LIFE VS. DEATH TO THESE NEWBORNS.
 

LIFE SKILLS TRAINING:  WEAVING A ROPE BED

Rope Beds are the “norm” for this cul­ture, as the mate­ri­als to make them are read­i­ly avail­able. I bought the bed frame from a local man who makes them, and our “Life Skills” team were taught by Rachide, my house guard, to weave the ropes super tight so it makes a very com­fort­able bed.
 

Life Skills Teens com­plete their 1st woven rope bed.

The Fab­u­lous Five Teenagers need this bed before they can move into their new  home this com­ing week. Our builders are still wrap­ping up the final touch­es on their home this week­end.  The video link will bet­ter explain how bed weav­ing is done, and you’ll see our team of young men learn­ing a new “life skill” while help­ing out the Fab­u­lous Five.
 
Watch a video of the Fab­u­lous Five weav­ing the bed for our new orphans here —>  https://youtu.be/21ULOeBVF4k
 
 
LITTLE SANTOS TAKES HIS FIRST SELFIE!

San­tos and his Fos­ter Moth­er, Felim­i­na, joined me in a self­ie last week, as 2.5 year old San­tos real­ly want­ed to play with my phone.
So I turned on the cam­era, and we did our best to get all 3 of us in the pho­to.  My arms were just a bit too short, but we tried. Any­way, San­tos LOVED THE PHOTO, so I want­ed to share it with you.
 

San­tos San­tos 1st self­ie with Bren­da and Fos­ter Moth­er,  Felimina​

Please know I love hear­ing from all of you, so don’t be shy about writ­ing. Tell me what’s going on in your life, for I am very iso­lat­ed here and emails are most wel­come. I will answer back for sure.

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: SEPTEMBER 26, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: SEPTEMBER 26, 2020
 
CHILD-HEADED HOUSEHOLD NEEDS OUR HELP

MEET THE COUSINS WHO BECAME A FAMILY:  (L‑R) Celi­na-12, Fer­nan­do-13, Mani­ho-16, Nionel­da-14, Dean­ha-17. Eleven years ago, 2 sis­ters died with­in a week of each oth­er. One died in child­birth and the oth­er for unknown rea­sons. Each sis­ter had 5 small chil­dren who went to live with their Grand­moth­er, (10 kids in all). Need­less to say, Granny need­ed food and cloth­ing help, so that is how these chil­dren came to be in our orphan food pro­gram.
 

The Fan­tas­tic Five, youngest to old­est, hap­pi­ly wear­ing their new out­fits.

Their Grand­moth­er passed away a year ago, so her old­est daugh­ter came to live with the remain­ing 5 chil­dren. This Aunt passed away from can­cer 3 weeks ago, leav­ing the 5 young teenagers with no adult in the house­hold. In tears, the old­est girl, Dean­ha, came to ask our help, as their mud hut is very old, and not in great con­di­tion.

Our staff decid­ed the best thing to do was to buy a house near our mis­sion so our Children’s Direc­tor, Anna, could be close by to assist and guide them. Our head brick lay­er knew of a mud hut for sale just 3 hous­es away from our Children’s Director’s home, which places it with­in 100 yards/meters of our Orphan­age Water Well. The loca­tion of this home couldn’t have been any bet­ter! I con­sid­er it a Bless­ing from the Lord!
 

Two of our Life Skills stu­dents build­ing the bam­boo fence in front of new orphans home.​

The house need­ed a new roof, and basic upgrades like a cement floor, an out­door bath­room, a kitchen and a shad­ed out­door eat­ing area as there is no shade at all around this house. All this was eas­i­ly built dur­ing this last month by our brick lay­ers and car­pen­ters.
 

The Fan­tas­tic Five’s new home, still under con­struc­tion.​

The pho­to shows the house TODAY in the final con­struc­tion stages, as we plan to move the chil­dren into it next week, once final paint­ing is done.

THANKS TO YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT, THESE CHILDREN WILL BE SAFE UNDER OUR CARE, AND BE ABLE TO CONTINUE THEIR EDUCATION WITH OUR HELP.

SPONSORS ARE NEEDED to help them with their basic needs.

A TOTAL GIFT OF $60/MONTH PROVIDES ALL 5 CHILDREN WITH THEIR BASIC NEEDS (clothes, shoes,  school uniforms/materials, and a week­ly allowance to buy meat, fish, and veg­eta­bles). Their basic food is pro­vid­ed through our orphan
food pro­gram.

Please email me if you would like to pro­vide all or any part of this Love Gift to these brave young teens.


CONSTRUCTION RESUMES ON ORPHAN HOUSE #7!

With restric­tions eas­ing nation­wide, our team was giv­en per­mis­sion to com­plete Orphan House #7. This is much need­ed since oth­er 6 orphan homes are near­ly full.
 

ORPHAN HOME #7 with ring beam in place.​

The ring beam is going up as I write, so as soon as the walls are
com­plet­ed, the roof should be built with­in the next 3 weeks. We are expect­ing the rainy sea­son EARLY in Novem­ber, so it is essen­tial to
the com­ple­tion of the house that the roof be on before those rains
begin. The rest of the work can be done as long as the roof is on.
This is cut­ting it close, but NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO THE DONORS OF HOUSE #7 FOR THEIR PATIENCE DURING THIS UNEXPECTED 6 MONTH DELAY.

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF