Life

Here are some more pictures of everyday life at Rainbow!

Rainbow was blessed with donations for two washing machines.  We have many children who wet the bed or get sick and their soiled clothing/bedding needs a good wash.  So Lucas collected money to have two washing machines bought for Rainbow.  Here Jeremy is showing the house parents how to use the machines.  They've never seen washing machines before.

Practicing with the washing machines

A little permaculture!  Here Jeremy is taking the runoff water from the washing machines and using it to water a bed.  The permaculture club is putting a straw fence around it to keep the dogs and kids out.  They are also planting a permaculture garden in this huge area.  Yet another use of permaculture at Rainbow!

Evelene and Wakisa watching the activities

Julita working her portion of the gardens.  The kids were allowed to plant their own crops and maintain them if they wanted to.  Fallos (one of our older boys) just sold a huge crop of onions and made MK8000 ($20).  Hopefully more kids will catch onto this and decide to work hard and make some extra money for themselves.  

Working the gardens

Chikondi

Meshek pushing baby J on the scooter

The boys spent last Saturday hauling in the dried corn/maize husks and stalks from the big garden behind our house.  These husks will be used as mulch in the permaculture gardens.

Having fun riding back on the truck.  The boys did about 6 loads that day alone.

Jeremy reading to baby J

Martin and Jeremy working on Chichewa by translating the Bible

Mavuto kwambiri!!!  

E3 Permaculture training at Rainbow!

This week E3's permaculture gardener, Dennis, took some time off from his thriving garden and aquaponics facilities at Gusu/Jidi villages to travel to Rainbow to teach permaculture classes.  Dennis has been coming to Rainbow for some time now but the interest in permaculture is really taking off in this area.  We now have 12-15 people (men and women) coming to weekly meetings and training in our permaculture training garden right beside our house.  

This committee/club represents 10 different villages in the area and was started after a recent training week held by Dennis back in August.  The participants decided amongst themselves to form a committee and have weekly training and meetings.  Each participant has to have a garden they are working on and they are supposed to be transitioning the garden from a monoculture type of garden (where only one crop is grown on one row for example) to a permaculture garden (where crops are grown together to assist each other in the growing process).  

By using permaculture the costs of fertilizer and pesticides are gone.  No fertilizers or pesticides are used in our training garden. And in a country that is arguably one of the poorest in the world this will allow more people to have a way to grow and afford food to provide for their family.

Above Dennis is teaching and training the committee in our permaculture training garden.  

Jeremy, Felix, and SM listen in to the training

When we first moved to Rainbow back in January this was all a big dirt field.  

There is much left to do but we've come a long way.

Some of our youngest kids listen in on the lessons.  Our desire is to train all of our children in these farming and gardening methods as they grow into adulthood and start providing for a family of their own.  

Dennis and the committee visited each of the participants gardens to have more hands on training.  Here we are visiting Innocent's garden which is behind Bunda Mtn.

The hand dug water access in the garden.  No well or other water sources.

Innocent's garden

Above and below are pictures of Rainbow's gardens that Jonathan grows for us.  He has a patch of land about a kilometer away from Rainbow that is rich in fertile soil and water.  Rainbow employs him to keep our children and staff fed with fresh vegetables.  Jeremy is now over the gardening and farming of Rainbow so we went along to see the progress of the gardens. 

Jonathan's garden: moving towards being completely permaculture pangono pangono (little by little).

Dennis (left) and Jonathan (right)

You can see Jonathan is using some permaculture here with different plants and vegetables planted together to help each other grow and keep pests away.  

Strawberries!  Strawberries in Bunda are THE BEST OF THE BEST!  Seriously!  You've never had sweeter juicier strawberries anywhere in the world!

Jeremy sampling the crops!

Rainbow is thankful to E3 for allowing Dennis to train our men and women in this very different and yet effective way of gardening.  It's a hard concept for them to grab hold of but they are very interested and very willing to learn.  All of the Rainbow vegetable gardens (Jonathan's and the garden beside our house) are grown without using fertilizer or pesticides.  They are also learning to seed their own vegetables so that the costs of maintaining a garden is simply time and work, no money.  

Our prayer is that these men and women will take what they've learned back to their villages.  If these "new" gardening methods are utilized then every family can easily and effectively have a thriving garden to feed themselves with.  Food security in Malawi is a huge problem that leads to starvation and death daily.  Pray for the committee and Dennis as they teach, learn, and work in this technique. 

Rainbow After School Tutoring

The Rainbow kids are doing well in school this year.  They are said to be at the top of their classes.  Report cards will come out soon so we will see! haha!  

Each day after school the kids have tutoring that they are required to attend.  Some of the tutors are their actual teachers from the school that they attend.  Every afternoon we can hear the kids singing, chanting their vowel sounds, and learning their studies as they receive individualized attention from their tutors.  

What a blessing to watch as these beautiful children grow in their knowledge of the world and in their love of Christ.  They are truly such a delight in our lives.  It's very bittersweet that we have to leave them for 5 months during our furlough.  But that will make our return even sweeter!  Please pray for our Rainbow children and their education.  

School Has Started!

Yesterday was the first day of school for our Rainbow kids here in Malawi.  It was a very exciting first day because four of our children are now attending secondary school!  Secondary school here is like the equivalent to high school in the States, except that the majority of secondary schools are boarding schools.  So on Sunday we loaded up the Landcruiser (Malawian style) and took off to deliver our precious children to their schools.  Parents/visitation day is the first Sunday of every month so we will be able to go and visit them on that day.  But otherwise, they won't be home until Christmas.  

Our secondary school students:  Macfarren, Collins, Miriam, and Estelle

Miriam is the daughter of Taona (one of the ladies who cooks for everyone here at Rainbow).  We took a picture of Taona with both of her daughters.  Temwa is her other daughter and she will be going to secondary school in two years.  

Many tears and many goodbyes.  We will miss our children so much!

Mac, Miriam, and Estelle are going to the Children of the Nations secondary school in Lilongwe.  This is where the remaining Rainbow kids will attend school as well.  

Pictured above is Miriam and Estelle with Grace.  Grace is the daughter of Mr. Phiri (one of our guards at Rainbow).  Grace will be attending COTN as well.  

I'm already dreading this time of year EVERY year!  It's so hard to say goodbye. 

Collins was dropped off at his secondary school in Nkhoma.  He started at this school a couple of years ago and chose to continue attending here.  

So now all of our Rainbow kids are back in school.  Here is a small group shot of a bunch who were returning from their second day of school this afternoon.  All of them seem happy and are enjoying being back in school.  Please pray for a good school year.  Pray also for the teachers as they teach in classrooms of over 100 children.

And our youngest, Felix, is still too young to attend school.  He keeps busy though while he waits for his friends to get home.  Here you see him eating oranges and goofing off with SM.  

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever!!!????  

Prayer requests:

Pray for God's protection over our kids in secondary school.  

Pray for Godly influences in the lives of our children.

Pray for the decisions the children will make and the lessons they will learn.

Pray for the kids remaining here at Rainbow, that they will have a good school year.

Pray for the Rainbow leadership that they will seek Christ's guidance in each aspect of raising these beautiful children.

Most importantly, pray that these children will see, learn about, and decide to follow Christ and make Him Lord of their lives.  

To God be the Glory!