JESUS GAVE ME A NEW INFANT FOR CHRISTMAS! Xica’s diar­rhea final­ly stopped on the 7th day, and she was allowed to come home on Christ­mas Day! The Grand­moth­er admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal staff that she had giv­en the infant Maha­ia (a mild alco­holic corn mash). That stuff is poi­son to an infant, so it is a mir­a­cle she lived to get to us.  She is doing great on Dec. 26th with no fur­ther signs of ill­ness. This now gives us 35 lit­tle ones under the age of 3 years. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS FOR THIS LITTLE GIRL.

Xica amazed at her new home!

CIS PARTY A FUN FEAST WITH BALLOONS! I called the CIS boss at 10a.m. to make sure they were com­ing at 11a.m., and he told me the team was leav­ing now! An hour early!!!YIKES!  My fin­gers danced quick­ly over my phone, call­ing our staff to get the kids down to the Cen­ter for an ear­ly lunch. CIS made a beau­ti­ful Christ­mas cake that would serve 70 peo­ple. It was so hot out­side, that I asked the CIS boss if they could keep it in an air con­di­tioned truck with the engine run­ning, until time to serve it for dessert. They eager­ly com­plied, and we had a cool cake that kept its shape because of that. Cake Icing tends to melt into a gooey mess in warm tem­per­a­tures. They came ear­ly to dec­o­rate our fence with bal­loons, and give me the TOYS AND CLOTHING they had col­lect­ed for the children.It was a fun par­ty with lots of good food and drinks. We are most grate­ful to all of our local donors who did their best to make this a spe­cial day for the children.

Kids at CIS par­ty enjoyed the bal­loon decor.

Over 30 of our lit­tle chil­dren had nev­er seen a real cake before! Deli­cious with yum­my icing.

CHRISTMAS DAY Dodg­ing the mud pud­dles, I was able to deliv­er the frozen chick­ens to each house at 7 a.m. Each home received an extra chick­en to make sure that every­one got an extra por­tion of meat along with all the oth­er fix­ings the house mother’s made. Because we had the group par­ty on the 20th, and the ground was now a sop­py, mud­dy mess (not pos­si­ble to cook a group meal), the mother’s agreed to cook a fan­cy meal for the chil­dren in each of the 7 homes.At 8:30, my helper and I deliv­ered yoghurt suck­ers and cook­ies to each of the chil­dren in all the homes.  The pri­ma­ry school chil­dren sur­prised me by greet­ing me IN ENGLISH with “Good Morn­ing, Moth­er”! It stopped me in my tracks as it was total­ly unex­pect­ed. I replied with “Good Morn­ing, Chil­dren”, and then had to explain that chil­dren is Eng­lish for “cri­an­ca” in Por­tuguese. We had a great time, leav­ing all the chil­dren with smiles on their faces.More “gifts” will be com­ing next week for the chil­dren, as I like to spread the cheer over sev­er­al days.

Our school age chil­dren greet­ed me in Eng­lish, and were excit­ed to receive their gifts.

Ostrich House, most­ly 2 year Olds, are a live­ly bunch!

Lion House. 1 to 4 year olds love yoghert pops!

GOD’S BLESSINGS AND HAPPY 2026! May it be a peace­ful and pros­per­ous year for all of you! BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF