Sweet smiles - thankful hearts!

These girls were the first to receive new uniforms. As you can see, they were all smiles. Most of the girls do not get new clothes very often so this was not only a gift that would allow them to attend school, but a beautiful new dress that they can show off to all of their village.


They were so proud and happy. We look forward to hearing news of their progress in school.

Orphan Youth Camp 2011

With the Lord's perfect timing and setup, we were able to put together a youth camp this year. Mandy had been corresponding with people from True Love Waits and has been praying for a presentation for the youth in our orphan program. We were so excited that two young ladies who have been trained to do youth seminars and followup Bible studies came to Malawi. It was such a privilege that we could have them at our youth retreat.
Kelley Barrow and Emily Douglas are from South Carolina and have been studying at the University of South Carolina. They are spending their summer in Malawi teaching True Love Waits and have become very busy walking through the doors the Lord has been opening for them.




The illustrations and interactions were very applicable for the Malawian youth. They loved the participation. The sessions really helped them to think not only about their decision to commit to purity and abstinence, but also with their commitment to Jesus.







The camp included an overnight stay and the kids stayed up most of the night singing and talking. Even after the long night, the youth were so attentive to the teaching on love, sex and marriage.







Andy was the "Game Guy" and there were some really hilarious and fun games.

The youth were strongly urged not to take the commitment lightly and to
seriously think about their decision. Of 35 youth, 17 signed commitment cards. The rest of the kids may decide to sign the commitment cards after they attend the follow-up Bible studies for the next 10 weeks.

What an awesome work of God!

Andy's Visit

During the month of May, God gave us a wonderful gift! Our son Andy came to visit us The time has been way too short, but more than exceeded our expectations. It has been such a joy to see God moving in Andy's heart about Malawi that started many months ago and then we have seen Him begin to orchestrate this visit with more teachings for Andy. Here is a brief description of our adventures during his visit.





The kids at Mphanda village gave Andy a warm welcome as he visited the church that first Sunday. We worshiped with the small congregation and Larry preached.








Andy's first Malawian meal was nsima, cooked cabbage with onion and tomato, and hard-boiled eggs. Malawians rarely eat eggs for breakfast, but mostly as a main dish for lunch or dinner.

Andy assisted with digging a well. Here, they are preparing the drainage holes for what comes out of the bore hole.
















They attach the drill bit for cutting into the ground.








As the drilling continues the water and dirt that is coming out has to be inspected for small bits of rock.



Andy and Mandy visited one of Lilongwe's parks where we saw many monkeys, baboons, a lion, leopard, python, and crocodiles. The river running through it was so beautiful.

The kids at the orphan care site loved Andy and he loved them. It's so amazing to see how he fit into our ministry. He will leave on June 13. We are praying for Andy's future. Please join us.

Harvesting and Processing Moringa

One of the fun things about our job as missionaries is seeing the wonderful things around us that God has provided Africa (as well as many other developing countries). The one that we are focusing on at the moment is the Moringa tree. From one seed that we planted about three years ago, we have planted now about 50 more trees. The entire tree is edible by humans and livestock and is highly nutritious. Just as an example, Moringa fresh leaves have:
7 times the Vitamin C of Oranges
4 times the Calcium of Milk
3 times the Potassium of Bananas
2 times the Protein of Yogurt
4 times the Vitamin A of Carrots

Dried leaves (gram for gram) contain:
10 times the Vitamin A of Carrots
1/2 the Vitamin C or Oranges (vitamin C loses its potency with the processing)
17 times the calcium of milk
15 times the potassium of bananas
25 times the iron of spinach
9 times the protein of yogurt

But there is so much more! God has provided this wonder tree to prevent and treat malnutrition. It provides so many vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, we are now using it instead of our expensive vitamins that we get from the US.

Starting with our workers, we are trying to introduce this nutrition with those we know within our scope of ministry. We have no capsules to use for distributing the powder, but we are adding it to foods we normally eat. Moringa powder has very little taste, so it works well with mixing it with our food.
We strip the leaves off the tree (they are pretty small). Then we dry them in an empty room free from dust and pests. They dry for about 2 or 3 days. After that we pick through to remove stems and discolored leaves.

We use an attachment that came with our blender to grind the leaves into powder. It is small so it can take an entire day to process this way. Hopefully we will find better ways to do this processing. Since Malawians don't have this machine, it will be better for us to use methods they would use to teach them.

Then the powder has to be sifted to remove pieces of the stems, etc. that didn't grind. This produces a fine powder that is rich and green in color. One grocery-sized bag of leaves produced only three snack-sized bags of the powder. One of these small bags would provide an average healthy adult with nutrition for a few weeks.

This tree can cure malnutrition and many diseases. The seeds can be used to purify water and oil can be extracted for many uses. For more about moringa, click on this link: http://www.treesforlife.org/our-work/our-initiatives/moringa/moringa-tree.

One of the Most Beautiful Places in the World!

We were so blessed to be able to take a short vacation in January to Victoria Falls in Zambia. It is considered the "largest curtain of water" in the world. The majestic falls is 1708 meters (a little over 1 mile).

Victoria Falls is on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Due to visa constraints, we stayed on the Zambia side, but were able to see a different view just before the Zimbabwe border from the bridge going across the gorge and the beautiful Zambezi river below.



It was so beautiful. We saw a full-circle rainbow as we looked down on the river.








In the park, the spray from the falls was very overwhelming - like a heavy rain. But on the bridge it was easier to see the beauty of it all. What an awesome Creator we serve. He has made this beautiful masterpiece for us to enjoy. It is a sight not to be missed when you are in Africa! It is a 2-day drive from Lilongwe and the landscape and good roads in between make it a very enjoyable trip.

First Well

Here are the latest pictures of Larry's first attempt to drill a well. He's also training the guys who are helping him.






Digging pits for recycled water. Water is used to take the loose dirt out of the hole.

Choosing the right drill bit for the drilling.










Loading the drill bit onto the driller.

The pump on the right side of the picture recycles the water that is used to remove the dirt from the hole.

Larry adds more pipes to continue drilling deeper.

Satan is alive and well in Malawi

Yesterday (11/27) we had a very alarming and obvious attack by the enemy. Lately we've had many discouraging days in our village work. We've been praying hard for God to send someone to help us with the work - a godly man who would be willing to move from the city to the village. While in town last week, a man approached Larry and they had a long conversation about our ministry. We decided to explore if God is truly sending this man to us. We invited him into our home to start the process of getting to know him. Then he accompanied Larry to the village to see what we are doing there. After returning to town at the end of the day, Larry dropped off one of our workers at his home. While traveling through the busy marketplace, a drunk driver plunged into the back end of our truck (driver's side). The driver was going so fast that if he had missed our truck, he would have surely killed several and injured many people who were traveling along the road and shopping in the market.

After the entire ordeal of finding the police, filling out reports, getting a tow truck (none of which were easy) Larry returned home. The night guard greeted him with a dead black mamba snake. The black mamba is a very dangerous and poisonous snake. We have never seen any snakes in our yard, but how interesting that this one was seen the night that we took our new friend to visit the village with the possibility of working with us there! How interesting that it was a black mamba and not some lesser dangerous snake!

We have heard Satan's message loud and clear and will proceed with the Lord's praises on our lips and in our hearts. Praise and worship are very frightening to the devil and it is one way that we can keep him away from us. Please join us in praising and petitioning our Lord for the ministry in these villages. The people desperately need Him. Satan has a firm grip on them and he doesn't want to lose anyone to Christ - the Life-giver and Hope of the world. And we look forward to the wonderful things God has in store for the people.

A New Church Building for Mphanda!

The men at the Mphanda Christian Church began work on the foundation for the new church building this week. It is an all-church operation as the ladies gather food to cook for the men each day. What an exciting thing to see as they work together for this goal that they have only dreamed about! The grass structure that they have been meeting in is about to fall down. The heavy rains that will be starting soon will surely weeken the already fragil walls. It is estimated that the heavy rains will begin in late November or early December, so there isn't really much time.

Bricks were provided by the men of the church and our ministry is providing the cement and the roofing. The building will be small, but can be added on to later. The people will be so proud when they have a church building of any size. Our builder, Wilson is guiding them in the process.

The Container Arrives!!

FINALLY! The container arrived in Lilongwe about 2 months late. It was due to arrive on August 19th, but arrived on the 15th of October. We had anxiously been waiting with Pat and Gary Ouverson who came from Tennessee to stay with us for two months. Gary had planned to be drilling wells with the well-drilling machine that was on the container. Many things happened to detain the container during that time. Since we had cleared our schedule to drill the wells, we struggled to find things to do. Fortunately we did have a trip to South Africa (the two of us) for a conference with NMSI for 10 days. Then Gary and Pat went on a 9-day trip to Zambia to the game park and Victoria Falls. So finally, with two days to spare, (Gary and Pat were due to fly out on the 17th of Oct.) the container arrived and we unloaded it before Gary and Pat had to leave. Gary gave Larry some instructions about well-drilling and lots of stuff to read.

Even though it was a long waiting period and a bit frustrating, we were thankful for the time we had with Gary and Pat and we did get a few things done, like a security system was installed in the house, forms were finished to put the container on, and some other things that really helped us a lot. They learned a lot about Malawi and will surely have lots to tell when they do a presentation for their church in Crossville, Tennessee.

We can finally breathe a "sigh of relief" that the well-driller is now in our driveway waiting, like us, to be used. Please pray that we can do all the necessary "red tape" to get it registered, licensed, etc. so we can begin to give life-giving water to the people of Malawi. Also pray that the message of Living Water will be loud and clear.