Gracie Update!

Do you remember Gracie?  This past February she had cleft lip surgery from ConnectMed International's medical team here in Lilongwe.  

Recently the doctors from Cure have been working to separate her joined fingers.  She has had multiple surgeries in Blantyre and we're hoping that she gains control of her thumb and index finger as a result of the surgeries.  

 Notice in the pictures below she has a bandage on her left hand. We'll go back soon to check her progress.  Please continue to pray for Gracie and all of the children whose lives were changed during the surgery week with ConnectMed.  Another group, Operation Smile, just completed a surgery week with even more cleft palate and cleft lip surgeries being completed.  Praise God for these amazing groups who sacrifice so much for the beautiful children and adults here in Malawi.

Clean Water for Malawi

Jeremy has been helping an organization called Clean Water for Malawi out of Jackson, MS.  He is assisting the Malawian leadership in evaluating their operations in an effort to improve their work processes and efficiency. Last week he went up to Mzuzu (about 4 hours north of Lilongwe) to meet with one of the three crews.   

This is a picture of the water source for the village where Clean Water is drilling a well.  There is no access to clean water yet and the people of the village have dug a hole in the ground to access water.  Obviously there is a huge need for clean water here!  

Here is the well that was just finished by Clean Water

A plaque is placed on each well showing who donated it.  

Another Clean Water for Malawi well.

Here is the current project for Clean Water.  This is the watering hole that the people of the village use for their water currently. 

The Mzuzu team for Clean Water for Malawi

The well in progress

The plaque that will be placed on this well.  In case you can't read it, this well was donated by First Presbyterian Day School, Jackson, MS.  Thanks 1st Pres!

Contact us for information on how to help Clean Water for Malawi.  info@m-1ministries.org 

Gusu/Jidi Mobile Medical

A short term team from California of nearly 40 people are being escorted around Malawi by the amazing Sam Kawale of E-3 Worldwide this week.  Their first stop was to do a mobile medical clinic out at Gusu/Jidi villages.  Since it had not even been three weeks since the last mobile medical the crowd was not very big.  But still, needs were met, seeds were planted, and hopefully everyone was blessed by the event.  

Baby J getting introduced by Nevson to some of the secondary school girls from Jidi village.

The medical staff busy at work!

This team was making sure that ALL needs were met, physical and spiritual!

Prayers and counseling!

The team did eye exams and handed out eye glasses to those in need!  Very cool!

The dentist was a big hit with the kids.  They all received toothbrushes and were taught how to use them!  

They were so proud of their new toothbrushes!

Everyone loves drinking from the running water faucet.  What a treat to remember that just a short while ago these same people had never seen running water from a pipe before!  

There are 8 different villages donating 10,000 bricks each to build their own secondary school and more teacher housing for the Gusu/Jidi school.  They are very excited to see their new school start to be built!

Some of the crowd waiting to be seen by the team

Here is the new addition to the multipurpose building.  This is a goat pen.  E-3 is raising goats!  Rainbow will probably start raising goats when we return in April.  

The multipurpose building from the goat pen.

The front of the multipurpose building.  Note the big permaculture gardens and the solar panels on the roof.  The aquaponics pond is in the back.

Back up at the school baby J feels like he's just one of the kids!

Weekends at Rainbow!

Weekends here at Rainbow have gotten to be so much fun!  I decided to snap a few pics to show some of the events that go on on a typical Rainbow weekend in Malawi!  

I have been teaching the older girls to cook on Sunday afternoons.  They read the recipe from the book and I watch as they put it all together. Up until now they had only learned to cook certain traditional Malawian foods (which are amazing) but they didn't know how to read a recipe, measure ingredients, etc.  So far we've learned many cake, cookie, bread, and breakfast recipes.  

This week the girls learned to cook pancakes.  They had never seen or heard of a pancake before. 

Eating their new foods is the best part!  Especially when it is eaten with syrup!

One of our friends, Levi, an ABC grad and former Mingoli member has started coming to Rainbow to teach singing/choir lessons to the kids.  This Saturday was his first lesson.  And while he has a lot to teach I think he is up for the challenge.  Our goal would be to create a cd of the Rainbow kids! 

A few of AJ and SM's best friends ended up playing dress-up and Pretty Pretty Princess on Sunday afternoon.  They also had a tea party of cakes, fruit, and raw potatoes from the fields (long story).  

SM, Toto (Towerra), Ida, Piri

Meanwhile, while dress-up was going on inside- Jeremy and CJ were playing football outside with the boys.  They love football. 

Time for makeup!

Even baby J got "forced" into dress-up

Piri and baby J

Fun weekend at Rainbow!