RAINY SEASON COMPLICATES CONSTRUCTION, BUT GREAT FOR CROPS

This week has us all “walk­ing like ducks” as we wear our rub­ber boots to wade through mud­dy water pud­dles. Rainy Sea­son “nor­mal” for end of Jan­u­ary and all of Feb. weath­er. We receive any­where from 0.5 to 1 inch (12 to 25 mm) of rain per day. With our dirt roads, that means not even the mighty Toy­ota 4X4 Land Cruis­er we have can ven­ture out for sev­er­al hours after a rain. The Land Cruis­er is the work horse for our project, as it can car­ry up to 750Kg or (1,650 lbs.) for short dis­tances. We are for­tu­nate on our 40 acres (16 hectares) of land, that our roads are well packed with good ditch­es, and con­tain lots of sand, mak­ing our roads durable if we just let them dry a bit after each rain.  Many years ago, a South African Road Engi­neer gave me the “key” to keep­ing a dirt road func­tion­al in the rainy sea­son. His secret:  A dirt road is only as good as it’s ditch­es.  Keep the water con­trolled in the ditch­es, and your road will not wash away in heavy rains. IT WORKS, and we main­tain our ditch­es con­stant­ly dur­ing the rainy months.

SMALL PROJECTS KEEP OUR TEAMS BUSY

11 Dorm Boys in Front of New Bedrooms

Our 11 teenagers are back, and the “new­ly com­plet­ed” 2 bed­room exten­sion our brick­lay­ers built for them dur­ing their 8 week school hol­i­day, is now open. But that means we need more bathing areas and toi­lets, as our 2 new bed­rooms can hold an addi­tion­al 8 boys. (16 boys total in dorm)

2 Bunk Beds Sleep 4 Stu­dents per Room

With rainy sea­son in full down pour, we do things in reverse, as it is not safe to dig a 16 foot (4 meter) deep hole in the ground for the toilets.

FIRST, you build the roof, so the ground will stay dry, THEN YOU DIGthe hole.

So this morn­ing, our car­pen­ters are busy extend­ing the old roof over the bath­room area, while our brick lay­ers are busy mak­ing bricks for Orphan House #7.

Car­pen­ters Extend­ing Old Bath­rooms Roof, Mak­ing Way for the New Facility

The roads are way too wet to con­tin­ue House #7 until March, as our trucks can­not haul build­ing mate­ri­als to that area until it dries up a bit.

BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS:

Baby Angeli­na Eat­ing Well and Get­ting Stronger After Her Hos­pi­tal Time

Both Babies Angeli­na and Neli­ta  are healthy, but in iso­la­tion from the oth­er small chil­dren in our homes, to give their immune sys­tems a chance to rebuild as they regain their strength and weight. 

Baby Neli­ta Get­ting Out­door Time While Big­ger Kids at Bawana Games

ZITO:  

Zito Ready for School to Begin

After con­sults with 4 Dr.’s in Moz.,  and an expert on Pseudomonas in 

RSA, the final con­sen­sus is that fur­ther surgery/IV antibi­otics will not resolve his infec­tion.  WHY?  It has entered his Bone Mar­row, where even IV drugs can­not reach it.  That is why we can con­trol it, but not stop it. It is now labeled “chron­ic”, as his body has become accus­tom to it. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD

Have we giv­en up on Zito’s heal­ing? NO WAY!!!

We will con­tin­ue our dai­ly prayer, COMMANDING THE INFECTION TO DIE IN JESUS’ NAME, as well as symp­to­matic care to con­trol his infec­tion as best we can with what we have on hand. GOD IS THE GREAT PHYSICIAN.  I have per­son­al­ly seen Him raise the dead twice, and do many heal­ing mir­a­cles. Zito’s faith as well as ours is flow­ingSTRONG. 

PLEASE BE IN AGREEMENT WITH US IN COMMANDING THIS INFECTION TO DIE AND LEAVE HIS BODY.

ZITO IS HAPPY THAT NO FURTHER SURGERY IS NEEDED, (after 3 surg­eries last year), and is NOT depressed by the words of the Doc­tors.   He is stronger phys­i­cal­ly than he has ever been thanks to a high pro­tein diet, vit­a­mins, and con­stant care.  His “chron­ic infec­tion” doesn’t cause him to feel bad, nor does he have fever or pain.  Like most kids, he is liv­ing in the NOW, and look­ing for­ward to begin­ning 7th grade next week. He will live well with us, and con­tin­ue his school­ing like all the oth­er chil­dren in our care. 

Thank very much for your past and future prayers for Zito.

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

BABY ANGELINA IN HOSPITAL WITH RESPIRATORY INFECTION

With 9 babies in our care, and more than1 baby per house, it is a real chal­lenge dur­ing the hot and humid rainy sea­son to keep them from get­ting an Upper Res­pi­ra­to­ry Infec­tion. Baby Angeli­na is only 3.5 months old, and the youngest in our care as of today. 

At about 1 a.m. Thurs­day morn­ing (Jan­u­ary 16), Baby Angeli­na awoke with a cough­ing spasms due to thick phlegm in her throat. She was unable to take flu­ids due to her mouth breath­ing and rapid res­pi­ra­tion rate. It was obvi­ous she was suf­fer­ing a rapid onset Upper Res­pi­ra­to­ry Infec­tion which required IV antibi­otics immediately. 

Baby Angeli­na with Fos­ter Moth­er Bal­bi­na await­ing treat­ment at hospital.

Our team rushed her to the Bala­ma hos­pi­tal where she was giv­en Emer­gency Care, and then admit­ted to Pedi­atrics. Angeli­na is much bet­ter, but still in hos­pi­tal as I write. She might be released on Monday. 

Born on Octo­ber 4, 2019, Angeli­na weighed only 2.2 kg (4.8 lbs). Steadi­ly gain­ing weight since join­ing our fam­i­ly after her mother’s death on Oct. 24th, Angeli­na now weighs 4.6 kg (10.1 lbs.).

Your prayers are great­ly appre­ci­at­ed for her rapid recovery.

FYI:  NOTE ON BABY NELITA: After a week of eat­ing a high pro­tein diet, Neli­ta is off all antibi­otics, but still receiv­ing infant vit­a­mins and iron sup­ple­ments for her ane­mia. We are very hap­py at her progress. Thank you so much for your faith­ful prayers.

Baby Neli­ta gain­ing strength and enjoy­ing her new toy.

HOUSE #6 FAMILY LOVING THEIR NEW HOME

All 6 school age chil­dren are pic­tured (below) today along with Fos­ter Moth­er Maria. Ivo­dia is the old­est at 17, (far right in pho­to, blue blouse), and is a great help to the moth­ers dur­ing meal prepa­ra­tion time. Ivo­dia was once the “moth­er” and sole care­tak­er of her 3 sib­lings as there was no adult in her home after her moth­er died.  We call that a “Child Head­ed House­hold”. She will enter 11th grade in Feb­ru­ary, and we are hope­ful that Ivo­dia will go on to a pro­fes­sion­al school after grad­u­a­tion from 12th grade.

Fos­ter Moth­er Maria with six new res­i­dents orphan house #6.​

FOUNDATION FOR ORPHAN HOUSE #7 NOW COMPLETED

I’m very proud of our 12 man brick lay­ing team who trudged through heavy mud and braved unex­pect­ed rain storms to make this foun­da­tion hap­pen. Our truck dri­vers assist­ed by patient­ly haul­ing in over 6 tons of rock with our 1‑ton pick-ups so that the foun­da­tion could be poured. Due to soft ground, the dri­vers could only put ½ ton in each truck load.

With the rainy sea­son, the ground is way too soft for our trac­tor or 6‑ton truck to be of any use (it would sink in the mud). So, slow­ly but sure­ly, we are mov­ing for­ward with house #7. For the next 3 weeks the foun­da­tion will “CURE” (hard­en), while our team is busy mak­ing bricks for the kitchen/eating area of this house.

Mud­dy ground is no prob­lem for this mas­sive group in a 4 way tug-of-war.

After tug-of-war time to sit down for a great Bible sto­ry les­son taught by BBC Youth Pastors

BUSH BIKERS FOR CHRIST (motor­bikes and bicy­cle teams) are doing their best on the “non-rainy days”  to con­tin­ue our Bala­ma Games and Bible Teach­ing pro­grams. When they are able to go out, the teams record up to 1,000 chil­dren per meet­ing. GOD IS SURELY MOVING IN THE BALAMA AREA.

BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL AS YOU MARCH INTO 2020!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFFPlease don’t for­get to check out and share our OU Video.https://youtu.be/M0XCggD68d8

BABY NELITA RELEASED AND HOUSE # 6 IS NOW OPEN WITH 7 CHILDREN

Baby Neli­ta, released late Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 10th, is now hap­pi­ly in her NEW HOME at House #6. Enjoy­ing her high pro­tein diet, Neli­ta is still on oral antibi­otics for 5 more days, as her ear and res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tions have not total­ly resolved. Her weight gain should accel­er­ate now that her body is more healthy, and her appetite has returned.

Neli­ta in her new home at House #6.

She is still ane­mic, with a weak­ened immune sys­tem, but on a liq­uid Iron sup­ple­ment for infants as well as mul­ti-vit­a­mins. Being iso­lat­ed from oth­er young chil­dren until her immune lev­els increase, is of vital impor­tance. Thus the move to the new bed­room at House #6.

PLEASE CONTINUE YOUR PRAYERS FOR THIS LITTLE ONE.  IT WAS TRULY “TOUCH AND GO” FOR A FEW DAYS IN HOSPITAL, and there is NO DOUBT that your prayers helped her through those dif­fi­cult days. We are still fight­ing to get her com­plete­ly healthy, and laid hands on her for a rapid recov­ery once she was in her new bed­room yesterday.

Mon­day, due to Nelita’s delayed release, our staff moved Fos­ter Moth­er Ben­di­ta and the 4 orphans in her care into House #6.

They were delight­ed and a bit over­whelmed, as they had nev­er lived in a mod­ern con­crete home with REAL BEDS and MATTRESSES!

It took us 3 days due to heavy rains on Mon­day and Tues­day to set up the new bunk beds, wash the new­ly sewn bed sheets, set up mos­qui­to nets, and get the kitchen ful­ly operational. 

House #6 res­i­dents Baby Neli­ta and fos­ter moth­er Fati­ma, along with fos­ter moth­er Ben­di­ta and her four orphans will be joined by a third fos­ter moth­er, Maria, and two more childten this week. We are busy prepar­ing those beds as I write. We will try to snap and share a com­plete fam­i­ly pho­to next week.

Fos­ter moth­er Maria and her 2 new chil­dren. Belucha is 10 and in the 5th grade and Helder is 6 and in preschool.

GROUND BREAKING FOR HOUSE #7 BEGAN MONDAY

Our 12-man con­struc­tion team made short work of mov­ing Fos­ter Moth­er Ben­di­ta and her 4 orphaned chil­dren into House #6 at 5 a.m. Mon­day. This was nec­es­sary so they could destroy the mud hut in which they lived so it can be replaced by House #7.  

We tem­porar­i­ly left the house and bath­room roofs in place until the foun­da­tion is in place. That par­tial­ly pro­tects the foun­da­tion from heavy rains, and gives the work­ers a place to get out of the rain and the sun, when it decides to show its face. The 2 roofs will be torn down before the walls go up.

Foun­da­tion for House #7 almost completed.

RAINY SEASON FOUNDATIONS are a bit trick­i­er to build com­pared to dry sea­son foun­da­tions.  Instead of dig­ging out the WHOLE FOUNDATION at once, the team must dig a por­tion, and then fill it imme­di­ate­ly with gran­ite rock and cement, leav­ing space for the 8 rebar and cement “pil­lars” that will secure the cross walls.  If today’s rain holds off, the team will com­plete the ground lev­el foun­da­tion by noon.

ZITO WAITING FOR RSA DOCTOR’S RECOMMENDATION

Sad­ly, Zito’s infec­tion is the dread­ed PSEUDAMONIS AUREALIS BACTERIA.  As an X‑ICU nurse, we use to joke that you can’t kill it with a  stick, much less with antibi­otics. RESISTANT TO MOST ANTIBIOTICS, we now wait for the Ortho­pe­dic Dr. in RSA to give us his rec­om­men­da­tion on how to pro­ceed.  I’ll keep you updat­ed as I know more.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AS WE FAITHFULLY MARCH INTO 2020 WITH THE JOY OF THE LORD AS OUR STRENGTH!

BLESSINGS,

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF

Pho­to extra:

Farm­ing is a fam­i­ly affair. From the old­est to the youngest, every­one helps. No har­vest means hunger for all.Please don’t for­get to check out and share our OU Video.https://youtu.be/M0XCggD68d8

BABY NELITA IN HOSPITAL WITH 3 ILLNESSES

We knew from the start that 1 year old Nelita’s immune sys­tem was weak­ened due to her mal­nu­tri­tion upon join­ing our fam­i­ly. A sinus infec­tion, resis­tant to Amox­i­cillin, com­pli­cat­ed by malar­ia put her in the hos­pi­tal last Mon­day. Her CBC blood analy­sis showed she had anoth­er infec­tion, but the Doc­tor could not pin point where. One day lat­er, her ears began to drain clear flu­id from the ear drums, so the mys­tery was solved.

Baby Neli­ta sit­ting with Fos­ter Moth­er Fati­ma on Dec. 4th.

With mul­ti­ple IV antibi­otics, plus malar­ia treat­ments, she is doing bet­ter, but still in hos­pi­tal as I write. Please pray for this frag­ile lit­tle girl, for this is a rough start in life for any infant.

NELITA’S ILLNESS MEANS SHE WILL MOVE TO HOUSE #6

The 2 moth­ers who will live at House #6 have been tied up all week, as we had to do the “fos­ter moth­er shuf­fle” so that 2 moth­ers could be at the hos­pi­tal with Neli­ta at all times. 

New Fos­ter Moth­ers Maria (L) and Jami­la ® stand­ing in front of House #6.​

The changes will now become per­ma­nent since Fati­ma (Nelita’s fos­ter moth­er) must move with the infant to House #6. Jami­la took over as Head Moth­er in Fatima’s place at the Ostrich House on Monday.

Ostrich House Fam­i­ly, Decem­ber 2019. Zito play­ing big broth­er until school reopens end of January.

WHY THE MOVE?  The pho­to of the Ostrich House Fam­i­ly shows that most of the res­i­dents are under 6 years of age.  Due to Nelita’s low resis­tance to child­hood res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases, the Doc­tor request­ed that we iso­late her from small chil­dren to enhance her chances of recov­ery. The chil­dren who will live in House #6 are all school age, mak­ing it a safer envi­ron­ment for an immune chal­lenged infant.

We worked all yes­ter­day get­ting House #6 ready to receive the 2 fos­ter moth­ers and 7 chil­dren, but Neli­ta was not released from the hos­pi­tal. HOUSE #6 IS READY, and will receive her new fam­i­ly as soon as Neli­ta is free to come home.

3 BRIDGES DOWN– MASSIVE FLOODING IN MELUCO ORPHANAGE AREA

Rain­fall has been tremen­dous in the last 2 weeks thanks to a trop­i­cal storm that filled all the local rivers to over­flow­ing. Two bridges near Melu­co town, plus the MASSIVE MONTEPUEZ RIVER BRIDGE ON THE MAIN HIGHWAY WERE DESTROYED.

Thank­ful­ly, Manel, our dri­ver alert­ed me to the dam­age to the local bridges near Melu­co that he saw on his Decem­ber 22nd sup­ply trip. 

Mon­tepuez Riv­er Bridge bad­ly dam­aged by floods. (NOT our truck in photo)

We imme­di­ate­ly moved 3 months sup­plies to the 400+ orphans now liv­ing in this area cut off from the rest of Mozambique.

Thank­ful­ly, the rains have returned to nor­mal as of this week, and the riv­er lev­els are decreasing.

Keep the repair teams and our Melu­co orphans in prayer dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. PTL that all the orphans are safe, and have what they need until end of March.

God’s Bless­ings to you all, and a Hap­py New Year!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE 

AND THE BALAMA STAFFPlease don’t for­get to check out and share our 2019 OU Video.https://youtu.be/M0XCggD68d8

CHRISTMAS WITH OUR CHILDREN

Fun games, great food, and a live­ly bunch of 150+ chil­dren made our Christ­mas Eve Day par­ty an item to remember. 

See the video of our Christ­mas feast for 170+ chil­dren and fos­ter mothers.

THANKS TO YOU, OUR CHILDREN ARE HEALTHY, HAPPY, AND FULL OF ENERGY!

See the video of 100+ kids enjoy­ing a great obsta­cle race!

TROPICAL STORM DELAYS OPENING OF HOUSE #6

Due to last week­end’s rains, the met­al bunk beds didn’t arrive until Thurs­day the 26th, because the paint wasn’t dry. Fri­day the 27th we were hit and are still suf­fer­ing from a TROPICAL STORM that has dropped over 4 inch­es of rain. The storm con­tin­ues to beat us with 15 mph (about 30kph) winds and rains expect­ed for next 5 days. Ugh!

Our year­ly sup­plies unavail­able in Mozam­bique were flown in by MAF (Mis­sions Avi­a­tion Fel­low­ship) on Thurs­day, but are now also ground­ed by this storm. We hope to receive them next week when it is safe to fly.

I must get this out before we lose inter­net, so…

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!  UNTIL 2020!

From our fam­i­ly to yours, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

LOVE AND HUGS FROM US ALL FOR MAKING THIS A TRULY GREAT YEAR FOR JESUS IN NORTHERN MOZAMBIQUE.

BLESSINGS, 

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFFPlease don’t for­get to check out and share our 2019 OU Video.https://youtu.be/M0XCggD68d8

EVA TEACHES US ABOUT GIVING TO OTHERS

EVA, our old­est res­i­dent at 21 is a young woman who nev­er lets her Cere­bral Pal­sy get in the way of her heart for Jesus. Tak­en to mul­ti­ple witch doc­tors as an infant suf­fer­ing from 6 seizures a day, Eva basi­cal­ly was a bedrid­den in a veg­e­ta­tive state.

After prayer from our Pas­tors, her seizures reduced to only 2–3 per day. With med­i­cine, the seizures reduced but nev­er stopped. Then the med­i­cine ran out and I had no way to get her more! Dur­ing the next 2 weeks we prayed, her seizures stopped com­plete­ly, and have NEVER RETURNED! That, my friends, is a HEALING MIRACLE FROM JESUS, for it doesn’t hap­pen in the natural.

Eva gives the 1 thing she has–her abil­i­ty to help others.

Doc­tors said Eva would nev­er walk, talk, or be able to care for her­self. Well, they should see her now! She sings, she walks, runs, and dances, speaks parts of 3 lan­guages, and fol­lows instruc­tions bet­ter than most of our teenagers! EVA is a true tes­ti­mo­ny to all,  for her actions speak loud­ly as she helps oth­ers willingly.

Today, I was dri­ving in our neigh­bor­hood when I saw Eva push­ing a hand­i­capped man in his 3 wheel bicy­cle. There was no one else around, and no one asked her to help. She just gave a help­ing hand because she saw this man strug­gling to get home.

When I stopped along­side of her, she smiled for this pho­to (above), then con­tin­ued on her way, push­ing this elder­ly gen­tle­man to his home. THAT’S EVA!  She was raised on God’s Word, and she takes it to heart.

She sees a need and fills it!

THAT’S THE JESUS WAY!

THE REASON FOR THE SEASON IS GIVING TO OTHERS WITHOUT EXPECTING ANYTHING IN RETURN.

BUSH BUNNY TIDBITS

1.  HOUSE #6 PASSED INSPECTION THIS WEEK! Full report next week, as we pre­pare the 7 chil­dren and 3 fos­ter moth­ers to move into their new home.

House #6. Fos­ter moth­ers Maria and Jami­la eager­ly wait to move in next week.

2.  With House #6 half full, CONSTRUCTION FOR HOUSE #7 begins in ear­ly January.

3.  ZITO’S CULTURE RESULTS were as expect­ed. His infec­tion is RESISTENT to all med­i­cines avail­able in Mozam­bique. He is tem­porar­i­ly on a med­i­cine that REDUCES his infec­tion, but lacks the pow­er to stop it. After the hol­i­days, we will be con­sult­ing an Ortho­pe­dic Doc­tor in South Africa for an alter­nate plan. Please keep your prayers com­ing for this young man nev­er los­es his joy and NEEDS A JESUS MIRACLE!

Zito, radi­ates JOY no mat­ter his circumstances.

4.  BABY ANGELINA GROWING FAST! Angeli­na is our youngest at 10 weeks of age. Weigh­ing only 2.25 kg (5 lbs.) at 3 weeks when we received her,  this lit­tle angel now weighs 4.3kg (9.46 lbs)! That is almost dou­ble her weight in 2 months! Just goes to show how much prayer from our sup­port­ers, love from a great Fos­ter Moth­er, and a steady sup­ply of baby for­mu­la can turn a life around for a starv­ing baby.

Baby Angeli­na sleeps 90% of the time as her body catch­es up from 3 weeks of starvation

JESUS, BORN AND RAISED TO ADULTHOOD, KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT CHILDREN DEAL WITH ON A DAILY BASIS.

IS IT ANY WONDER THAT THE LITTLE CHILDREN LOVE HIM SO? 

FOR THEY FEEL HIS LOVE THROUGH EVERY BELIEVER WHO CROSSES THEIR PATH.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL OF US AT ORPHANS UNLIMITED AND THE BALAMA STAFF!

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGEPlease don’t for­get to check out and share our 2019 OU Video.https://youtu.be/M0XCggD68d8

EVANGELIZING THE MULTITUDES  Our team of Pas­tors and BBC Youth Lead­ers did an out­stand­ing job this year reach­ing the lost, and teach­ing God’s Word to over 37,000 peo­ple a month in 3 counties. 

Pas­toral team pray­ing togeth­er for boun­ti­ful har­vest of souls. SALVATIONS: 1,443 —  Includes all ages CHURCHES PLANTED: 7 HEALINGS: 14   —  Includes a woman healed from a very poi­so­nous snake bite just days ago, because imme­di­ate prayer was spo­ken over her in the name of Jesus!

BBC TEAM mov­ing out at dawn to spread the Good News about Jesus.​ Our teach­ings on the Author­i­ty of the Believ­er is help­ing the locals USE GOD’S WORD in mar­vel­lous ways! It real­ly excites all of us when we see peo­ple ‘s faith in action. PTL!  FOUR FANTASTIC CHILDREN JOIN OUR FAMILY  The Catholic Sis­ters noti­fied me last Sat­ur­day after­noon of a Granny with 10 chil­dren in the vil­lage of Mecu­ti who were with­out food. Four of the chil­dren are true orphans hav­ing lost both par­ents recent­ly. Two oth­ers are aban­doned by Granny’s men­tal­ly ill sis­ter while the remain­ing 4 are her chil­dren, hus­band deceased. 

Granny and 9 of the 10 chil­dren in her care. Ear­ly last Sun­day our team did an emer­gency food drop to them, as this vil­lage is over 12 miles into the Bush. Social Ser­vices were noti­fied and decid­ed to help light­en Granny’s load by ask­ing us to pro­vide a home for the 4 orphans, who were brought to live with us on Wednes­day this week. 

Fam­i­ly of 4 orphans joined us this week.​ Broth­ers Mario (age 14), Mashade (age12), and Ben­jal­isha (age 8)  are all good stu­dents in school and wel­come our help­ing hand so they can con­tin­ue to study. Their lit­tle sis­ter, Nazi­ta (age 6) will begin 1st grade in Feb­ru­ary when school opens for the new year.  All 4 of these chil­dren need $30/month spon­sors. Please give the gift that keeps on giv­ing by bless­ing each if them with a spon­sor for Christ­mas.  BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL FOR HELPING GOD’S CHILDREN! BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF