Ella's Light Children's Ministry in Malawi

During our orphanage's recent achievement awards celebration we were thankful to be able to recognize the older students at Rainbow who have graduated from Standard 8 (equiv. to 8th grade) and are now beginning (or already attending) secondary school.  These 12 students are very dear to us and we at Rainbow are so very proud of them all.  

We are thankful for the generous donation of bibles that Mrs. Paula Scianna donated through Ella's Light Children's Ministry.  Ella's Light is dedicated to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to children all over the world.  We're thankful that they have chosen our beautiful Rainbow children as recipients of these bibles.  

As the bibles are in English, we felt they would best suit the older children of Rainbow who have more proficiently mastered their second language.  These beautiful bibles are an award for hard work and perseverance and a prayer that the children will go forward and spread the Gospel to all they encounter.  Thank you to Mrs. Scianna and Ella's Light Children's Ministry for this wonderful gift!  

The secondary school children receiving their bibles

Aida, Kupata, Mirrium, and Julita

Aida, Kupata, Mirrium, Julita, Estelle

Estelle

Julita

Kupata

Aida

Maya and Monica

"Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."- Matthew 19:14

Rainbow Awards Celebration

This past Tuesday we were able to award the children of Rainbow CDC with achievement awards based on this past school year.  The 2013-2014 school year ended in July and this month is holiday for them. They will begin their new school year in September.  Jeremy, CJ, SM, and I were able to attend the Chiseka Primary School's end of the year assembly in July.  However the entire Rainbow staff wanted to join in recognizing the children. 

Awards were given out for special recognition of certain students who had maintained appropriate dress code, good conduct, and good grades throughout the entire 2013-2014 school year.  

We also presented the graduating Standard 8 students with a new Bible donated by Mrs. Paula Scianna through Ella's Light Children's Ministry in MS, USA.  We are very thankful for the generous donation made my Mrs. Scianna and are blessed to be partnering with Ella's Light Children's Ministry to spread the Gospel to all the ends of the earth.  

Presentation of awards

Zakeau received special recognition from the Chiseka Primary School for being one of the brightest students in the school.  We are so very proud of him!

Sam keeping watch!

Presentation of Ella's Light Bibles

The Standard 8 graduates receiving their Bibles

Special awards for receiving a 4 or 3 (equivalent to A or B) throughout the entire school year.  

And of course no celebration would be complete without PIZZA and lemonade!  

Please pray for our children and for the school situation here in Chiseka.  A large majority of our children did receive high achievement awards.  However there are some who are really struggling.  And a further assessment of our children during this break has shown that many more are struggling than previously thought.  Pray for guidance over the leaders of Rainbow that they will know how to best address the issues involved in the education of our precious children.  Pray that all we say and do will ultimately bring Jesus alone the glory!  

Goofy Rainbow Kids!

Just some pics of our kiddos being goofy while watching the building of the chicken tractor.  They got a "sweetie" as a treat!

Chicken Tractor

Jeremy and the kids spent the weekend building a chicken tractor to house our "local chickens" as they're called here.  Local chickens are basically just the chickens that people own that are running around everywhere.  Or in America the politically correct way to say it is: free range chickens.  

Some of the Rainbow kids (including our own son) have invested some of the money they earned doing odd jobs in buying chickens.  These chickens have become somewhat of a nuisance however in that they're eating our seeds and plants in the garden.  

In comes the chicken tractor.  All of the chickens are housed in the tractor which can be moved as needed to different areas of the yard.  The good part about this is that it helps with our permaculture gardening as well.  The chickens scratch and peck up the hard ground under the tractor as well as add their manure and compost to the area.  It's a win-win for both the garden, the gardener, and the chickens.  (Or would that be win-win-win?)

Jeremy's goal was to make this chicken tractor out of easily available resources from the village.  And it needed to cost next to nothing to make.  We want this to be easily used and copied by those in our permaculture class or anyone else interested.  Jeremy made this one out of 6 shoots of bamboo, wire, and chicken wire.  

Baby J helping with the building! 

Now the kids are helping Jeremy pick the perfect spot to try out the new chicken tractor.

This looks like the place!

The chickens needed plenty of mulch and straw on the ground.  So the kids set about finding and making a bed for the chickens.

Time to move the tractor!

The view of our garden from standing behind our house.

Once in place it was time to round up the Kuku's (chickens).

Disclaimer: no chickens were harmed in the process of moving them to their new home!

Although here it looks like Jeremy's strangling one! ha!  

Now if this doesn't make a teachers heart happy I don't know what does!  These kids spent the remainder of the day watching these chickens and finding them food and water!

Providing shelter from the cold.

I love this one!  The boys were loving getting to peep into the lives of their chickens.

Our dogs even came over to check it out!  

The back of the chicken tractor has a top shelf or ledge for the chickens to lay eggs.  Here Jeremy is building a ladder to get up to the ledge.

Simba

Mama Chicken taking care of her little chicks who are all huddled underneath her!