Archive for category: mission

Dear Friends,

The second village our team visited to restore clean, safe drinking water and to share Living Water in 2012 was a very large village, called Cham’ndala Village, whose broken well normally served 1068 adults + 3697 children or about 4765 people! It may have been a complex of villages.

Most of our team went from village (or school) to village in a small bus that Child Legacy hired for us. A few of our team members traveled in the well repair truck with the Malawian well repair team. Just to give you an idea of the hurdles it takes to work in a very poor and rural society along with a very low budget, when our bus arrived at this very large village complex we noticed that somehow in our travel to this village we “lost” the repair truck and a small part of our team! We received a phone call and were informed that they had broke down somewhere in route from Katambala Village to Cham’ndala Village. The challenges of a low budget ministry in rural Africa suddenly became crystal clear! Child Legacy definitely needs a good used truck to help minimize these events.

The following photos of Cham’ndala Village were taken on my camera except where noted. I hope you enjoy them! Feel free to forward to anyone you like.

 

We stopped at this well because we knew the broken one was nearby and we had just received word that the well repair parts truck had broken down.

This well had some issues, but was working well enough to go to the one that was in bad shape. I like this photo because it is a good snapshot of typical village life. In addition to the women gathering water at the well, the rather unusual topography, some of the villagers homes, it also shows our bus that sticks out like a sore thumb. Note that there are no other means of transportation around other than a couple of bicycles and bare feet. The mountain peak is just barely visible from Child Legacy’s Project site about 12-15 miles away.

 

At first we thought there was no reason to go to the broken well without parts, so we decided to hang out at this location until we knew what was going to happen next. We spent about an hour waiting to see if the truck was fixable and whether it would catch up with us or not.

We started taking photos while waiting for some positive news from the rest of the team. Here is a very nice shot taken by Megan Halquist of a couple of young ladies goofing around. The kids love to pose!!

 

This great photo of this very lovely family was taken by Mitch Halquist.

I don’t normally see a family unit like this. One usually doesn’t see the men and the women mix too much. I am not sure why. I saw that especially in Sudan when I went there in 2009. This gives me great hope for the people of Malawi.

 

We received word that the truck was working again so we headed to our final destination and start off by sharing some bible stories.

Pastor Lester translates from English into Chichewa for my son-in-law, Alex Blanca.

 

At the end of the story time there is always an invitation to pray to ask God for forgiveness by trusting His Son as their Lord and Savior. The response is usually overwhelming.

Great photo by Alex Blanca!

 

It is always very amazing and humbling to see and hear the people praying like these beautiful children.

Great shot Mitch Halquist!

 

Shortly before we finished our Bible stories the repair truck and the rest of the team arrived and they went at it!

Here they are tearing out the old guts of the well.

Photo by the Malawian Repair Team.

 

Here the team finishes cinching up the well head before the well is “back on line” so to speak!

Another great shot by the Malawian well repair team who taught us what to do and accompanied us the entire day.

 

Ta da! It is finished!

This well was tight quarters to get a good group photo, since it was surrounded by a brick wall, with a small doorway to go through.

 

When we go to Malawi the plan is to bring the love of Christ through the vehicle of restored clean, safe, drinking water and His Word. We also just love on them, but something different happened here. The people in Cham’ndala Village turned it around and “loved” on us!

Great shot Mitch Halquist of your bride!

Here a couple of the villagers are loving on my grandson Ethan!

It was a happy and joyous day for sure.

Thanks for taking this picture Mitch Halquist!

 

 

There is always hope, little one.

Great picture Mitch Halquist!!

 

Goodbye to Cham’ndala Village.

There is not much else I can say about this photo. It speaks volumes. “Love one another” certainly comes to mind.

Great shot Jennifer Navolio!

 

But before we left we gave the chief a few things for his people to play with like soccer balls, volley balls, and Frisbees.

The chief shown here asked me to pray for his village and I was honored to do so.

 

This is the crew that drives all over Malawi using the funds received, from the many donors to the Clean Water Climb, to restore clean, safe drinking water to literally now, several million people.

It’s quite incredible really. Four guys trained, equipped, funded and off they go having now repaired over 1600 wells. 2013 could be the year they break 2000 wells!!

To the left is Pastor David who teaches hygiene and the Bible at every village and school.

 

 

Mitch Halquist caught this exquisite sunset shot from Child Legacy’s project site.

A full day of well repairs done.

I hope you enjoyed these very few pictures of Chim’ndala Village out of about 1000 taken by the team.

 

Feel free to share!