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BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: FEBRUARY 5, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 5, 2022
 
BABY REGINALDA HOSPITALIZED 
 
Last Wednes­day, REGINALDA, 11.5 months old, pre­sent­ed with fever and lack of appetite. Tests showed she has malar­ia and an infec­tion, ori­gin unknown. She is being treat­ed with broad spec­trum IV antibi­otics and LOTS OF PRAYER. 
 

Baby Regi­nal­da in hos­pi­tal.
 
HER LOW-GRADE FEVER is con­cern­ing all of us, as it refus­es to come down even with the strongest antibi­otics avail­able and the anti-febrile med­ica­tions.
 
YOUR PRAYERS ARE MUCH NEEDED!
 
SHE NEEDS JESUS TO ERADICATE THIS INFECTION AT IT’S ROOT, SO HER HEALTH CAN RETURN TO NORMAL. 
 
SCHOOL DAYS ARE UPON US!
 
Our Staff was kept busy this week dis­trib­ut­ing school mate­ri­als, fit­ting uni­forms made by our mas­ter seam­stress, and fit­ting school shoes for the 63 school-aged orphans liv­ing in our Bala­ma homes. 
 

1st graders deal with their new back­packs that are almost big­ger than they are! Small sizes not avail­able.
 

8‑year-old Mon­i­ca, who has an inop­er­a­ble hole in her heart is now in 3rd grade! She is amaz­ing!​
 

Bren­da and staff hand­ing out school sup­plies to high school boys.
 
For the first time, some of our stu­dents will start class­es with­out a uni­form, as the fab­ric in the prop­er school col­ors was late arriv­ing in the stores. Thank­ful­ly, the school gives a 1‑month grace peri­od to allow all chil­dren time to com­ply.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS ALLOW 100’S OF CHILDREN IN 2 COUNTIES / DISTRICTS TO OBTAIN AN EDUCATION THAT IS SO VITAL TO A BETTER FUTURE IN THE WORK FORCE.
 
MANY BLESSINGS,  
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 29, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 29, 2022
 
RUN FAST, PLAY HARD!
 
The rainy sea­son leaves us few dry days, but our chil­dren are tak­ing advan­tage of every minute. Hard rains hit on Mon­day, but by Tues­day, the play­ground was dry. It is amaz­ing watch­ing our youngest sharp­en­ing new­ly learned play skills each week. 
 

First graders hav­ing a “co-ed” soc­cer game to release all that pent up “rainy day” ener­gy.
 
From the tod­dlers to the preschool­ers, all are stay­ing hap­py and health as they “chase the balls” dur­ing play time.
 

Watch this video of our 3‑year-olds hav­ing a “ball”! —>
https://youtu.be/4CN-3rFWjxU
 
We only have 7 chil­dren in the 3- to 5‑year-old age group right now, but look out, because the 11 tod­dlers turn­ing 2 years old this year will soon be in the mix!
 

Watch as Baby Juma shows off his “danc­ing” skills learned from watch­ing oth­ers.​  —>  https://youtu.be/8iy5IagnFb8
 

Ade­laide and Chebany hav­ing a sand­box chat!​
 

Cape­na hav­ing some fun time with our tod­dlers at house #6, the Zebra house.​
 
HOUSE BURNS, LEAVING 2 ORPHANS WITH THE CLOTHES ON THEIR BACKS.
 
These 2 young­sters, ages 11, and 9, were part of a Child Head­ed House­hold run inde­pen­dent­ly of our help by their 18-year-old broth­er. Over the Christ­mas hol­i­days, their mud hut caught fire, leav­ing them home­less. Social Ser­vices request­ed our assis­tance as the chil­dren were left with noth­ing.
 

Two orphans from Child Head­ed House­hold now able to live with their aunt after their hut burned to the ground.
 
The 18-year-old teen found a place to live, but the 11-year-old boy, and his 9‑year-old sis­ter were not so for­tu­nate. THANKFULLY,  a “fam­i­ly search” locat­ed an Aunt who agreed to share her mud hut with them, but she had lit­tle food to spare.
 
THANKS TO YOUR LOVE GIFTS, our staff was able to assist them with emer­gency food and cloth­ing, and placed the 3 of them in our Thurs­day food give-out.
 
THE HANDS OF JESUS REACH THE “LOST AND DESTITUTE” BECAUSE YOU CARE.
 
THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US AT ORPHANS UNLIMITED. 
 
BLESSINGS,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 22, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 22, 2022
 
PLAY HARD WHEN THE SUN SHINES!
 
Our chil­dren are doing exact­ly that in these pho­tos and videos. 
 

Dai­ly Praise and Wor­ship is a favorite with all our children​.
 

Preschool­ers show­ing off with their ener­getic ren­di­tion of “God Is So Good”, Deus e tam­bom in this video. –>   https://youtu.be/Coo8xS0q5lE
 
We had an all-night rain storm in Bala­ma on Mon­day that had us stand­ing in water.  But sandy loam soil dries quick­ly, sig­nal­ing “PLAYTIME” for all our chil­dren who have an abun­dance of ener­gy after being cooped up for a day.
 
School starts at the end of the month, so in their minds, there is no time to waste!
 

San­dra, 1st grad­er, shows off her skills at the Moz ver­sion of “Jacks” in this video —> https://youtu.be/eh44hbeSk64
 
 

Preschool­ers share the swings as soon as the rains are gone. Click on the pho­to or this link to see Lit­tle San­tos, on left, as he push­es his school­mate for a high­er swing.  https://youtu.be/gc9fEJ8D2‑E
 

Pri­ma­ry school­ers have a quick game of soc­cer.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS KEEP THESE CHILDREN HEALTHY AND HAPPY. THANK YOU FOR GIVING TO THE LORD’S WORK AT OUR MISSION STATION. 
 
Bless­ings,
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 15, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 15, 2022
 
ELECTRICITY COMING OUR WAY
 
Elec­tric hook-ups are sched­uled for Feb­ru­ary 2022 for any home that is prop­er­ly wired. Two elec­tri­cians have worked long hours since Jan­u­ary 3rd to wire all 7 of our orphan homes. House #7 is due to be com­plet­ed today, mean­ing that we are by ready when the juice is hooked up.
 

Elec­tri­cians wiring House #7, the Leop­ard House.
 
It’s an excit­ing mile­stone for all our staff, as night­time call-outs for sick chil­dren will be a bit eas­i­er with lights in their rooms.
 
TWO OF OUR YOUNGEST, NOW ON THEIR FEET!
 
Chebany began to take shaky steps this week, and Baby Gil­da makes her debut by stand­ing inde­pen­dent­ly. How time flies as our “baby hous­es” are becom­ing Tod­dler Homes.
 

Gil­da in mid­dle stand­ing inde­pen­dent­ly for first time. Adeli­na, 3, on left, with Maez­in­ha, almost 2, on right. See Chebany learn­ing to walk at this YouTube link. —> https://youtu.be/tn_5A0SZI5M
 
Rains knocked out most of our out­door games for the old­er chil­dren this week, but that’s the rainy sea­son way.
 

Fos­ter Moth­er Cecelia enter­tains our youngest while their Fos­ter Moth­ers pre­pare lunch and wash clothes.
 
Note: Exam results for our 2 young men who test­ed will not be out till next week. Helder, our Teacher Grad­u­ate will do his first job inter­view next week. Please keep him in your prayers, as he is a bit ner­vous. 
 
With many “Duck Days” ahead through Feb­ru­ary, we thank you for your prayers that all will stay healthy. (A duck day is a rainy day, as only the ducks are hap­py!)
 
MANY BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 8, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 8, 2022
 
CHEBANY STANDS INDEPENDENTLY!
 
Anoth­er mile­stone for baby Chebany, as he final­ly grasped how to bal­ance. After tak­ing this pho­to, I gen­tly took his hands and leaned him for­ward to nudge him into tak­ing 2 steps before he sat down.
 

Chebany stands inde­pen­dent­ly for the first time.
 
We are very hap­py for this lit­tle boy, who had a very rough start in life. His moth­er passed away when he was 11 days old, leav­ing a very sick Chebany in the care of an unlov­ing father and uncle.
Chebany was admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal for a seri­ous res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion, where his father aban­doned him 1 day lat­er, and has­n’t been seen since.
 
With lov­ing care, lots of med­ical help, and prop­er nutri­tion, this frag­ile, mal­nour­ished infant now weighs 8.4 kg/18.5 lbs. at 13 months of age.         
 
Every­one calls him Ale­gria (JOY), as he is smil­ing or laugh­ing most of the time.
 
WE PRAISE GOD FOR EVERY MILESTONE HE MAKES, AS HE HAS BEATEN THE ODDS AGAINST HIM THANKS TO JESUS’ HEALING POWER.
 
CLEAN WATER = LIFE
 
Our water well repair team has been super busy through­out Decem­ber. Hand pump water wells are PUMPED 24 HOURS A DAY from Octo­ber until the rainy sea­son begins, as all hand dug buck­et wells dry up. Exces­sive use leads to break­downs, and no oth­er water sources are avail­able to 1,000’s of peo­ple.
 

Pulling out the ‘guts’ of a bro­ken water well as 2 inner tubes had cracked.
 

Repair­ing a bro­ken top tube in a well does­n’t require pulling out all the tubes.
 
Our team repairs hand pump water wells each year in both Bala­ma and Melu­co coun­ties which serves the vil­lage orphans that your love gifts sup­port.
 
From Decem­ber 27th to the 30th our team repaired 5 high use water wells in Melu­co Coun­ty. These wells are the sole source of water for more than 10,000 peo­ple.
 

Put it all back togeth­er and the reward is clean water for the vil­lage.
 
These are YOUR LOVE GIFTS AT WORK, for the lack of clean water brings dis­ease and death, leav­ing behind more orphans.
 
THANK YOU FOR SAVING LIVES BY SUPPORTING THIS ESSENTIAL PROJECT. 
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: JANUARY 1, 2022

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JANUARY 1, 2022
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
 
ALL OUR SCHOOL CHILDREN PASSED INTO THE NEXT GRADE! 
 
Those results were announced Mon­day, mak­ing every­one very hap­py! With only 2 days of school per week and LOTS OF HOMEWORK for each child, this is tru­ly amaz­ing.  
 
SANDBOX FUN!
 
Manel and a crew of 6 men took our 6‑ton-truck and loaded it with fresh sand TWICE in order to fill all 6 of our huge sand box­es where our younger kids prac­ti­cal­ly live dur­ing day­time hours. Mama Bren­da, as the chil­dren call me, fol­lowed with a give-out of sand box trucks, front-end load­ers, and back­hoes for the boys.
The girls received kitchen tea sets with repli­cas of food, plates, and cook­ing pans. The pho­tos show the smil­ing faces!
 

Isaura enjoys a sip of “tea” from her new tea set.
 

Our 3 ami­gos, plus Dixon (far right) enjoy the new sand and dump truck toys.
 

The balls were a BIG HIT with our tod­dlers. 
video —> https://youtu.be/utrMOnUZ3Hw
 

Anselmi­na and Chebane get super excit­ed over their new ball while Sal­vador (being held by Fos­ter Moth­er) isn’t too sure of this new “thing”.  
video —>  https://youtu.be/PbPKm4M8-3o
 
We are grate­ful to the Lord Jesus, and all His help­ing hands (YOU) for mak­ing our whole year cheery and bright.
 
OUR STAFF PRAY FOR ALL OF YOU!
 
MAY 2022 BE A GREAT YEAR FOR ALL OF US, AS EACH DAY BRINGS US CLOSER TO OUR LORD’S RETURN. 
 
MANY BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 24, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 24, 2021
 
A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!
 

From our fam­i­ly to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
 
OUR CHILDREN TRULY ENJOYED THE HOLIDAY CHICKENS YOU PROVIDED!
 
The pho­tos of the Christ­mas Par­ty tell only some of the sto­ry. Singing and even joy­ful danc­ing and jump­ing in place were how our exu­ber­ant chil­dren showed their love for Jesus as the par­ty began. The cooks had a bit of a chal­lenge debon­ing 60 lbs/ 30 kgs of cooked chick­en for the main course, but thank­ful­ly they fig­ured it out, and it was very tasty. Not a speck of food was left after feed­ing 142 chil­dren and Fos­ter Moms!
 

Our youngest enjoy­ing their 1st Christ­mas par­ty.
 

Lin­ing up for Christ­mas treats​.
 
TOYS FOR TOTS, AND A SHOPPING FOR THE TEENAGERS!
 
Your love gifts bought large cars for the young boys, stuffed dolls for the lit­tle girls, and much more. Balls, tea sets, and sand haul­ing front end load­ers will be giv­en out next week after all sand­box­es get fresh loads of sand for the rainy sea­son.
 

Your love gifts pro­vid­ed toys for the under-10-year-olds, and $8 in cash for the old­er chil­dren so they could go shop­ping! Smiles all around!
 

Tod­dler Julio wants the red car we gave Chebany. Typ­i­cal Christ­mas morn­ing ‘tus­sles over toys’ with our lit­tle ones.
 
I like to spread out the fun and can­dy between Christ­mas and New Years, giv­ing a lit­tle at a time.
 
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND GENEROUS LOVE GIFTS DURING 2021. 
 
WE ARE TRULY HONORED TO BE GOD’S HANDS. SAVING THESE INNOCENT LIVES IS HARD WORK, BUT “IT TAKES A VILLAGE”.
 
TOGETHER WE ARE SAVE LIVES, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY. 
 
GOD’S BLESSINGS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 18, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 18, 2021
 
HELDER GRADUATES TEACHERS SCHOOL!
 
Helder is the first of our youth to get into and grad­u­ate from a school of high­er learn­ing! We are so, so proud of him.
 

Helder on grad­u­a­tion day​.
 
As I write, Helder is on his way back to Bala­ma with our 4 staff mem­bers who attend­ed his grad­u­a­tion. I stayed with the oth­er 57 chil­dren as they had a vis­it this a.m. from 2 com­pa­nies who brought lots of good­ies for them. (See sto­ry below).
 
What’s next for Helder? He will start the appli­ca­tion pro­ce­dure to get a job with a School Dis­trict hope­ful­ly in Bala­ma Dis­trict or a Dis­trict near­by. Helder is now qual­i­fied to teach 1st to 7th grades.
 
PRAY! For he needs “divine inter­ven­tion” as the oth­er 224 grad­u­ates are also look­ing for jobs. A very com­pet­i­tive sit­u­a­tion for sure but we serve a God whose spe­cial­ty is mov­ing moun­tains!
 

Yum­my food gifts from CIS and Twigg com­pa­nies.
 
GRAPHITE MINE GIFTS GOODIES TO OUR CHILDREN 
 
Two com­pa­nies (CIS AND Twigg, who are both part of the Graphite Mine just 6 miles from us) gift­ed us with 160 sack lunch­es, rice, milk, cere­al, cook­ing oil, pas­ta, and 80 kgs/176 lbs. of 2 dif­fer­ent kinds of frozen meat. What a treat!
 

Every child received a sack lunch with a sand­wich, chips, apple, and fruit juice.
 
Our friend who is host­ing our freez­er full of Christ­mas chick­ens, kind­ly allowed us room in his large freez­er to put 75% of the meat.
The rest we dis­trib­uted to each of our homes for a fun sup­per tonight, as it was beef balls that were frozen sol­id! The oth­er items will be giv­en out next week.
 

The kids were in awe of their yum­my sack lunch­es.
 
God nev­er ceas­es to sur­prise us as we made new friends today, who hope­ful­ly can help our teenagers, both boys and girls, with tech­ni­cal train­ing. More on that next year.
 
GOD IS GREAT, AND GREATLY TO BE PRAISED!
 
A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!
 
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOU DO THROUGH PRAYER AND LOVE GIFTS SO OUR CHILDREN CAN EXCEL IN WHAT GOD HAS FOR THEM TO DO.
 
BLESSINGS 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 11, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 11, 2021
 
EXCEPTIONAL FAMILY SHARES THEIR LOVE
 
Wednes­day after­noon a young cou­ple walked in with an orphaned infant need­ing milk. Noth­ing unusu­al about that until we read the Social Ser­vices let­ter. This young cou­ple were doing some­thing few fam­i­ly mem­bers would do. Take in FOUR orphans after the wife’s sis­ter passed away 2 days ago. Usu­al­ly the chil­dren are split up between sev­er­al fam­i­ly mem­bers. 
 

Hid­i­na and her hus­band with orphaned infant named Del­fi­na.
 
Hid­i­na and her hus­band have 3 chil­dren of their own, ages 4, 2, and 3 MONTHS! They are accept­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for a 6‑week-old infant girl, plus her three sib­lings, ages 4, 7, and 10.
 
We imme­di­ate­ly accept­ed the orphans into our food pro­gram and gave this cou­ple 2 large cook­ing pans. They most cer­tain­ly need all the help they can get, as their fam­i­ly more than dou­bled in 1 day! I asked how they planned to han­dle 2 infants, and they assured me that the grand­moth­er would assist.
 
NOW THAT IS LOVE!
 

Grand­moth­er and Hid­i­na’s hus­band brought Baby Del­fi­na and her 3 sis­ters to receive food on Thurs­day.
 
We will be observ­ing and assist­ing these chil­dren with clothes and oth­er items as this cou­ple will need max­i­mum help with their new “extend­ed” fam­i­ly.
 
Please keep them in prayer. At the moment, all 4 orphans are healthy, just a bit con­fused as to what is going on.
 
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE. 
 
BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS:
1. HOUSE #6 receives a roof over the sand pit/concrete play area just in time for the rainy sea­son. Now that our infants are all walk­ing, they need­ed a dry place to play for the next 4 months of the rainy sea­son.
 

House #6 gets a roof over their sand­pit and con­crete play area before the rains hit​
 
2. BABY SALVADOR (House #6) is all tuck­ered out after watch­ing the con­struc­tion crew build a roof over his sand­pit. The new portable baby beds I had made are light­weight, and allow our moth­ers to have the chil­dren nap out­side in the shade while they work. Much safer now that these tykes can climb out of bed them­selves!
 

Tod­dler Sal­vador eager­ly watched the build­ing activ­i­ty until he played out, tak­ing a nap on one of the portable baby beds I had made​
 
3.  House #7 infants Fati­ma (now walk­ing) but sit­ting in Fos­ter Moth­er’s lap in pho­to, as well as Babies Gil­da and Susan­na (on right), all look on as Mama Gil­da pre­pares food for lunch. 
 

3 moth­ers from House #7 make good use of the shade tree while prepar­ing food and watch­ing their lit­tle ones.
 
With temps at 97°F/36°C, the shade of a great Man­go Tree is the coolest place around. FYI: Gil­da (11 months) and Susan­na, (7 months), are just now strong enough to sit up alone. A real mile­stone as they were both super tiny at birth. 
 
4. The Christ­mas Chick­ens (30KG/66lbs.) are in our own small chest freez­er (locked), and being ener­gized by elec­tric­i­ty at a near­by friend’s home until the Christ­mas par­ty on Decem­ber 23rd.  Elec­tric­i­ty is com­ing to our homes, hope­ful­ly just after Christ­mas. 
More on that after the hol­i­days. 
 
WE ARE MOST GRATEFUL TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE FABULOUS CHRISTMAS PARTY WE HOPE TO HAVE FOR THE CHILDREN THIS YEAR!
 
YOU ARE ALL SO LOVING AND KIND TO DO THIS FOR OUR CHILDREN. 🤗❤🐇
 
BLESSINGS, 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF 
 
 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA BLOG: DECEMBER 4, 2021

FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: DECEMBER 4, 2021
 
GIANT MANGO TREE A SHADY BLESSING 
 
The sun was intense as tem­per­a­tures soared to 101°F/38°C, but our 150+ year old giant Man­go tree at the play­ground gave shade that was “just right” for games, art, and dra­mas this week. Jess and Steph went all out to “make their day” as the chil­dren worked on art, learned to “10-pin bowl”, and cheered as David took down Goliath!
 

Art on the shad­ed side­walk.
 

DAVID takes out Goliath even though he wore a motor­cy­cle hel­met! The crowd cheers this vic­to­ry! Click pho­to for video.…
See David v. Goliath video –>   https://youtu.be/GK4s8b_iln8
 

Ten Pin bowl­ing the Bala­ma way! 
Video–>  https://youtu.be/FWpi5DiaFbs
 

Steph teach­ing the crab crawl.
 

Jess teach­ing a pad­di­cake game.
 

De Bush Bun­ny shared Rum­mykub fun with our vis­i­tors.
 
These 2 won­der­ful ladies flew back to S. Africa yes­ter­day, Dec. 3rd, and are great­ly missed by all of us. They left behind many smil­ing faces and new games which the chil­dren dear­ly love play­ing. 
 
THANK YOU JESS AND STEPH FOR BRINGING NEW JOY TO ALL OUR CHILDREN THESE LAST 2 WEEKS.
 
BLESSINGS, 
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 
AND THE BALAMA STAFF