TOYS FOR OUR TOTS!

Find­ing the right type toys for our res­i­dent orphans is a chal­lenge since there are so many chil­dren of all ages. But noth­ing is too dif­fi­cult for our Lord, and a toy was final­ly locat­ed for each child.

Sal­ly’s House show­ing off their new toys.

Ostrich House chil­dren brav­ing morn­ing cold.

Dolls for the girls, tiny cars and squeaky balls for the boys, and baby rat­tles for our 6 infants. (The Fos­ter Moth­ers will prob­a­bly have some­thing to say to me about NOT buy­ing noise mak­ing toys before Christ­mas rolls around.) The Dorm boys (teenagers) were blessed with a new “pro­fes­sion­al” type soc­cer ball and a basketball.

June House chil­dren bask­ing in ear­ly a.m. sun­shine with new toys.

All 5 homes received a Wildlife Book to help them learn the Por­tuguese name for many African ani­mals. Our pre-school is pay­ing off, for our 4–5 year olds could already name almost every ani­mal I showed them!

YOUR LOVE GIFTS “MADE THEIR DAY”!

PEANUTS, PEANUTS, GET YOUR PEANUTS HERE!

Peanuts are the food that dis­ap­pears in the blink of an eye around here! This week we received our year’s sup­ply (2 TONS) for our res­i­dent orphans. I per­son­al­ly weighed them, for this pre­cious high fat/high pro­tein food is extreme­ly valu­able and in short sup­ply. Heavy rains when the peanuts were almost mature, caused many pre­cious nuts to rot in the ground.

Bren­da’s team weigh­ing peanuts in the shell.​ They can be stored up to 12 months in their shell with­out los­ing their freshness.

We are grate­ful that OUR FATHER is pro­vid­ing ALL OUR NEEDS, even before we ask.

PASTOR FRED GETS A NEW CAST AND NEW JOB

On Mon­day, Pas­tor Fred was dri­ven to Nam­pu­la (7 hours away) for what we hoped would be the removal of his cast. X‑rays showed that his bones are not knit­ting as fast as was expect­ed for 50% of the mul­ti­ple break areas were still vis­i­ble. The Doc­tor placed him in a new, low­er leg cast so he could start mov­ing his knee.  He’s been in a long leg cast since Decem­ber 25th, 2017.

As soon as he returned the next day, I GORILLA TAPED the foot to make it water proof (for bathing), and to keep the bot­tom of the cast from wear­ing away.

Pas­tor Fred and Bren­da after goril­la tape job.

He is walk­ing well in this cast, and has returned to his home vil­lage to become the new Head Pas­tor of our Rovu­ma church. He replaces Pas­tor Joaquim, who left last month for per­son­al rea­sons. Pas­tor Fred is now receiv­ing spe­cial cal­ci­um sup­ple­ments as well as a stronger mul­ti-vit­a­min to hope­ful­ly speed up the heal­ing of his bones.

Keep your prayers com­ing for we would like to see 2 per­fect­ly healed bones in 6 weeks!

Until next week, my friends!

BLESSINGS,

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF

GOD KEEPING BBB FIT FOR DUTY

No mat­ter how many years pass by, I am VERY GRATEFUL TO JESUS for keep­ing me fit and healthy to do the work HE sent me to do in Mozam­bique. (28 years and counting!)

Res­cu­ing and evan­ge­liz­ing orphans is a priv­i­lege that I would not trade for any­thing else life could offer. In Texas we say:  “Wild hors­es could not drag me out of here!” For those of you who know how much I love hors­es, that is tru­ly a heavy state­ment. I love the Lord Jesus, and I love these chil­dren as if they were my own.

All these girls except the oldest came to us as orphaned infants. “Jesus saves” is more than words to them.

Sweet Dixon came to us at 4 months of age weighing only 4.4 lbs. (2kg.) 

Dixon is now 6 and in his final preschool year.

THANKS TO YOUR LOVE FOR THESE CHILDREN, our res­cue pro­gram has grown beyond any­thing I could ever imagine.

So on this day, many years ago, BBB was born. Fam­i­ly and friends described her as an inde­pen­dent, self-willed child, with a com­pet­i­tive streak a mile long. Her per­sis­tence, per­se­ver­ance, and flex­i­bil­i­ty helped her excel in any­thing she put her mind too.

Through­out her first 32 years, JESUS MOLDED those traits in her until she was ready to “hear his call” and become a pio­neer mis­sion­ary in a remote area of the world. This total­ly caught her by sur­prise, for she had no idea that all she had learned in life was about to be chal­lenged and stretched beyond her imag­i­na­tion. Becom­ing a mis­sion­ary was NOT on her buck­et list! BUT JESUS WON HER HEART, and you know the “rest of the story”.

FOR THERE IS NO BETTER PLACE TO BE THAN IN GOD’S WILL, UNLESS IT IS IN HIS PRESENCE.

JOSEPH PROJECT ABOUT TO LAUNCH

The Bala­ma vil­lage co-ops are ready for our arrival, as June 1st is the offi­cial first day for food buy­ing through­out this nation. Dur­ing our food buy­ing time, over 1,600 FIFTY KG (110 lb.) FEED SACKS will be dis­trib­uted for beans and 5,600+ for corn.

The objec­tive:  To pro­vide food dur­ing the “time of hunger” for over 1,900 orphans and the 500+ wid­ows who raise them.

Meeting with our 90 man team who will move this mountain of food so that orphans and widows will not go hungry.

In July, we fol­low with the super dry corn, plus rice and peanuts “in the hull” for bet­ter stor­age. The Bib­li­cal sto­ry of Joseph tells us how he did this same type project at the Lord’s request while rul­ing in Egypt. Jesus gave me a sim­i­lar vision when I arrived in Bala­ma, and pro­vid­ed the means for us to move up to 30 tons of food/day with our 2 trucks. IT IS A MASSIVE JOB, and impos­si­ble to do with­out all our Pas­tors and staff help­ing out.

I am priv­i­leged to have Dave Deboer arriv­ing May 30th from Michigan,USA, to lend a hand in super­vis­ing all that needs doing dur­ing June.

Keep us in your prayers and for­give me if the June blogs are a bit short on words. Pho­tos are worth a 1000 words, so I will let them do the talk­ing while we are busy fill­ing our barns.

Bless­ings,

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

And the Bala­ma Staff

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDA from your US Staff!

JESUS TOUCHES THE CHILDREN

Alber­to, 9 years old, first came to our Sun­day Bawana Games three weeks ago in Nacac­ca Vil­lage. He asked for prayer for he had been suf­fer­ing over 3 months from a severe case of ring­worm that cov­ered his scalp. Hos­pi­tal treat­ment had not stopped it for his case was severe.

His entire scalp was one big scab, and he had NO HAIR at all. Our BBC Team prayed for him that day in the Name of Jesus. LAST SUNDAY, he came run­ning to the meet­ing to show every­one that his head was heal­ing, and his hair was return­ing!!!  It is a super tes­ti­mo­ny to all that live there, for they all knew that Jesus had touched him to stop his suffering.

Sufo, 9 years old, from “7th of April” Vil­lage, had been in bed for three months with an unknown ill­ness that had drained his body of strength and mus­cle. Last Thurs­day, Sufo was car­ried to the vil­lage church where Car­l­i­tos Jorge was preaching.

Car­l­i­tos was shocked as the child was only skin over bone. Yet a week AFTER PRAYER by the BBC Team, Sufo WALKED to the Bawana Games field!  He remains thin, but his legs have strength and he no longer stays in bed. The chil­dren went wild!  No one doubt­ed that this lit­tle boy had received a touch from Jesus!

Rafate, 6 years old, was born with club feet and legs that would not straight­en.  Three weeks ago one of the chil­dren told him about Jesus, so he crawled on hands and knees to the Mar­rua Vil­lage Church ser­vice where Car­l­i­tos Jorge preach­es on Sun­days.  He lis­tened to the Jesus sto­ry for two Sun­days, and obvi­ous­ly told his par­ents about what he had heard.

Young evan­ge­list, Rafate, brings his par­ents to Jesus.

LAST SUNDAY, Rafate came with his par­ents to the church. At the alter call, the whole fam­i­ly prayed to receive Jesus! Rafate is obvi­ous­ly a great evan­ge­list, for what he told his par­ents con­vinced them to come lis­ten for themselves.

PRAISE THE LORD! FOR THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD THEM IN THE LAST DAYS!

(Note:  Car­l­i­tos man­aged a pho­to of Rafate from his basic cell phone. We are present­ly orga­niz­ing 2 basic smart phones for the BBC lead­ers to use at the Bawana Games pro­grams so they can pho­to­graph spe­cial happenings.)

BLESSED WITH NEW BLANKETS FOR THE COOL SEASON

THANK YOU to the gen­er­ous employ­ees at ICM in Wichi­ta, Kansas who gave at Christ­mas so that new blan­kets could be bought in time for our cool season!

It is 60 degrees and windy inside my house each morn­ing for no one has heat inside their homes. What it is out­side, is what you get inside. So new blan­kets are a MUST for our chil­dren as June and July weath­er will be about 48º F (12ºC) INSIDE their mud huts each morn­ing.  Those blan­kets will pre­vent a lot of res­pi­ra­to­ry ill­ness for sure!

Again, THANK YOU, ICM for bless­ings the chil­dren with your love gift.

Bless­ings until next time!

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

And the Bala­ma Staff

HEIGHT OF THE HUNGER SEASON

On Fri­day, April 20th, Grand­par­ents Mar­i­ano and Asse­na walked 14 km (7 miles) car­ry­ing their 2 new­ly orphaned grand­chil­dren on their backs to ask help from Social Ser­vices in Bala­ma.  The fam­i­ly was brought to us imme­di­ate­ly for long term assis­tance. Severe­ly mal­nour­ished, the hos­pi­tal staff thought the 2 orphans were very young due to their small sizes.

Their birth records showed the shock­ing truth!

Lit­tle boy, Mateus, weigh­ing only 5.5kg (12 lbs.) is 16 MONTHS OLD! As I held him in my arms, I felt like I was hold­ing a doll made of feath­ers. His Sis­ter, Zelia, in bet­ter phys­i­cal con­di­tion than her broth­er, looked to be 3 years old, but is real­ly 4!

Chil­dren’s Direc­tor Anna dress­es lit­tle Mateus. This size 12 month sweat suit swal­lows his lit­tle 16-month-old body.

Their moth­er died on March 30th, 2018, after a long ill­ness. The father died from unknown rea­sons just before Mateus was born in Decem­ber, 2017. The grand­par­ents, also very thin, were doing their best to help these new­ly orphaned chil­dren, but they had run out of food them­selves. Their fields were washed away in the heavy flash floods that hit Bala­ma Dis­trict in Feb. and March.

All four now ben­e­fit from your Love Gifts. They left us very hap­py with a new set of clothes for the chil­dren, as well as food to sus­tain the 4 of them until the next food give out on April 27th.  THE LOVE OF JESUS AT WORK BECAUSE YOU CARE.

2018 CORN AND BEAN HARVEST

Flash floods late in the grow­ing sea­son did severe dam­age to the corn and beans in many areas of Bala­ma. This is a major blow finan­cial blow to many farm­ers AND TO OUR CHILDREN, for we depend on their crops to feed over 2000 orphans in 2 Coun­ties (Dis­tricts). The corn and bean har­vest is expect­ed to be aver­age at best around our Coun­ty (Dis­trict). I’ll keep you updat­ed in the com­ing weeks as the har­vest num­bers roll in.

MUCH THANKS TO THE DONORS PROVIDING FOOD BUYING FUNDS, FOR THIS WILL BE A CHALLENGING YEAR FOR MANY CHILDREN. With your help, we will peak out our barns so we can help as many as possible.

VICTORY SPONSORED CHILDREN’S HOME HAS WALLS!

Vic­to­ry Chris­t­ian Cen­ter in Tul­sa, OK is spon­sor­ing a “2 bed­room expan­sion” with indoor eat­ing area onto one of the orphans homes we built last year. The walls began going up last week, and the home will be ready for roof­ing in 10 days. Our brick lay­ers are effi­cient, fast, and very good at what they do.

Our new Vic­to­ry home for orphans is mak­ing great progress.

THANK YOU VICTORY for giv­ing us a new home for our ever grow­ing mul­ti­tude of children.

16 BBC YOUTH MINISTERS WITNESS WAVES OF NEW CHILDREN 

(BBC=Bush Bik­ers for Christ, Youth Evan­ge­lis­tic Teams)

1. BBC 10 MAN/5 MOTORBIKE TEAM:  min­is­ter to an aver­age of 12,693 children/WEEK

2. BBC 4 man/5 day a week Bicy­cle Team (which began over 8 years ago) saw 2,439 NEW chil­dren come into their pro­gram in the last 3 months. The pre­vi­ous num­bers were about 4,000 children/week in 10 vil­lages.  The new total is over 6,000/week!

3. Friday/Saturday, 2 man Bicy­cle Team reach­ing about 810 children/week in 2 unreached vil­lages behind our mis­sion station.

The BBC Team is fuel­ing up after long day in the Bush.

THE BAWANA GAMES ARE NOW REACHING 19,503 CHILDREN PER WEEK IN 22 VILLAGES 

These “lit­tle sponges” learn a Bible Sto­ry and mem­o­rize a scrip­ture AFTER run­ning off some of their abun­dant ener­gy play­ing real­ly fun relay games. BRINGING IN GOD’S HARVEST IS A TEAM EFFORT THAT STARTS WITH YOU! Your Love Gifts pro­vide motor­bike fuel, bicy­cles, and the equipment/books need­ed for the BAWANA GAMES and BIBLE STUDY TIMES. These 16 young men do a great job of teach­ing these chil­dren God’s way to respect oth­ers, and team build­ing skills. THEY ARE THE FUTURE GENERATION that will help build a bet­ter Mozambique.

TOGETHER WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THESE LITTLE ONES.

BLESSINGS,

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

AND THE BALAMA STAFF