Metaketa

On Wednesday, we were able to go out to a small village about 2 hours from Blantyre. It is called Metaketa in the Zomba district. The pastor there, Pastor Chisale, has started their 2nd Noah's Ark Orphan Care Center there in Malawi. As a group, we were able to play some games with the children. Maggie taught them the Hokey Pokey, and Duck, duck, goose (but it was chicken, chicken, goat), and many other songs and games. The Noah's Ark Orphan Care children performed for us and showed off how much they have learned. A couple children read some speaches and showed off how good their English was. Christopher (the pastor's son) had them sing a few songs and it was beautiful. The people in the church there even performed for us along with people from the surrounding areas that came for our visit. It was very touching that there were so many to come from far places to see us.

Today we have had a full, exciting day so far. This morning we were able to set up the 2 computers that were donated to the Orphan Care Center. Thank you Lewis & Knopf!! They are set up in the sitting room so as soon as the kids came home from school they were so excited. This is the only place anywhere around there with computers for the orphan children, so this is very special. 2 of the older boys who go to school in the afternoon, were there after we set them up and we got a Typing learning CD installed. They worked on that for at least 2-3 hours and are doing very well already. This is going to be a great help for the kids to learn typing skills and much more. One of the team members that came, Brian, brought many phonics, math, and other teaching games for the children. This is so wonderful!

In Malawi

Well, we arrived in Malawi yesterday (Monday) afternoon and were greeted with many people at the airport and the church. We had dinner and then tried to settle in a little. This morning we were able to go to the school with some of the children and see the assembly before they start classes. Then we went into the Preschool room and did the Hokey Pokey with the children. It was a lot of fun to see the kids doing the Hokey Pokey. This afternoon we were able to take everyone to the building site.
Just so that everyone knows, there is another blog that the rest of our team will be posting on. It is giveagoodday.blogspot.com in case you would like to see the posts there as well.

TODAY!!

Well, we leave today. In fact just 2 1/2 more hours and we leave for the airport. We are all very excited and none of us slept very well last night. Hopefully that means we will all be able to sleep on the plane. Detroit to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Johannesburg. We will overnight in Johannesburg and then fly to Malawi on Monday morning.

Thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement as we have been preparing for this trip. We appreciate everyone's help. May God bless your summer!

NOT SOON ENOUGH

Just five weeks until we leave!!!! We are so ready to leave now. We have seven other team members going with us to serve : ) They are engineers, pastors, teachers, journalists, and social workers. Anyone can serve and we are so thankful for their willingness to give of themselves. We are still raising funds to build the second phase of the orphan care center so if you are interested in donating please call me at 8109198796. Jeff

Getting Ready to GO

We are going to be back in Malawi July 5th for two months this time. We are very excited to go and serve the beautiful people of Malawi. We will once again be overseeing the second building phase of the orphan care center. We also will be taking funds to dig a well in Zomba district. Sara will be teaching the older girls secretarial skills. We are taking two computers with us. Annamarie will work with the younger students on there reading. We are in the fundraising phase of this endeavor. If you would be interested in investing in our work you can contact me at 810-919-8796

Jeff

The last couple of days have been packed with excitement.

On Saturday, we were able to go to a Game Park Reserve with Pastor Nancy and Brother Chinooka. It was something that Pastor Nancy has not been able to do yet, so it was fun to be able to go. We were able to see Impala, Bush Buck, Water Bucks, a Hippo, Warthogs, Bush Pigs, and Elephant. The guide we were with found out where the elephant were so we went chasing them to see if we could get close enough to see them. We ended spotting one and the guide let us get out of the vehicle for a walk into the bush. We ended up getting within 75 yards of 2 bull elephants. It was very exciting to be able to see them so close.

Yesterday, we were able to go to the village of Metakata in the Zomba district. This is where the 2nd Noah's Ark Orphan Care is located here in Malawi. We arrived there in time for the church service and then they had a special program for us to highlight what the kids there have been able to accomplish. The program there started in January of this year and already has made tremendous progress in the schooling of the kids there. They feed 52 children twice a day.

The building project is coming along great. Most of the brick around the perimeter is up. By Thursday, they should have all of the brick for the first floor (including the interior walls) up.

Evelyn has come out of the coma and is eating, but she is still in a lot of pain and still in the hospital. Jeff and Pastor Chisala are going to try to go up and see her Wednesday or Thursday.

Our flight leaves here on Friday morning, so if we don't get to post any other updates before we leave - We are looking forward to seeing everyone at home very soon.

The building project is still going good. They poured the inside columns and have started the brick work on all of the walls. It is starting to look like a real home.

The little girl that got hit by the minibus is still unconscious. She appeared to be getting better after a couple of days, but has not regained consciousness. She also appears to have a problem with her hip along with the broken leg. Please keep praying for her recovery.

We went to World Vision headquarters last week. Jeff met a lady prior to us coming that sponsors 2 kids here in Malawi. She asked him to take 2 soccer balls to the World Vision office to give to the kids since we were going to be in Malawi.

Tim and Anna sang "How Great is Our God" on Sunday with 2 of the Noah's Ark kids (Adson and Lamek). The people really enjoyed it.

We visited Fresh Water Malawi. This is an organization that digs wells in rural areas. We checked into having a well dug in a village in south Malawi where the 2nd Noah's Ark Orphan Care is located. The well would give fresh water to 350 people who do not currently have fresh water.

Things are going well and everyone is in good health.