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

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

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

ADDER (RATTLESNAKE) BIT PASTOR ALBERTO LAST NIGHT!

Pas­tor Alber­to was walk­ing to his mud hut at 6pm (dark) last night in Namuno District/county, 25 miles (42 km) south of our Bala­ma mis­sion, when he was bit­ten by a well cam­ou­flaged Adder (rat­tlesnake with­out a rat­tle, thus no warn­ing). They are called the “silent killers” in Africa for they wait till their prey prac­ti­cal­ly puts a foot right in front of their mouth before they strike with light­ning speed.

BBC Youth Direc­tor, Berti­no, Alberto’s son, called me at 6:30pm Thurs­day night to tell me of the inci­dent. He request­ed per­mis­sion to fetch Alber­to on his motor­bike, and take him to the Namuno Hos­pi­tal. Trav­el­ing that dan­ger­ous road in a 4X4 at night is basi­cal­ly impos­si­ble, but motor­bikes can make it with lots of care­ful dri­ving. I imme­di­ate­ly gave per­mis­sion, and alert­ed our world­wide prayer chain for both men would be in per­il until safe­ly back in Balama. 

Berti­no’s motor­bike broke down halfway to Namuno Dis­trict, so he called his father to say he couldn’t make it. (Berti­no didn’t tell me of the break­down and spent the night in the open bush, wait­ing to call me for help at 4am. Berti­no knew a 4X4 couldn’t risk fetch­ing him till day­light at 5 a.m. so didn’t want to wake me.

Alber­to got a friend to take him to the Namuno hos­pi­tal, but their lim­it­ed resources meant he need­ed trans­fer to a hos­pi­tal with the need­ed med­ica­tions as soon as pos­si­ble. Bala­ma has such resources, PTL!

THAT’S WHERE YOUR PRAYERS SAVED HIS LIFE LAST NIGHT! For like I said, it was impos­si­ble to fetch him with a 4x4 pick-up until day­light due to the dan­ger­ous road.

After find­ing out about Bertino’s prob­lem at 4 am, I noti­fied our 4 dri­vers to report to work IMMEDIATELY. It would be day­light by 5 am, mak­ing it less risky to trav­el on this dan­ger­ous road that few 4X4’s attempt dur­ing the rainy sea­son. Thank­ful­ly, we are hav­ing a few dry days at the moment, so the road was “pass­able with great care” for expert 4X4 drivers. 

Our 4 dri­vers left in 2 trucks by 4:30am. One truck would bring back the bro­ken motor­bike, while the oth­er truck took Berti­no and our 2 best off-road dri­vers to Namuno to trans­fer Alber­to to the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal. It was slow going, but they made it back to Bala­ma by 8 am. I had noti­fied the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal staff, so they were ready upon his arrival with the need­ed IV medications.

Alber­to is now rest­ing com­fort­ably under close obser­va­tion in the Emer­gency Room with an IV drip and IV med­ica­tions. The head Emer­gency Room nurse said he would be admit­ted lat­er today for at least 2 days to make sure all the swelling and infec­tion in his lymph nodes and leg are gone.

A SUPER MIRACLE 

Even though Alberto’s ankle and leg were bad­ly swollen last night, much of the swelling had decreased by the time he was tak­en to the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal. (NOT NORMAL) The fang marks were vis­i­ble near his right ankle, BUT THE MUSCLE TISSUE DAMAGE NORMALLY CAUSED BY RATTLESNAKE POISON WAS NOT PRESENT!!! (NOT NORMAL)

As an ICU nurse in San Anto­nio, Texas, I have treat­ed post Rat­tlesnake bite vic­tims who had to have their legs opened sur­gi­cal­ly from knee to ankle after a bite like this, or LOSE THE LEG due to the exces­sive swelling and tis­sue destruc­tion caused by the poi­son. Alberto’s leg only shows gen­er­al­ized swelling with exces­sive pain main­ly in his lymph nodes In the pelvic area. (NOT NORMAL).

WE THANK JESUS FOR HIS DIVINE HEALING POWERS THAT ARE AT WORK IN THIS SITUATION.

It is very rare for any­one to sur­vive a snake bite in this area, espe­cial­ly with only minor med­ical care in the first 14 hours. No on doubts that our Lord is at work here. We thank you for your imme­di­ate prayers dur­ing our night, which absolute­ly acti­vat­ed the Holy Spir­it to save his life.

Due to my busy sched­ule with all that is going on, I will con­tin­ue by nor­mal blogs on Feb. 15th. Thank you for con­tin­u­ing to pray for all of us.

FYI.  My work­ers killed 3 of these same “Adders” (rat­tlesnakes) just 50 yards/meters from my house last week.  That is why we work hard to keep our entire area “grass free” in the rainy sea­son.  Give them no place to hide, and every­one is much safer walk­ing across your yard.

Bless­ings,

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

And the Bala­ma Staff

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

Pas­tor Alber­to was bit­ten by an Adder (rat­tlesnake fam­i­ly) just now. He is in coun­ty south of us and we can’t get to him. Youth Pas­tor, Berti­no, his son, has gone by motor­bike in the night on a dan­ger­ous road to try and reach him.

Please PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!

Bush Bun­ny Brenda