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Author Archives: Kim Hartman

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: April 18, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“DATE: APRIL 18, 2020
RESURRECTION EGGS– A BIG HIT ON EASTER SUNDAY

With the church­es closed, our chil­dren met in their small home groups. No expo­sure to chil­dren oth­er than the ones they live with. This meant our Youth Pas­tors had to do sev­er­al pre­sen­ta­tions, but it all went smooth­ly, and the chil­dren loved the RESURRECTION EGG PRESENTATION along with the large col­or pic­tures of Jesus and his final act of love for us.

 
Teach­ing the Res­ur­rec­tion sto­ry of Jesus in small house groups to our orphans.​

If you’re not famil­iar with these “break open” Plas­tic Eggs, each egg is filled with 1 minia­ture piece that tells the entire Res­ur­rec­tion Sto­ry of Jesus. Starts with the tiny don­key that he rode upon entry to Jerusalem, and ends with the WHITE EMPTY EGG rep­re­sent­ing His ascen­sion. This is real­ly a great tool for teach­ing small groups, so give it a try! The eggs were brought over by a friend from the USA. 


Car­l­i­tos Jorge, head of BBC, demon­strates Res­ur­rec­tion Eggs with minia­ture fig­ures inside.​ 

We are very grate­ful that all our chil­dren remain healthy and super active dur­ing this time of world health chal­lenges. 

TRIPLET CHALLENGES
Two of the triplet girls born on April 2nd pre­sent­ed with seri­ous health chal­lenges this week. Sad­ly, the lit­tle girl, Ros­in­ha, who weighed only 1kg (2.2lbs.) passed away from res­pi­ra­to­ry com­pli­ca­tions at the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal Thurs­day night, April 16th. Her sis­ter, Rosa, weigh­ing only 2 kg (4.4lbs) was diag­nosed and admit­ted with Malar­ia. Malar­ia is dead­ly to an infant of only 15 days, mak­ing her sur­vival a mat­ter of intense prayer. She needs a Jesus mir­a­cle for sure.

 
Triplet girls. Ros­in­ha far right and Rosa in the mid­dle. 

The old­er TRIPLETS (2 boys and a girl) born on March 15th are look­ing stronger and gain­ing weight. I take my hat off to this moth­er, who is rais­ing these 3 babies with only the help of her young son and daugh­ter. 


Triplets (2 boys and a girl) gain­ing weight and look­ing stronger.

Keep pray­ing for this fam­i­ly, as the babies are still very vul­ner­a­ble. Since they all weigh between 5 and 7 lbs. (2.35kg to 3.2kg) at one month of age, these 3 have a good chance of sur­vival.
 
LENDING A HELPING HAND

The 12 beds made for the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal by a local welder were ready for trans­port last Wednes­day. We were asked to lend a hand since our long bed 6‑ton-truck could car­ry them all at one time to their need­ed loca­tion. The beds were tak­en to the new Ntete Clin­ic Build­ing about 6 miles (12 km) from Bala­ma, and will be used as an iso­la­tion ward if virus patients present in our area.

 
Load­ing new beds onto our 6‑ton-truck​.

At this time there is no virus in our area, and we PTL for that!

TOGETHER WE ARE KEEPING JESUS’ CHILDREN SAFE AND HEALTHY.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PRAYERS AND LOVE GIFTS EVEN DURING YOUR OWN PERSONAL CHALLENGES.

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: April 11, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“DATE: APRIL 11, 2020
JESUS’FOLDED NAPKIN AND IT’S TRUE MEANING

Did you ever won­der why the dis­ci­ple John told IN DETAIL about the cloth that cov­ered Jesus’ face in the tomb? It was neat­ly fold­ed and laid to one side, while the rest of the bur­ial clothes were left in a heap on the bur­ial stone.

Here’s the sto­ry behind that most impor­tant “sign”. In Hebrew cul­ture, when the mas­ter of the house left the din­ner table, he either left his nap­kin in a heap or he fold­ed it nice­ly and set it beside his plate. A heaped up nap­kin told the ser­vants that the mas­ter was fin­ished eat­ing, and they could clear the table. THE NICELY FOLDED NAPKIN told the ser­vants, leave the table as it is, I’M COMING BACK!

OUR LORD JESUS IS COMING BACK! He left us this most impor­tant “sign” for He knew the Jew­ish peo­ple would know it’s mean­ing. JESUS’ RESURRECTION WAS ONLY HIS FIRST STEP. HE WILL SEE US VERY SOON! A FACT to use when talk­ing to unbe­liev­ers.  HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!
 
BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS

1. All our chil­dren are healthy and going about their dai­ly rou­tines, while the fos­ter moth­ers are anx­ious­ly wait­ing for the school to reopen, hope­ful­ly in May.  Our school year begins Feb. 1st and ends late Octo­ber each year, so our chil­dren still have time to catch up on their lessons. 


Our Vic­to­ry House kids in their new school uni­forms ear­li­er this year. 

2. Baby Angeli­na (held by her fos­ter moth­er, Bal­bi­na), gives us a big smile after she com­plet­ed her “week­ly weigh in”.

 
Baby Angeli­na smiles for us all. At 6 months of age, she now weighs 5.9 kg (13 lbs.)  That is what a lot of lov­ing care and the prop­er foods can do for a mal­nour­ished baby.  YOUR LOVE GIFTS MADE THIS POSSIBLE!
 
3. MORE TRIPLETS!  Three tiny girls this time, with the small­est lit­tle girl, Ros­in­ha, (2.2 lbs or 1 kg), strug­gling.  She tires eas­i­ly when try­ing to take a bot­tle.  I showed the fam­i­ly how she must be giv­en small amounts of milk every hour in day­time and every 2 hours at night, if she is to gain strength. 


Triplet girls received April 9th.​ 

The oth­er 2 girls (Rosa and Ros­ali­na) are much stronger at dou­ble her weight.  Please keep all 3 of them in your prayers.

4. The 1st set of triplets (2 boys and a girl) received March 19th are all doing well. They are show­ing good weight gain (thanks to your prayer pow­er).

 
The triplets we met in March, with their moth­er on the far right. The lit­tle girl,  Mar­cia, who was the weak­est, is doing much bet­ter as she gained 300gms this week, and is look­ing much stronger.

HAPPY EASTER, AND MAY YOU CONTINUE TO BLESS OTHERS AS YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED THIS WEEK.

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: April 4, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“DATE: APRIL 4, 2020 BOARD MEMBER, J.L. OBENHAUS, DANCING WITH JESUS

J.L. OBENHAUS, an Orphans Unlim­it­ed Board Mem­ber and dear friend, grad­u­at­ed to heav­en on April 3rd after a bout with Pneu­mo­nia (not Covid-19 relat­ed).

 
Long­time Orphans Unlim­it­ed board mem­ber, J.L. Oben­haus  J.L. LOVED JESUS!

J.L. was always help­ing some­one, which is what Jesus expects of all of us. An active church mem­ber, ranch­er, gar­den­er, and lover of chil­dren, J.L. came to our Bala­ma mis­sion sta­tion about 10 years ago to get a feel for what we real­ly do here. He plant­ed an Ata Fruit tree (some­times called a Sug­ar Apple here), which bears a sweet fruit each year that our chil­dren dear­ly love. That tree is a con­stant reminder to me that J.L. loved our chil­dren and our Evan­ge­lis­tic Pro­gram.

 
J.L. ‘s Ata Fruit tree with Bren­da show­ing 1 of the Atas.​

Sur­vived by his wife, a big fam­i­ly, and tons of friends, J.L. will be great­ly missed! Please join us in send­ing our con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and friends.

REMEMBER: When a loved one who believes in Jesus, grad­u­ates to heav­en, IT IS ONLY A TEMPORARY SEPARATION. If you love Jesus, and have con­fessed Him as your Lord and Sav­ior, you will see your loved one again and be with them for eter­ni­ty. Hap­py trails, J.L., for we will meet again! 

HELPING OUR NEIGHBORS

Our local hos­pi­tal need­ed a help­ing hand with trans­port, as well as the mak­ing of 12 new beds. We do what we can, when we can to help, for that hos­pi­tal is the key to everyone’s health in this area.
This week we had a Land Cruis­er going to Pem­ba for oth­er rea­sons, so we helped out by fetch­ing a load of sup­plies need­ed by the hos­pi­tal. No sense hav­ing a truck return with only half a load. I’m a prac­ti­cal Bush Bun­ny, and believe in max­i­miz­ing resources to help oth­ers when need­ed.
Our local Bala­ma welder came up with the solu­tion to the need­ed 12 hos­pi­tal beds shown in the pho­to below. His design is tru­ly prac­ti­cal and well built. We thank him for his assis­tance in meet­ing this need.

 
Direc­tor of Hos­pi­tal admires hos­pi­tal bed made by local welder.​

The heart of Jesus is that we all work togeth­er, help­ing one anoth­er in what­ev­er way we can. Thanks to your Love Gifts, we will con­tin­ue to do so until Jesus returns.

BLESSINGS
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MARCH 28, 2020

Today our Bala­ma Doc­tor vis­it­ed our chil­dren, giv­ing them all a health check. They passed with fly­ing col­ors! 
Jesuino kept the doc­tor busy as he thought his stetho­scope and mask would be fun to play with!​ 
Baby Angeli­na being weighed by doc­tor as fos­ter moth­er Bal­bi­na looks on. 
Daniel, 1st grad­er, get­ting his check up.​ 

On Thurs­day, the Bala­ma Direc­tor of Health vis­it­ed our staff and chil­dren to teach them prop­er hand wash­ing, social dis­tanc­ing and oth­er pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures to keep them healthy. After­wards, the Direc­tor of Health and I met to dis­cuss oth­er ways our group could help the Bala­ma area with the virus chal­lenge. We are both on the phone in the pho­to, work­ing to coor­di­nate the needs on her list. 


Direc­tor of Health and Bush Bun­ny Bren­da meet­ing to help others​.

BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS:

Our BBC Teams, all Church­es, and con­struc­tion pro­grams are closed till after East­er week­end.
All our chil­dren are out of school, but still able to burn off their ener­gy at our play­ground cen­ter where ONLY they are allowed entry at this time. All soc­cer games have been can­celed as no group over 30 peo­ple are allowed to assem­ble.

To bright­en our chil­dren’s lives, I gave each orphan home 2 new balls so the chil­dren can have some fun while “stuck at home”.

 
1‑year-old Jesuino walk­ing strong as Cape­na shows him around the play­ground.​

Will keep you informed, but for now, we are all stay­ing close to home, pray­ing for the health of the world, and all those around us in this chal­leng­ing time.

God’s Bless­ings to all of you, and con­tin­ue to pray Ps. 91 and oth­er scrip­tures over us and your fam­i­ly, for it is ONLY JESUS who can pro­tect us from this invis­i­ble ene­my.

BLESSINGS
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MARCH 21, 2020

 
SURPRISE!  IT’S TRIPLETS!

Wednes­day, a moth­er was brought to us on a bicy­cle with a baby girl on her back. Noth­ing unusu­al, as that hap­pens all the time.

But her doc­u­ment from Social Ser­vices said THREE-DAY-OLD TRIPLETS! I asked where are the oth­er 2 babies? She told us they were “on the way” with 2 oth­er women, as her 40 year old legs couldn’t han­dle the walk (we thought she was the grand­moth­er).  Sure enough, 10 min­utes lat­er in walk 2 women with 2 baby boys.  
Triplets with moth­er on far right.​ Our Staff was amazed that A 40-YEAR-OLD WOMAN, whom we thought was the grand­moth­er, was actu­al­ly THE MOTHER of these triplets! The 2 boys each weighed 2.4 Kg (5.28 lbs), but the tiny lit­tle girl, only 1.7 Kg (3.74 lbs.) What a weight this woman had car­ried while preg­nant!
We fixed them up with 3 bot­tles and baby for­mu­la com­bined with full instruc­tions on how to care for them. We pray the lit­tle girl makes it, as she is quite small and frag­ile. Please pray for them all, as I have only known 1 set of triplets where all 3 made it to their 1st birth­day.
LIFE SKILLS CENTER NOW HAS A WATER WELL!

The “pump team” drove in last Wednes­day, and imme­di­ate­ly began orga­niz­ing the water well base. It is inter­est­ing how they put it all togeth­er in only 3 days, so I thought I’d share my pho­to series with you. 
Met­al rings make up con­crete forms for water well pump​. 
Water well pump mount­ed and final cement work in progress​ 
Life Skills Water Well is fin­ished. A super bless­ing.​
Our team will mark the build­ing this com­ing week, and begin dig­ging the foun­da­tion.  All mov­ing at a fast rate, which makes me very hap­py.  If you want to see the well in action, we’ve post­ed a quick video. https://youtu.be/CfA8GHXYpx0  WALLS UP AT HOUSE #7 – AWAITING RING BEAM & ROOF

With 4 brick-lay­ers, and lots of helpers, the 4‑bedroom house for this com­plex has gone up in record time. 
ORPHAN HOUSE #7 at 2 meter mark, (6.2 ft)​

OUR CHILDREN RELEASED FROM SCHOOL FOR THE NEXT 30 DAYS

Like many coun­tries fac­ing the cur­rent health chal­lenge, Mozam­bique is work­ing hard to pre­vent this sick­ness from enter­ing the coun­try. Since the chil­dren have tons of time for the next 30 days, they are learn­ing “yard work” 101, which includes chop­ping the grass to keep our liv­ing area clean. Extra sports and oth­er fun activ­i­ties are being added to their dai­ly sched­ule to help keep them busy. 
Yard work 101 for our pri­ma­ry school children​.

WE ARE PRAYING FOR YOUR HEALTH, AND WE HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR OURS.

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MARCH 14, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: MARCH 14, 2020
 
DOING WHAT’S NOT BEEN DONE BEFORE

THANKS TO 2 VERY GENEROUS DONORS, we have been chal­lenged to dou­ble the size of our con­struc­tion team, and raise 2 major con­struc­tion sites simul­ta­ne­ous­ly.

ORPHAN COMPLEX #7

This project began last Novem­ber, but had to be halt­ed when heavy rains made it impos­si­ble to get our equip­ment to the site. It was restart­ed last week with walls already going up for the 4 bed­room orphan home. This com­plex will also include a lunch room/kitchen, 4 bathing areas, and 4 toi­lets.

LIFE SKILLS CENTER FOR TEENS

This Life Skills Cen­ter for Teenagers will be the first of its kind in our area. This Cen­ter will allow stu­dents to learn Motor­bike and Auto Mechan­ics, basic com­put­er skills, mon­ey management/basic account­ing, and many oth­er “life skills” that will help them be a suc­cess in the busi­ness world.

 
Orphan home #7, 4‑bed­room-house under con­struc­tion

The land for the cen­ter is 1.5 miles (about 2 km) from our mis­sion sta­tion since that was the clos­est land avail­able. First phase is drilling a water well which was done TODAY. We are very excit­ed because abun­dant clean water was found at 180 ft. (60 meters), caus­ing all of us to cheer!

 https://youtu.be/3aGoWEyFsxo​

The video shows the water spray­ing out as the drill pen­e­trat­ed into the water pock­et. The man­u­al pump will be insert­ed into the well next week. Con­struc­tion will begin as soon as the cement around the well is dry. 

Water well drilling at Life Skills cen­ter area ear­li­er today.

THANK YOU TO BOTH THESE DONORS WHO ARE MAKING A WAY FOR OUR TEENS TO COMPETE IN THE CURRENT BUSINESS WORLD.
 

UPDATE FROM LAST WEEK   

Baby Adli­na and (triplet) Anto­nio have recov­ered from their ill­ness­es after a few days in the hos­pi­tal. Thank you for your prayers! Also, we thought you might enjoy see­ing this video of our 1st grade class mas­ter­ing the Bawana Games baton relay. 
https://youtu.be/HwWEYgw2nb8​  


BUSH BUNNY’S LAUGH FOR THE DAY

Increased Pro­tec­tion from all air­borne virus­es:
   Eat 2 pieces of fresh gar­lic and 1 fresh onion every a.m. and p.m.
This “pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sure” is basi­cal­ly use­less, but it sure keeps 
peo­ple at a dis­tance!

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: MARCH 7, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: MARCH 7, 2020
 
6 YEAR OLDS LEARN BAWANA GAMES

Each year, as our preschool­ers advance into 1st grade, Berti­no (Bawana leader), is tasked with teach­ing them how to com­pete in Bawana Games. 

Run­ning with all their might!​ 

1st graders work­ing on hand slap team tag.

These lit­tle ones have watched the games for 2 years, but found out that the expe­ri­enced “Big Kids” make the coor­di­nat­ed “team work” look a lot eas­i­er than it real­ly is. I had a fun time watch­ing them attempt to mas­ter the baton hand off. They start­ed with the hand slap “team tag” you see in the pho­tos, and advance to the baton relay once they under­stand the hand slap.


PRE-SCHOOL CLASS 

Pre-School Head Mas­ter, Domini­ca, and assis­tant Fati­ma, work hard each day to help our orphans as well as the local Sun­day School chil­dren pre­pare for 1st grade. Smil­ing is not one of their strong points, as you can see in their pho­to.  But they are all eager to learn, and enjoy their 3‑day-a-week pro­gram.
 
Preschool­ers in class. Domin­ga back left.  Fati­ma front right.​
 
BABY ADELINA AND TRIPLET ANTONIO BOTH IN HOSPITAL

Baby Adeli­na pre­sent­ed yes­ter­day with her 2nd case of Malar­ia in 6 weeks. YIKES! That is very dan­ger­ous and she was los­ing strength rapid­ly for it caus­es severe ane­mia. Cape­na, our Office Man­ag­er, and Anna, our Children’s Direc­tor,  took her imme­di­ate­ly to the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal where they began treat­ment in the emer­gency room. Baby Adeli­na lat­er trans­ferred to the Pedi­atric Ward for 3 days of IV med­ica­tion to com­bat the malar­ia. As of this morn­ing, she is begin­ning to eat, which is a great sign of recov­ery.
 

Baby Adeli­na a few weeks ago.​

Ten years ago, we assist­ed a lit­tle Granny in suc­cess­ful­ly rais­ing her triplet grand­sons from infan­cy. For all 3 babies to sur­vive is a mir­a­cle in itself! The boys do all suf­fer from occa­sion­al res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tions and asth­ma as a result of being born so small.  

The triplets in 2018.

 Yes­ter­day, the #1 triplet, Anto­nio, start­ed with a mild case of asth­ma brought on by a res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion. He received imme­di­ate treat­ment, but became worse dur­ing the night. This morn­ing, our staff took him and his granny to the hos­pi­tal for fur­ther treat­ment.

PLEASE PRAY FOR BOTH THESE CHILDREN TO HAVE A RAPID HEALING. 


RAINY SEASON HAS RUN ITSELF OUT, CONSTRUCTION BEGINS!

I will give you a full update with pho­tos next week, but want­ed every­one to know this last week was DRY AND SUNNY! HOORAY! It’s been a wel­come relief after 4 month of grey skies and almost dai­ly rains.

TOGETHER, WE ARE CHANGING LIVES FOR THE BETTER, ONE DAY AT A TIME.

BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF  

Please don’t for­get to check out and share our OU Video.
https://youtu.be/M0XCggD68d8

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG, February 29, 2020

BALAMA BUSH PASTORS BRINGING IN THE SOULS  FRIDAY was our month­ly Pas­tors meet­ing, and despite the heavy rains, they con­tin­ue to meet with vil­lage believ­ers and are reap­ing a har­vest of souls. PTL! SALVATIONS IN FEBRUARY: 

Adults 35    

Teens 35    

Chil­dren 90 

Bala­ma Bush Pas­tors end­ing the month­ly meet­ing with prayer and Thanks­giv­ing.​ Bawana games in these 46 vil­lages reached 13,641 chil­dren with God’s Word. I praise the Lord Jesus for such faith­ful men who, despite many chal­lenges, con­tin­ue to share the Lord’s sal­va­tion mes­sage with all they meet. Keep us all in your prayers, for God is mov­ing here in a mighty way. 

LITTLE DISCIPLES CLASSES ATTENDED BY 43 CHILDREN WEEKLY 

Our LITTLE DISCIPLES pre-school for ages 3 to 5 is in full swing with our 4‑mem­ber-staff teach­ing coor­di­na­tion games, art, songs, basic math, the alpha­bet, Bible sto­ries, and the Por­tuguese lan­guage.  The chil­dren love it all as it pre­pares them for 1st grade. The fos­ter moth­ers love it for it burns off tod­dler ener­gy in a fun way. Prepar­ing God’s chil­dren with a head start pro­gram that paves the way for 1st grade … Click the link for Video

 https://youtu.be/osRC–h2ECY

Lit­tle Dis­ci­ples learn­ing coor­di­na­tion through games.

​BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS 

1. Pas­tor Alber­to is total­ly healed from his rat­tlesnake bite and spent the week teach­ing God’s Word to our youth at the Bawana games.  He left by motor­bike yes­ter­day for Namuno Dis­trict to con­tin­ue his evan­ge­lis­tic work in 4 villages. 

Pas­tor Alber­to back in action as he teach­es God’s Word to our Bawana kids.​ 

2. The Mon­tepuez Riv­er Bridge (100 yards/meters wide), was replaced by a tem­po­rary bridge and opened for traf­fic this week. Manel rushed a load of sup­plies to our orphans in Melu­co town and returned the same day. Sad­ly, that night high waters dam­aged this new bridge. We are thrilled to have met the needs of our orphans for March when flood waters should receed so the bridge can once again be repaired.  TOGETHER,  WE WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD GOD’S WORD ABOUT JESUS AND RESCUE HIS CHILDREN IN DESPERATE SITUATIONS. 

BLESSINGS,  

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 

AND THE BALAMA STAFF

Please don’t for­get to check out and share our OU Video.

https://youtu.be/M0XCggD68d8

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG, February 22, 2020

ORPHANS GET FRESH START THANKS TO LOCAL WIDOWS  “IT TAKES A VILLAGE” to care for a child who has lost their par­ents. That phrase is tak­en lit­er­al­ly around here. OUR JESUS-LOVING VILLAGE is made up of wid­owed grannies and aunts who desire to “make a dif­fer­ence” in the lives of these orphans. Dis­abled or elder­ly makes no dif­fer­ence. It is their love for Jesus and His chil­dren that counts! Our chil­dren dear­ly love their fos­ter mothers. 

The Won­der­ful Wid­ows rais­ing our 105 orphans. I great­ly appre­ci­ate these women, and want to hon­or them for their faith­ful, ongo­ing ser­vice to the 105 chil­dren liv­ing in our 21 orphan homes. Please con­tin­ue to pray for all of us as we con­tin­ue our dai­ly ser­vice to these inno­cent ones.  BREAKFAST, THEN OFF TO SCHOOL It was great fun being part of the Vic­to­ry house break­fast time this week. The kids look super sharp in their new school uni­forms with back­packs loaded for school. 

Vic­to­ry House chil­dren look­ing real­ly beau­ti­ful in their school uni­forms.​ Mon­i­ca, 8, who suf­fers from a genet­ic heart con­di­tion, is hap­pi­est of all the chil­dren. Her health improved so well in 2019 that she now has the strength to attend 1st grade. Her fos­ter father, Esteven, pro­vides her a ride on his bicy­cle to and from school dai­ly (400 yards/meters). That much walk­ing would decrease Mon­i­ca’s chances for a suc­cess­ful school year. Tough and deter­mined is how our staff describes this high­ly intel­li­gent young­ster.  Please pray for Mon­i­ca’s strength, as going to school has been her life­long dream. She has begged us for the last 2 years to let her attend, so we are very hap­py for her. 

Mighty Mon­i­ca thrilled to final­ly be in school​.INFANT PROGRAM SAVING LITTLE LIVES  THANKS TO YOUR LOVING HEARTS, any infant in a des­per­ate sit­u­a­tion is able to receive help 24/7 at our mis­sion sta­tion. With Feb­ru­ary being the height of the “time of hunger” (1 month before corn/bean har­vest), we are receiv­ing des­per­ate moth­ers beg­ging for milk for their starv­ing infants. A mal­nour­ished moth­er can­not pro­duce breast milk, and thus the vicious cycle begins. 

Mal­nour­ished Lau­rin­da, 20 months old, 4.6 kg (10 lbs) receives your love through spe­cial foods.​. TWINS are anoth­er group need­ing our help. Orphans or not, twin infants at 3 to 4 weeks put too much demand on a moth­er’s milk pro­duc­ing abil­i­ty, even if she is well nourished. 

Tiny twins, 2 weeks old, enter baby pro­gram. Their moth­er has no breast milk. Please for­give the markkup arrows on the pho­to­graph… this is the twins with their moth­er and father. BECAUSE YOU CARE, THESE LITTLE ONES GET A CHANCE TO GROW UP. KEEP YOUR PRAYERS FLOWING HEAVENWARD. WHAT’S A DUCK BUNNY? The pho­to says it all, as Bush Bun­ny Bren­da pulls on her rub­ber boots, grabs her umbrel­la, and splash­es out into the rainy weath­er to vis­it the chil­dren. On this day last week, not even our 4‑wheel-dri­ve trucks could man­age the deep mud. 

t’s a DUCK BUNNY loose in the rain!​ We eager­ly await March as the rains should decrease, pro­vid­ed a cyclone (hur­ri­cane) does­n’t stir up trou­ble. A Cyclone can eas­i­ly extend the rainy sea­son into April. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND EVERPRESENT LOVE FOR GOD’S “INNOCENT ONES “.BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE (DUCK BUNNY)AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG, February 15, 2020

TRIALS TO TRIUMPH!

Tues­day night at 7pm, 17-year-old orphan Ivo­dia called me in a pan­ic to say their Fos­ter Moth­er, Berti­na, had been hit by light­ning! A HORRIBLE THUNDERSTORM was in progress at that moment which caused hor­i­zon­tal light­ning flash­es along the ground.

I raced to my car, call­ing Cape­na, our office man­ag­er, to join me. Togeth­er, we slopped through 6 inch­es of mud­dy road in my 4 wheel dri­ve pick-up to get to Bertina’s home. Upon arrival, I found Berti­na in extreme agony and her entire left arm paralyzed!

Ivo­dia and the oth­er fos­ter moth­er told us that Berti­na was plac­ing cloth­ing into the children’s clos­et when the light­ning flash “came through the door”, knock­ing her to the ground inside the girls’ bed­room! Thank­ful­ly, the 2 lit­tle girls had just gone to bed, and were unharmed because they were not “ground­ed” to the floor.

A quick exam showed no “exit marks” on Bertina’s left hand fin­gers which would have been the case if hit by a strong light­en­ing bolt.  Seems the “splash of the flash” caught her on the shoul­der, caus­ing extreme pain, and par­a­lyz­ing the nerves in her left arm and fin­gers, for she could not move them at all. OUR STAFF IMMEDIATELY PRAYED FOR HER.

With the weath­er so dan­ger­ous, I decid­ed to not move her, but called the head Emer­gency Room Nurse in Bala­ma, who told me that pain relief was the only treat­ment if she wasn’t burned. I gave her pain med­i­cine, and she soon fell off to sleep.  The next morn­ing her arm remained painful, but an anti-inflam­ma­to­ry and Tylenol were enough to relieve her pain. By Thurs­day she was regain­ing use of her fin­gers, PTL!  By Sat­ur­day Berti­na was hap­pi­ly back at work wash­ing clothes for the children

Not many are struck by light­ning and live to tell about it. Thank you, Jesus, for rapid­ly heal­ing Bertina!

Berti­no shows where light­ning hit her, knock­ing her off her feet.

Berti­no hap­pi­ly wash­ing orphans clothes 3 days after light­ning strike.

UPDATE ON PASTOR ALBERTO, 1 WEEK POST RATTLESNAKE BITE

Pas­tor Alber­to is now able to bear weight and walk slow­ly on his right ankle! Anoth­er “tri­al that end­ed in tri­umph”! With a few more days of rest, he is expect­ed to make a full recov­ery and be back evan­ge­liz­ing in Namuno Coun­ty south of Balama.

Pas­tor Alber­to 1 week after snake bite on ankle.

TODDLER SANTOS TAKES A BAD FALL

On Thurs­day, I was in Pem­ba buy­ing sup­plies, when I got a call say­ing 2‑year-old San­tos was on his way to the hos­pi­tal with a pos­si­ble bro­ken left ankle. He had tak­en a fall off the veran­da at his fos­ter home, and land­ing side­ways on his ankle.

THANKFULLY, it wasn’t bro­ken, but bad­ly sprained caus­ing it to swell twice its nor­mal size. Giv­en liq­uid Tylenol (parac­eta­mol) and a wrap around his ankle, he was sent home with our staff. On Sat­ur­day morn­ing, Fos­ter Moth­er Marceli­na brought him to vis­it me because San­tos refused to leave the ban­dage on his ankle.  Typ­i­cal tod­dler, lol!

I removed the wrap and agreed to leave it with­out a wrap for now.  He is hap­pi­ly crawl­ing and play­ing just fine at his home, but refus­es to put any weight on his left foot at this time. So we wait until he shows us he is ready to bear weight, and then I will place a small wrap on it to help him walk more con­fi­dent­ly. Boys will be boys, so I sus­pect there will be oth­er spills and thrills for these moth­ers, as they have 3 oth­er tod­dler boys in this home. 

2‑year-old San­tos two days after sprain­ing his ankle.

Thank you all for your prayers, for our ‘African Adven­tures’ have been many in the last 7 days!

BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF