Bush Beat Blog

DATE: July 2, 2016

FOSTER MOTHER ROSA HOLDING DANIAL WITH ORPHAN SAMUEL, AGE 12, RECEIVING TWO BAGS OF CHICKEN FROM OUR FRIENDS AT SODEXO AND SYRAH RESOURCES. CHILDRENS DIRECTOR, ANNA, IS DISTRIBUTING FROM THE TRUCK, ASSISTED BY MONSUR.

This was the cry echo­ing through our fos­ter homes last Wed. when Sodexo’s Robert Bradley in coor­di­na­tion with Syrah Resources deliv­ered to us anoth­er 10 sacks of frozen chick­en legs! (15 kg each/33lbs).  Our orphans have great mem­o­ries, so as soon as they saw the bright­ly col­ored sacks in the back of our pick-up truck, the air was filled with the shouts of CHICKEN, CHICKEN from 109 very hap­py children!

Each house received a gen­er­ous amount, and the chil­dren hap­pi­ly ate chick­en for the next 2 meals.

We have no refrig­er­a­tion, so as the African father said to his son when they found an ele­phant killed by poach­ers, “CALL THE VILLAGE!, for we have much meat to eat tonight!”  And so they ate, and ate, and ate until they could eat no more.  Such is life in the African bush.

A HEART FELT GIFT FROM THE HEART OF A BEAUTIFUL LADY

Yes­ter­day, I returned from a sup­ply run to Pem­ba, and upon my return received the news that the Assis­tant Admin­is­tra­tor for Bala­ma was bring­ing us a dona­tion of corn for our children.

The sto­ry behind this gift is one of pure love.

Last Tues­day Bala­ma received sev­er­al impor­tant nation­al lev­el vis­i­tors who rep­re­sent women’s rights in Mozam­bique.  This com­mit­tee of 13 pulled a sur­prise vis­it to one of our orphan homes, and were very pleased at what they found.  In this cul­ture the con­di­tion of the bath­room says a lot about how well a moth­er keeps her home, so that was the only build­ing they entered.  When they found it very clean and neat, with the lid over the latrine to pre­vent fly infes­ta­tion, they were very happy.

They then drilled the fos­ter moth­er about her salary and work­ing con­di­tions, which they also found very satisfactory.

The group left, and were not heard from again, until yes­ter­day.  The leader of this woman’s group, who wish­es to remain anony­mous, was giv­en 150kg (330lbs.) of beau­ti­ful corn as a “wel­come gift” from the women of Bala­ma.  As this vis­i­tor left for anoth­er Dis­trict, she stat­ed that she want­ed her gift of corn passed on to our orphans.

Thus the 3 bags of corn that were deliv­ered yes­ter­day.  As I write this, those 3 bags are being sift­ed and pre­pared for milling on Mon­day.  They will then be dis­trib­uted to our children’s homes, as the donor wished.

( L TO R), SOCIAL SERVICE DIRECTOR, BRENDA, AND ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR SHOWING OFF THE BEAUTIFUL BAGS OF CORN RECEIVED AS A GIFT TO OUR ORPHANS.

We are most grate­ful to both of these groups for their gen­er­ous gifts to our children.

MEDICAL GIFT TO BALAMA HOSPITAL SAVES 2 OF OUR OWN

On Tues­day, Fos­ter moth­er, Sue­ma, age 60, was found to be very weak and los­ing con­trol of her legs, accord­ing to Anna, our Children’s Direc­tor.  I rushed to her mud hut, and we imme­di­ate­ly took her to the hos­pi­tal.  Her Blood Pres­sure was off the charts, and she was giv­en imme­di­ate treat­ment with some of the very med­i­cines YOU PROVIDED last week.  She was released at dark and PTL the fast action of the med­ical staff kept her from hav­ing a stroke.   She was giv­en the prop­er med­ica­tions to con­trol her blood pres­sure, and is recov­er­ing with­out fur­ther problems.

Momade, age 6,  was car­ried to the my home on the back of one of our fos­ter moth­ers on Tues­day.  He was ful­ly con­scious but unable to speak, very rest­less, and was flail­ing his arms uncon­trol­lably.  Even though he had no fever, I knew in my heart that this was malar­ia.  We talked with the local Doc­tor who met us at the emer­gency room along with Catholic Sis­ter Isha, a great Emer­gency Room Nurse.  An IV was start­ed using the TAPE that YOU PROVIDED last week.  It took 2 oth­er women besides myself to hold him on the bed, as his rest­less­ness became worse, for he was “out of his head” with the sickness.

That TAPE saved the day for no way could we have kept a line in that boy with only the help of a cot­ton ban­dage wrap.  Momade was giv­en IV med­ica­tions which pre­vent­ed the malar­ia from going cere­bral.  His Rapid Malar­ia Test turned pos­i­tive in 60 SECONDS when it usu­al­ly takes 5–10 min­utes for the results!  That meant he was in grave dan­ger for the malar­ia bugs in his blood were pow­er­ful and numer­ous.  I orga­nized 2 fos­ter moth­ers to stay with him, and PTL he was released to con­tin­ue oral treat­ment by NOON the next day!

FOSTER MOTHER LAURA WITH MOMADI, AGE 8, JUST TWO DAYS AFTER HIS HORRIBLE CASE OF MALARIA.

THANK YOU JESUS for his rapid recovery!

GOD’S BLESSINGS NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE ME

I also want to say THANK YOU to all our faith­ful sup­port­ers around the world (some who have been with us since the begin­ning in 1991).

I want you to know that an esti­mat­ed 20,000+ chil­dren have been saved from cer­tain death over the last 25 years,  thanks to your generosity!

This is no exag­ger­a­tion, as only the Lord Jesus tru­ly knows how many lives were saved because of your food and med­ical assis­tance in the last quar­ter century.

Thou­sands of Orphaned, aban­doned, dis­abled, and mal­nour­ished babies and chil­dren have grown up to become respon­si­ble adults.   YOUR GIFTS AND PRAYERS have shaped a new gen­er­a­tion of believ­ers in Christ Jesus, who are now lead­ing the next gen­er­a­tion to the Lord.  Train­ing up the next gen­er­a­tion was one of the orig­i­nal goals we had when com­ing to Bala­ma in 1999.  That goal is now a real­i­ty, thanks to your faith­ful support.

I also want you to know that I met with all 15 of our Bala­ma Pas­tors this week at our month­ly “salary day” meet­ing.  All are report­ing increas­es in atten­dance for both their children’s and adult pro­grams they hold each week.  Four of these Pas­tors are using their per­son­al motor­bikes to reach out week­ly to 10 dif­fer­ent small, remote villages.

YOUR GIFTS pro­vide them with the gaso­line to do so.

CLOSING THE MEETING WITH THESE MEN HOLDING HANDS IN A CIRCLE, I remind­ed them of the vision that Jesus showed me on that Texas day when He called me to mis­sions. When I asked the Lord WHERE I was to be a mis­sion­ary, He showed me a large gold­en wheat field ready to harvest.

It was sur­round­ed by MATURE OAK TREES.  (Isa­iah 61:3)  They shall be called OAKS of RIGHTEOUSNESS, a PLANTING FOR HIS SPLENDOR.

I told those men that they are the OAKS that the Lord was refer­ring too in that scrip­ture. For in Bala­ma, we have sur­round­ed the har­vest field, and are reap­ing the har­vest, just as the Lord wants us too.

The pieces of God’s “Chess Game” are now in place, and we will not stop until the KING OF KINGS returns!

Bless­ings to you all as we con­tin­ue march­ing for­ward towards the final har­vest of souls for Jesus

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

“Bush Bun­ny” Bren­da Lange

 
LOVE GIFT TO: ORPHANS UNLIMITED in RSA
Stan­dard Bank-Hatfield
(branch code) 011–54515
Name: Orphans Unlimited
Acct. # 017743036

 
PERSONAL NOTES TO BRENDA
brenda@orphansunlimited.org
ALL OTHER INQUIRIES:
LINDA FERGUSON
linda@orphansunlimited.

org
phone: 979–234-3422 or 713–854-9197
Brenda’s Blog is Post­ed at:
www.orphansunlimited.org/blog
or SUBSCRIBE to receive the blog by e‑mail.

Bush Beat Blog

DATE: June 5, 2016

June 1st found our 92 man crew hop­ping through the Bala­ma bush fetch­ing over 600 sacks of corn.

Thurs­day through Sat­ur­day we worked long hours get­ting 2200 sacks processed for stor­age.  As of Sat­ur­day this week, we have only need 865 more sacks to feed the orphans until Decem­ber.  The 2 large trucks make it pos­si­ble for us to bring in the har­vest faster than ever before, and it seems we get bet­ter at it each year.

These last 865 sacks will be brought in over Mon­day and Tues­day so we can hope­ful­ly wrap up the process by Wed.

Your prayers for our “smooth run” are great­ly appreciated.

Peter Wor­ley and his spon­sored orphans, ALI.  Few spon­sors ever get to meet their child in per­son, so Peter and his wife Alex are thrilled to be able to impact Ali’s future and give him a chance to go on to High School in 2017.

NATIONAL CHILDREN’S DAY, JUNE 1ST. 

CHILDREN’S PARTY LOADS OF FUN!

We are great mul­ti­taskers, as the last corn load rolled in just 30 min­utes before our children’s par­ty was to begin at 10:30a.m. on June 1st.

Below are pho­tos that show the fun we had as Syrah Resources, the Aus­tralian based Graphite Min­ing com­pa­ny, brought gifts of yoghurt and Orange juice in small indi­vid­ual packs as gifts to our chil­dren.  The kids have nev­er had any liq­uid THROUGH A STRAW.  It was a real laugh as we taught the kids how to tear the straw off the pack, and put it into the juice box.  Many tried to put the short end of the bend­able straw in the hole, and suck from the long end.

Our fast grow­ing tod­dler, Daniel, 1.5 years, show­ing his gifts of yoghurt and juice pack.

Daniel and some of our old­er orphan girls.  These girls do not need play dolls to learn good moth­er­ing skills, for it is cus­tom­ary in this cul­ture for the old­er girls to learn by car­ing for the small­er orphans.

Andy and Ash­lee film­ing the Kid’s Day cel­e­bra­tion.  Andy has his tiny cam­era on a home­made bam­boo BOOM to get an aer­i­al shot.

A big thanks to Syrah Resources and Sodexo for pro­vid­ing these won­der­ful treats!

BLESSINGS,

BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE

DAVE DEBOER

ANDY AND ASHLEE GONZALEZ

Bush Beat Blog

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

  Car­pen­ters ham­mer­ing on the side shields for the eves of the roof.  Next step is for the brick­lay­ers to fill the walls with mud! 

On Jan­u­ary 31st we res­cued a fam­i­ly of 5 orphans after their mud hut col­lapsed in a mas­sive rain storm.   Emelia, age 19, has been the “stand in” moth­er to her 2 orphaned broth­ers as well her own 2 chil­dren for the last 2 years.  My staff brought them to our base the morn­ing after the storm, where we placed all 5 in one of our fos­ter homes that had a room big enough for that many beds.  It is no secret that Emelia was over­whelmed with the mas­sive respon­si­bil­i­ty of rais­ing 4 lit­tle ones under age 8.

With con­stant super­vi­sion by the 2 O.U. Fos­ter Moth­ers, Emelia has blos­somed.  She and her 2 broth­ers are all enrolled in school, and get­ting the prop­er nutri­tion they so des­per­ate­ly need­ed.  Emelia receives dai­ly coun­cil from the Fos­ter Moth­ers on the “do’s and don’ts” of moth­er­hood and child rais­ing techniques.

Funds were donat­ed by a com­pa­ny in Wichi­ta so that a new home could be built for Emelia and her family.

THANKS TO THAT GENEROUS GIFT, this home is being built next door to the fos­ter home where these chil­dren now live.

Once com­plet­ed, we will fence in the area to include BOTH HOMES, so that the 4 small chil­dren will con­tin­ue under the super­vi­sion of their present fos­ter moth­ers while Emelia is in school.

Emelia will also ben­e­fit from the con­tin­ued emo­tion­al sup­port and guid­ance of these Fos­ter Moth­ers, for rais­ing a fam­i­ly is a big respon­si­bil­i­ty for some­one that young.  Every girl needs a “men­tor moth­er” to guide her as she matures into a respon­si­ble young woman.

A HEARTY THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN TO OUR FRIENDS IN WICHITA, KS WHO MADE THIS NEW HOME A REALITY.

GEARING UP FOR FOOD BUYING!

Between now and end of July, our 3 barns will be filled to the brim with over 500 TONS of dried corn, beans, rice, and peanuts.

Feed­ing 2,583 orphans and wid­ows is no sim­ple job as it requires much prepa­ra­tion.  This morn­ing, 6000 feed sacks were deliv­ered to our ware­house by my friend, Hagipe.  If you want to locate and buy items in bulk, Hagipe is the “go too” guy in our area, for he will find it and make sure it gets to us.

He’s tak­en our chil­dren “under his wing” and orga­nizes all the items we can’t get local­ly for our programs.

Bales of feed sacks hold­ing 1000 bales EACH weigh 220 lbs (100kg).  Takes 4 men to move them.

Hagipe is cam­era shy, so he is not pic­tured with the 6,000 sacks he deliv­ered this morning.

PRAY FOR FAVOR AS WE MEET WITH OFFICIALS THIS WEEK TO ASK SPECIAL PERMISSION TO START BUYING FOOD EARLIER THAN NORMAL.

Due to the great famine in all of Mozam­bique, we must beat the out­side buy­ers before they dri­ve away with the food need­ed by our children.

This will be a year of price wars and many chal­lenges as hunger dri­ves peo­ple to des­per­ate actions.

AWANA GROUPS GROWING NOW THAT RAINY SEASON FADING

 TUG-O-WAR:  Vot­ed  #1 game by all the AWANA Children

Our 11 Vil­lage Pas­tors con­firmed to me last week that all their groups are grow­ing in num­ber now that the chil­dren are com­ing back after work­ing 3 months In their family’s farm­ing fields.  (No har­vest= no food.  NO “food assis­tance pro­gram” in this country.)

Berti­no report­ed this morn­ing that 207 peo­ple in his “behind the moun­tain” vil­lage WERE WAITING FOR HIM TO ARRIVE with his GOD STORY.

With num­bers increas­ing, we are expect­ed to be reach­ing over 7,000 chil­dren and adults/ WEEK with the gospel in 2016!

ORPHAN’S GOAT HERD PROVIDES MEAT WEEKLY!

Thanks to all of you who donat­ed goats, our herd of 230 goats is now pro­vid­ing a goat/week for the chil­dren to eat.

Dewormed 93 goats today.

The small­er they are, the hard­er the job!

With 53 males in the grow­ing pen, we should be able to sup­ply meat to the chil­dren for most of this year.

When we envi­sioned this pro­gram, we had hoped to pro­duce at least 2 goats/month for consumption.

THANK YOU JESUS for increas­ing pro­duc­tion beyond our expectations!

Bless­ings to all!

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

Bush Beat Blog

$25,000 MATCHING CHALLENGE

Yes­ter­day, you received a spe­cial blog noti­fi­ca­tion that a TEXAS busi­ness­man is chal­leng­ing all of O. U.’s friends to help us make new friends who want to help our orphans.

He will MATCH dona­tions made to Orphans Unlim­it­ed from new indi­vid­u­als, church­es, or busi­ness­men up to a total of $25,000.

This is open to any­one NOT ON OUR CURRENT DONORS LIST.

WHY? 

Dur­ing my speak­ing tours in Feb. and March each year, I nat­u­ral­ly meet 1000’s of peo­ple whom I can tell about our orphan program.

Due to a lack of full time mis­sion­ary staff, there have been no tours.

No tours means few new peo­ple have heard about us.

With 83 NEW ORPHANS now in our per­ma­nent pro­gram, we seri­ous­ly need your help.

No gift is too small, and please remind every­one that what­ev­er they give will dou­ble on June 17th.

EMPLOYEES OF SYRAH RESOURCES, AUSTRALIA, DONATE 4 LARGE SUITCASES OF CLOTHES AND SHOES

OUR THANKS goes to all the employ­ees at the main office in Perth, Aus­tralia who con­tributed cloth­ing and shoes to our chil­dren.  These are only a few of the chil­dren who ben­e­fit­ted because school hours made it impos­si­ble to get them all in 1 photograph.

Their faces say it all, and know your efforts in doing this are great­ly appre­ci­at­ed.  We also say THANK YOU to the men who vol­un­teered to car­ry the suit­cas­es as they trav­eled from Perth to their work site in Balama.

AWANA LEADER, BERTINO, WEDS ESPERANCA (HOPE)

All parent’s know that time flies when rais­ing chil­dren.  It seems like yes­ter­day when 10 year old orphan, Esper­an­ca (Hope), joined our fos­ter family.

Last Novem­ber, these 2 asked per­mis­sion to mar­ry, but Esper­an­ca was 17, so the gov­ern­ment told her to wait till she was 18.

Five months lat­er, and a few months shy of her 18th birth­day, our impa­tient Esper­an­ca once again request­ed to mar­ry BERTINO, our AWANA LEADER at the Bala­ma base.

After much prayer and sev­er­al meet­ings, the gov­ern­ment final­ly agreed for most girls in this cul­ture mar­ry by the time they are 16.

And no, she was not preg­nant, just a young girl deeply in love.

Last Sun­day, March 12th,  this excit­ed cou­ple were hon­ored by our com­mu­ni­ty, who danced and sang as they walked them to the church for the wed­ding ceremony.

You will notice their solemn faces, for tra­di­tion in this cul­ture states that SMILING dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny means you are NOT SHOWING MATURITY and ARE NOT tak­ing the mar­riage seriously.

After a 1 day hon­ey­moon, these new­ly­weds returned to hon­or Esparanca’s promise to con­tin­ue her edu­ca­tion.  That was the only stip­u­la­tion made in order for her to leave our home.   The short hon­ey­moon was a must for she had school exams this week.

NEW AWANA TEAM ON THE MOVE

AWANA leader Berti­no and his assis­tant Daude

ped­aled off this morn­ing to take the news of Jesus via AWANA GAMES to a for­got­ten vil­lage behind the moun­tain 3 miles east of our mis­sion sta­tion.  With severe rains last night, we all thought we’d have to can­cel,  but these men were deter­mined to go.

They returned sev­er­al hours lat­er, a bit mud­dy, but SMILING as they touched the lives of 102 chil­dren and 16 adults with the sto­ry of Creation.

The har­vest is ripe, and there is no time to lose, for our Lord will be return­ing soon.

Bless­ings

Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange

“Bush Bun­ny” Bren­da Lange

 
PERSONAL NOTES TO BRENDA
brenda@orphansunlimited.org
ALL OTHER INQUIRIES:
LINDA FERGUSON
linda@orphansunlimited.

org
phone: 979–234-3422 or 713–854-9197
Brenda’s Blog is Post­ed at:
www.orphansunlimited.org/blog
or SUBSCRIBE to receive the blog by e‑mail.