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Author Archives: Kim Hartman

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 16, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 16, 2021
 
QUISTON GAINING STRENGTH 
 
Our 12 babies are all weighed at our food dis­tri­b­u­tion each Thurs­day. All of them are steadi­ly gain­ing weight, and I hap­pened to catch Quis­ton show­ing off his new strength after his Fos­ter Moth­er, Angeli­na, put him on her back to secure him in a “caplana”.
 

Quis­ton shows off his arm strength on the back of his Fos­ter Moth­er,  Angeli­na.​
 
A Caplana is a 7 ft. (2 meter) piece of strong cot­ton cloth that the moth­er uses to secures her baby to her back. This calms the baby, as the moth­er’s walk­ing motion works the same way as the move­ment of a car ride.
 
 
LIFESKILLS TRAINING IN FARMING 
 
Three of our teenage boys are tak­ing final exams this week for last year’s school term. The oth­er 9 teens were busy learn­ing to plant Juko Beans in the prop­er way. The ropes keep the boys mov­ing in a straight line as they plant the long rows. The video below shows it bet­ter than words.
 

Video of our teenage boys plant­i­ng Juko at our Life Skills Train­ing area.
Click link –>  https://youtu.be/xytscha_J1k
 

Life Skills train­ing at work, plant­i­ng Juko beans.​
 
Plant­i­ng is the easy part. The weed removal in the com­ing 3 months will be a bit more chal­leng­ing.  Teach­es patience and per­sis­tence!
 
 
STAND UP AND WALK
 
GENONO, 70, is the old­est church mem­ber we have. He still works by mak­ing bas­kets for our moth­ers to use in food prepa­ra­tion. He loves to vis­it me, and that entails a 3km/1.5 mile walk for him. His amaz­ing strength is proof of God’s pow­er in his life.
 

Genono shows off the new bas­kets he made for our Fos­ter Moth­ers.​
 
When I met Genono in 2006, he could­n’t walk. His friends car­ried him to the tree where we 1st had church in his vil­lage. He lis­tened, received God’s heal­ing touch, and WALKED HOME! He’s nev­er stopped walk­ing, nor does he take his strength for grant­ed, for he knows that Jesus tru­ly touched him. 
 
He is an amaz­ing tes­ti­mo­ny to all he meets.
 
GENONO BELIEVED, RECEIVED, AND ACTED ON IT. GOD’S WORD TELLS US THAT’S ALL IT TAKES.
 
Note: Our chil­dren are all healthy and hap­py. We are now in a 2nd lock­down due to the virus, but there is none in our area. How­ev­er,  this means no large gath­er­ings for the next 30 days, thus no feast.
 
Keep pray­ing for us, and know we are pray­ing for you. Let no chal­lenge defeat you, no mat­ter your cir­cum­stances, for Jesus is always with you.
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 9, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 9, 2021
 
SOW AND YOU SHALL REAP
 
Our 12 high school boys know very well the Bible sto­ry of sow­ing and reap­ing. After a short morn­ing rain, Zito and Alferes quick­ly shelled their much loved Juko Beans which our 11 teens then plant­ed.
 

Teenage boys plant­i­ng Juko Beans​.
 
Juko grows under­ground in a shell like a peanut. Can be eat­en raw or cooked, and has a nut­ty flavour. It’s very rich, so a lit­tle bit on top of rice is enough for most. 
 

Juko Beans, in and out of the shell.​
 
Your Love Gifts have pro­vid­ed these young men with the advan­tages of high­er edu­ca­tion, yet they are hum­ble,  know­ing that no mat­ter the future, ALL must learn the art of good farm­ing in order to live well.
 
 
RAINY SEASON ACTIVITIES 
 
From man­ag­ing the food barns to hand made car­pen­try items, our well-trained teams help us to pro­vide the needs of over 1,700 vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren in 2 counties/districts. Each corn sack weighs 132 lbs./60kg.  Get­ting a sack down from the tall stacks must be done with cau­tion and with strong men.
 

Food Team mov­ing corn sacks for dis­tri­b­u­tion.​
 
Work­ing with only hand tools, I watch (see video, below) the car­pen­ters use the same sim­ple tools that Jesus used. These young men, under the super­vi­sion of a Mas­ter Car­pen­ter, learn as they work. All the doors and win­dows for our chil­dren’s homes, and almost all the chil­dren’s fur­ni­ture is cus­tom made by this 4‑man-team. Widnes (Wit­ness), on the left, is an orphan who grew up in our pro­gram. He  became an intern upon grad­u­at­ing 12th grade, and is now 2nd only to our Mas­ter Car­pen­ter in tal­ent.
 

Video Link  —> https://youtu.be/Oo9kpAgnmbM
Car­pen­ters mak­ing a door with hand tools.
 
 
FOOD FESTIVAL DELAYED AGAIN
 
Our head cook for the fes­ti­val had a death in his fam­i­ly on Tues­day this week. Because it is a big job to cook food for such a large fam­i­ly, our staff decid­ed to delay till next week. No mat­ter, for these rainy day pho­tos were tak­en 5a.m. Fri­day morn­ing. 
 
Fri­day is our most “free” day as we have food give-out prepa­ra­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion on Tues­days through Thurs­day each week.
Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary are our wettest months, so we will keep try­ing.
 

6 a.m. Fri­day, Jan.  8th. “Duck Day”, because only the ducks are hap­py.​
 

The road from our food barns to church and Chil­dren’s Cen­ter on Fri­day.
 
 
QUISTON’S SMILE WINS MANY HEARTS
 
No mat­ter what chal­lenges you face in 2021, keep your eyes on Jesus.
 
Let NO ONE steal your joy, for it is our strength in times of trou­ble. 
Keep this cute lit­tle boy’s smile in mind when times get tough. May his inno­cence bring joy to your heart, put a smile on your lips, and a twin­kle in your eyes.
 

Baby Quis­ton and Fos­ter Moth­er, Angeli­na.​
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 2, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 2, 2021
 
HEAVY RAINS WRAP UP 2020
 
Rain means our corn/bean fields will grow, PTL, but it also crushed our hopes for the chil­dren’s feast on Dec. 31st. So Bush Bun­ny and staff pulled out the reserve plan by load­ing the toys, cook­ies, and indi­vid­ual koolade bot­tles into my ful­ly cov­ered King Cab.
 
When the rain paused at 7 a.m., off we went to deliv­er the good­ies house to house. Sun­shine fil­tered through the clouds just long enough to get fam­i­ly pho­tos of all 6 chil­dren’s homes. Each house with small chil­dren received a minia­ture soc­cer ball so the under 3‑year-olds can have fun at home. 
 

Beau­ti­ful “Gazelle House” with their gifts.
 

Our pre­cious Ostrich House fam­i­ly.
 
As I was get­ting the “Rab­bit” fam­i­ly of Vic­to­ry House lined up for their pho­to, the chil­dren’s hands were full hold­ing their presents (and they weren’t let­ting go). Thir­ty-month-old Jesuino tried to hold his gifts AND THE NEW BALL, but could­n’t man­age it. The ball fell to the ground, so I placed it at his feet and stepped back­wards to take the pho­to. Next sec­ond, I was hit full body with that ball as Jesuino rared back with all his might, kick­ing the ball per­fect­ly to his “goal”.
 
THE KIDS ROARED WITH LAUGHTER, for Mama Bren­da for­got that this lit­tle one can’t resist kick­ing ANY BALL with­in his reach.
Solu­tion: remove his koolade bot­tle so he could hold the ball. His face is one of total deter­mi­na­tion, dar­ing any­one to take the ball away. Our future soc­cer star for sure!
 

Vic­to­ry House Rab­bits and their 3 Fos­ter Par­ents
 

The Lion House kids!
 
See­ing the smil­ing faces of our chil­dren as we gave out gifts house to house, brought great joy to all of of our staff. Next week, we hope to have our “pic­nic” with the kids. Just need a morn­ing of sun­shine and dry ground as it is total­ly an out­door affair.
 

Buf­fa­lo Boys with pock­et mon­ey for shop­ping, treats and a new Soc­cer Ball.
 

For some of our Zebra House kids it was their 1st toy ever!
 
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO GAVE SPECIAL LOVE GIFTS SO OUR CHILDREN COULD HAVE SPECIAL TREATS THIS YEAR.
 
HAPPY 2021 TO YOU ALL!
 
STAY CLOSE TO THE LORD, AND NEVER DOUBT HIS WORD.  IT IS FOOD FOR YOUR SPIRIT AND ENCOURAGMENT TO YOUR MIND. HE TRULY IS COMING SOON.
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 26, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 26, 2020
 
CHRISTMAS PARTY DELAYED, BUT TREATS A BIG HIT
 
Our fun-filled par­ty plans for Decem­ber 24th were changed to the 31st due to last minute chal­lenges with 6 days of rainy weath­er and oth­er inter­rup­tions. Thanks to a local busi­ness­man, his gift of a  large box of gum, can­dy, and cook­ies put smiles on many sad faces caused by this delay.
 
The pho­tos below show each of the 6 hous­es of chil­dren with their Christ­mas treats.
 

The Ostrich House Chil­dren
 

The Lion House children​
 

House #6, The Zebra House Chil­dren
 

The Gazelle House Chil­dren
 

The 13 “Rab­bits” in the Vic­to­ry House
 

The 12 Buf­fa­lo House Boys
 
Next Fri­day’s par­ty will include a big feast, toys, and more sweets, along with our joint prayers for a great 2021 for all of us.
 
THANK YOU, as your spe­cial Christ­mas gifts are mak­ing our New Years Eve Day Par­ty a sight to remem­ber.  The chil­dren don’t yet know that your gen­er­ous giv­ing pro­vid­ed each of them with a new toy that they will receive at the par­ty.
 
 
HOUSE #7 NEEDS ONLY DOORS AND WINDOWS. 
 
The heavy rains this week have delayed the paint­ing of the com­plet­ed doors and win­dows. Oil paint and high humid­i­ty don’t mix, so as soon as weath­er per­mits, this 16-bed orphans home will be com­plet­ed. Our mur­al artist will assist our painters to speed up this process as soon as the sun shows its face. The chil­dren’s rooms will then receive sev­er­al beau­ti­ful murals that will greet the next chil­dren join­ing our fam­i­ly.
 
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
 
Our hap­py fam­i­ly is shown in this video singing their favourite song, just for you. Lift Jesus High­er!
 

 
Our ener­getic fam­i­ly singing “Lift Jesus High­er“
Link—>  https://youtu.be/wJ7X5DHfmEc 
Bless­ings to you all!
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 19, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 19, 2020
 
DIXON’S CHICKEN 
 
Many of you remem­ber DIXON from years back, for he came to us extreme­ly mal­nour­ished (4.4 lbs./2 kg) at 4 months of age. Today, 8‑year-old Dixon is a hand­some young­ster in the 2nd grade who loves his pet chick­en, “Gal­in­ha”. (Chick­en in Por­tuguese).
 

DIXON rep­re­sents the 20,000 vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren saved because you care.​
 
Dixon rep­re­sents the 20,000 plus orphans and aban­doned chil­dren in the 2 coun­ties we serve with food, cloth­ing, and school mate­ri­als.  These chil­dren live today because you shared the love of Jesus that lives in your heart.
 
The Bala­ma project is now 20 years old, and it keeps on expand­ing with the open­ing of orphan home #7 in Jan­u­ary 2021. JESUS named us ORPHANS UNLIMITED as He showed me a vision of a sea of chil­dren. That sea of chil­dren con­tin­ues to expand. 
 
Thanks to your love gifts we deliv­ered life-sav­ing food to over 1,449 vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and the 550 wid­ows who care for them.
 
 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!
 
On Dec. 24th our chil­dren will cel­e­brate the birth of JESUS with a huge birth­day par­ty that includes games and a feast for the 110 chil­dren and fos­ter moth­ers who live in the homes you pro­vid­ed.
 
THANKS FOR MAKING THIS PARTY POSSIBLE!
 
 
INFANT UPDATE: PRAYER NEEDED
 
 
1. BABY FATIMA was hos­pi­tal­ized last Thurs­day after she devel­oped a fever of 101ºF/39ºC.  Malar­ia was ruled out, but the source of the infec­tion could not be deter­mined.  She is recov­er­ing well after 2 days of gen­er­al IV antibi­otics.  
 
FYI: Fati­ma remains with out a spon­sor. 
 

Baby Fati­ma feel­ing bet­ter but remains in hos­pi­tal.
 
2. INFANTS MAEZINHA AND QUISTON both received treat­ment for dysen­tery this week. With more ener­gy due to a great diet, both these babies show excep­tion­al curios­i­ty by putting every­thing they can get a hold of into their mouth. Both are recov­er­ing well.
 

Baby Quis­ton now has strength to sit up with lit­tle sup­port.​
 

Baby Maez­in­ha return­ing to nor­mal eat­ing habits.​
 
JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!  
 
MAY YOU ALL HAVE FABULOUS FAMILY TIME AS YOU CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF GOD’S SON!
 
BLESSINGS,  
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 12, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 12, 2020
 
BABY FATIMA JOINS OUR FAMILY 
 
Orphaned Fati­ma was brought to us last Fri­day by her Grand­moth­er and Uncle from a vil­lage almost 30 miles/50km into the Bush from Bala­ma (on foot). This tiny infant looked like a pre­ma­ture new­born, but her doc­u­ment said she was exact­ly 90 DAYS OLD, weight­ing only 2kg/4.4 lbs., AND WAS OBVIOUSLY SICK!
 

Baby Fati­ma eats hourly, then sleeps sound­ly.​
 
My Chil­dren’s Direc­tor,  Anna,  and I ush­ered them into my King­cab, and drove them quick­ly to the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal. The hos­pi­tal staff was SHOCKED at her age and weight, so wast­ed no time get­ting blood for a malar­ia smear, then start­ing an IV for med­ica­tion.
 
Fati­ma is 1 tough lit­tle girl, as she recov­ered rapid­ly from her malar­ia, but stayed in hos­pi­tal a full week to receive a spe­cial mal­nu­tri­tion for­mu­la. Rav­en­ous with hunger, she drank a tremen­dous amount dai­ly, gain­ing 2.2 lbs./1kg dur­ing her 7 day stay. 
 
Fati­ma’s Uncle real­ized the very elder­ly Grand­moth­er could not prop­er­ly care for Fati­ma, and request­ed Social Ser­vices to allow her to live with us. Both her par­ents are deceased, and it is obvi­ous to all that Fati­ma needs extra atten­tion if she is to sur­vive. 
 
Plz pray for this lit­tle girl, for she will need at least 4 months of good nutri­tion and care to achieve a nor­mal weight for her age.
 
Fati­ma needs a $30/month spon­sor as soon as pos­si­ble. This lit­tle tyke can eat!
 
 
BABY NELITA MEETS JESUS
 
With a sad heart I must announce that 1 yr. old Neli­ta is now with the Lord Jesus. Neli­ta con­tract­ed malar­ia last Sun­day, Dec. 6th.
 

Baby Neli­ta back on Novem­ber 7, 2020. Hap­py, healthy, and enjoy­ing her new toy tele­phone.
 
The nor­mal malar­ia treat­ment seemed to be help­ing her by Mon­day, but ear­ly Tues­day it was evi­dent she was get­ting worse. We rushed her to the hos­pi­tal, where she was admit­ted imme­di­ate­ly, with IV anti-malar­ia meds start­ed with­in min­utes. 
Lab analy­sis showed that the malar­ia was attack­ing her liv­er and red blood cells. She was very ill with a crit­i­cal hemo­glo­bin of only 6. (Nor­mal is 12–14).
 
Blood was giv­en, but the liv­er fail­ure was too far advanced, and she grad­u­at­ed to heav­en at 7pm Thurs­day night.
 
We miss her very much, but are hap­py she now has a per­fect body, and can hap­pi­ly play with the oth­er chil­dren in heav­en.
 
The loss of Neli­ta has real­ly upset the fos­ter moth­ers and chil­dren in house num­ber 6. Please keep them in prayer as they go through the griev­ing process. 
 
 
BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS
 
1. Our chil­dren enjoy play­ing soc­cer between rains. 
 

https://youtu.be/hpu4Cunw8ck
School age chil­dren enjoy­ing fun between rains.
 
2. Rainy sea­son offi­cial­ly began this last week with 6 days of light rain.
 
3. House # 7 rush­ing towards com­ple­tion. Jan­u­ary open­ing looks very promis­ing. 
 

House #7 paint­ing in progress between the rains.
 

Final cement work near­ing com­ple­tion.​
 
BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 5, 2020

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 5, 2020
 
KIDS TEACHING KIDS
 
 

Our old­er teens are expand­ing their hori­zons by learn­ing to teach our younger chil­dren. This week we assigned small groups for the pri­ma­ry school­ers, so our high school­ers could help them 3 days a week with their math and Por­tuguese.  Fri­day, it was exer­cise day, so the young­sters began learn­ing aer­o­bics.
 

Exer­cise class. Kids teach­ing kids.​
Click for video—>  https://youtu.be/8Kj7RR2ROrQ

The 2–3 year olds are learn­ing coor­di­na­tion through games with balls. These 2 videos I took show how much fun they are hav­ing. 
 

2 & 3 year olds play­ing ball​.
Click for video—>  https://youtu.be/VHk7iOlFxsM
 
 
PASTORS CONTINUE TO MAKE AN IMPACT 
 
Novem­ber Sal­va­tions:
   27 Church­es in 2 coun­ties.
 
   Chil­dren: 86
   Teens: 35
   Adults: 24
 

Seeds are being plant­ed and the har­vest is com­ing in. PRAYER for USA con­tin­ues. 
 
 
HOUSE #7 UPDATE
 
Floors are com­plete in all 4 bed­rooms with win­dow frames being installed today.
 

 
 
The video shows how we hand mix the cement for plas­ter­ing the walls before the floors are laid.
 

Hand mix­ing cement for the floor.​
Click for video—>  https://youtu.be/NkuvFAi2cgo
 

Plas­ter­ing the walls with cement.​
 
OUR GOAL: com­ple­tion by end of Decem­ber with Jan­u­ary open­ing. The biggest chal­lenge is to get the paint­ing done between rains. 
 
From our team to you, have a great week! We great­ly appre­ci­ate your lov­ing kind­ness as we plan a fun Christ­mas par­ty, thanks to your gifts. FYI. Found enough toys for all the chil­dren.  
 
BLESSINGS,  
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

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