Phew! The End of a Long Week

Hello family and friends! We've had an incredible but exhausting time these past few weeks. We were able to finish two wells down south. I (Jeremy) taught a week of Bible School with Isaac - yeah, you heard that right - Jeremy the theology professor! Ha! I spent a lot of time studying for that let me tell you. I would teach four or five hours during the day and then preached at night! Besides all of that excitement, Rachel joined up with the women's ministry and is loving it. She wears the whole uniform and everything (check out the picture below!) She actually sang a song in Chichewa with them last Sunday. The whole church was so excited to see her up there. I am busy meeting just about every day with leaders from the local church here in Blantyre, as one of our main objectives here is to strengthen this congregation and its leadership as it is an example to many many other churches in Malawi and Mozambique. Here are some pictures (and even a video!) of what we've been up to the past two weeks:

Chasing the kids as the well is completed in a village between Ngabu and Bangula in deep south Malawi on the border with Mozambique. It's hilarious how easy it is to have fun with these guys

We had a ton of fun - and made new friends!

Pretending to be an expert..."yeah...I think it's deep enough...yeah..."

Praise God Fresh Water!!

Some happy recipients of a new well


OK - So no doubt you are wondering where all the cute pictures of Aisha are...Don't worry - here they are - EVEN A VIDEO!!






Helping with the wash




Giving kisses to her favorite Dolly





Ready to play outside!!




Fun in the sun!

Hmmm...can you spot Rach?

A morning date golfing in Blantyre (Rach got hit by golf balls twice! There was a Jr. Tournament playing that morning...oops! We still had tons of fun, and as the picture below reveals, saw lots of monkeys)

Some of the monkeys that call the golf course home. Super cool! If you look close, you will see the monkey on the left is carrying a baby. These guys live wild on the course - just hanging out watching us play!

August 11 update

Hello everyone! Our adventure is continuing and we are enjoying our time here in Malawi! We've stayed busy lately working with the local church here in Blantyre and installing a few wells down south in some very needy villages. Here are some pictures!

Aisha helping water the grass

Aisha soaking wet after helping water the grass! She just had to run through the water

Church conference way down south in Bangula. More than 3,500 people attended the 10 day conference. It was an awesome time.

One of the villages needing a well in southern Malawi

One of the current well sites. This is where the ladies fetch their water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. While they realize the water is dangerous, they are still not boiling or even straining it before they drink it. Within two weeks they will have fresh water from a deep well.

A closer look at the same water hole where people fetched their water before getting a well.

Repairing a broken well in a village near Chikwawa. A lot of maintenance is required to keep them up and running.

Installing the slab and footing for a new well.

I took this picture after we repaired a well in a village where people had to walk over a mile to get water from a dirty stream. I met an old lady (not even four feet tall!) who said she hadn't bathed in weeks because there was no water and no one to go to the stream to fetch it for her. Once we got the well up and running, we gave her the first few gallons of it. She was so happy, she gave us an offering from the little that she had: Three dried up ears of corn which were half eaten by rats. This was a real sacrifice for this woman who was elated to finally get a bath.