New Drilling Rig!

Clean Water for Malawi sent over a new water well drilling rig last week and what a blessing it will be.  Of course, getting the rig through customs and all of the red tape that that entails was a hardship not many will understand unless you've lived in Malawi for some time!  But God is good and the rig was cleared.  The off loading and transport of a drilling rig is a very big ordeal.  Yet by God's grace all went smoothly and the rig was delivered to Rainbow until the test dig could be completed.  

The crate that holds the drilling rig

Beautiful new drilling rig for Clean Water for Malawi

After the dust had settled from clearing the equipment through customs and getting the rig to Rainbow the next step would be a practice hole to make sure the crew knew how to operate the rig correctly.  

Rainbow provided the perfect test bed for the crew.  This is our front yard.  Notice the 22 month old who's calling the shots out there!  He's the bwana (boss).  

No shoes?  No problem!  It's how we roll in Malawi.  

This big event provided much entertainment for all of the Rainbow kids (and the village kids looking through the gate) all day long.  It's not often you see a drilling rig in action in your front yard!

SM, Sauda, Alice, and Chifundo enjoying the show!

Now that the crew has successfully figured out the new rig, there are 10 wells that are scheduled to be put into the villages here in Malawi in just the next few weeks. Two of those wells will be placed in Maula Prison here in Lilongwe! By the grace of God, Clean Water has raised more than enough funds to supply two water wells for Maula Prison!  Praise God for His provisions and thank you to all of our supporters for the sacrifices you made!  We will be sure to post pictures as soon as the wells are in place!  To God be the glory! 

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. 

Meet Mphatso and Justice!

If you received our newsletter that we emailed out yesterday you may recall an announcement about a very special child, Mphatso.  Mphatso is from a small village outside of Lilongwe.  He had a cleft palate and an extreme bilateral cleft lip.  This past February when ConnectMed International came to Malawi to perform cleft palate/cleft lip repair Mphatso came to be evaluated for surgery.  That's where we first met him.

ConnectMed was able to repair Mphatso's cleft palate but his bilateral cleft lip would require more extensive surgery.  That's where Fresh Start Surgical Gifts came in.  Fresh Start performs corrective surgeries on children from all over the world 6 times a year at Rady's Children's Hospital in San Diego.  Fresh Start is the organization who repaired our baby J's cleft palate a year ago this past month.  See that story here.  One of the directors with Fresh Start was here, in Malawi,  with ConnectMed back in February.  She saw Mphatso (as well as three other children who we're working with) and began working to see if he was a good fit for Fresh Start.

The first hurdle to be conquered was making sure that Mphatso was medically able to travel and have surgery in San Diego.  Many doctors visits, appointments, and trips into town from their village were made by Mphatso and his father.  Mphatso's father owns a bicycle and works during the day as a bike taxi.  So each day spent with Mphatso in the doctor was a day without work for Mphatso's family.  Of course it was well worth it.  Praise God that all medical clearances were received and the Fresh Start board approved Mphatso as a patient!

Another hurdle was finding someone who could travel with Mphatso to the States for about two months.  This person would need to drop everything and care for a child that he did not know.  He would need to transition to a different culture easily.  He would need to become the legal guardian of a 6 year old child with a medical disability.  He would have to care for the child through at least two separate surgeries.  We understood that this was a lot to ask.  Yet we knew that the Lord would provide for us.  Mphatso is 6 years old and does not speak English.  No one in his family speaks English well enough for international travel.  Understand that going from a village in Malawi to a big city like San Diego will be culture shock to the extreme.  Mphatso needed a guardian who could ease him through the transition (as well as transition himself....), get him to San Diego, get him through international airports, be able to help Mphatso through the surgeries and care afterward that will be required. This is such a huge responsibility and we're thankful that the Lord brought us Justice!

 Justice is a recent graduate of African Bible Colleges and he currently lives in Blantyre (four hours south of Lilongwe).  He gladly came to Lilongwe to meet with Jeremy and Malla, meet with Mphatso, and immediately offered to assist Mphatso with this life changing adventure. Praise God for His provisions!  We now had a guardian for Mphatso! Thank you Justice!

Now the tricky part. With just under two months to go Mphatso needed to get his Malawian birth certificate (most children born in the villages here have no birth certificate), his Malawian passport, and his U.S. visa.  Please understand that the U.S. visa was the least of our worries, honestly.  Getting the birth certificate and passport here usually takes an act of congress (or in Malawi's case an act of Parliament).  But the Lord was with us the entire time and through friends (and friends of friends) we were able to receive all of the documentation and forms necessary for his interview with the U.S. Embassy.  Just this week Justice and Mphatso were interviewed at the Embassy and were granted approval for travel to San Diego and their U.S. visas!  Praise God again for His provisions!

Mphatso still needs some blood work and a couple of other medical tests done in final preparation for his surgery.  Please pray that these tests and all of the details will go smoothly.  Mphatso's first surgery is scheduled for November 9th during Fresh Start's November surgery weekend.  He will receive another surgery a few weeks later to complete the repair to his cleft lip.  We will keep you posted on the progress of Mphatso and Justice and their adventures in San Diego.  Thank you in advance for your prayers!

This is Mphatso at his home with his family and others from his village around him.  Justice has already gotten very close to Mphatso as well as his family.  Jeremy will be traveling to Mphatso's village either today or Monday and we will have more pictures and updates then.  Thank you Justice and thank you Fresh Start for this amazing opportunity!

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.  

Mercy Mbewe

Our apologies for taking so long to post pics of the beautiful Mercy Mbewe!  Mercy was born to Martin and Alinafe on August 27th.  Martin and Alinafe serve as house parents for all of the girls at Rainbow.  Martin is currently a senior at African Bible Colleges and will graduate in June!  They have one other child, Praise, who is just as cute as his baby sister.  

Mercy Mbewe- 2 days old

Mercy and Alinafe arriving home from the hospital!

Martin, Alinafe, and Mercy

The Mbewe family!

Here is Mercy just last week.  She's so beautiful!

One of our oldest (and sweetest) girls, Monica, is such a good helper with Mercy!  Monica and Mercy came to visit our front porch and I snapped the picture.

Praise God for his precious gift to the Mbewe family and the Rainbow family!