I wasn’t planning to post today, but decided to share some fun updates from Teen Missions. And look at the map below…never in all of my dreams of parenting did I ever image my children would be spread around the world like this! 
Updates from Malawi:
We began drilling our well today and were blessed to drill down approximately 30 feet. Unfortunately, in order to find water, we need water to drill. This requires the team to make a half mile trek to a “boar hole”, which is what the Malawians call a well. The team went twice the first day and three times today. Many of the team decided to try carrying the full five-gallon buckets on their heads like the Malawians do. Most agree that it is far easier than trying to carry it by hand, but a few are still struggling to master it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the team tried to carry this tradition back to North America.
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Yesterday was our team’s first opportunity to play with the orphans and local children. Many villages have heard that we are here, so we had well over 50 children. Our team played “Chicken, Chicken, Goat,” volleyball, “Mingle,” soccer and were blessed to teach them how to play Frisbee for the first time in their lives. Our team was so thrilled.
We have all been eating like kings! Our menus have consisted of eggs and bacon breakfast bake with hash-browns, homemade onion and garlic biscuits, red pepper onion soup with potatoes, gourmet stir- fry with beans, cabbage and eggplant, wacky cake (chocolate) with the BEST chocolate frosting known to man. We even had pizza for our Canadian friends (me) on Canada Day. We are currently about to do our evening team devotions and retire for the evening. Please enjoy your children’s testimonies and we will report back soon. Everyone wishes God’s love and peace to our family and friends back home. If you are sending letters, we are in a very remote area and it is hard to receive them, however, we just sent out our letters home today. We hope that they reach you soon. God bless you all!
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We are lucky with Judah’s Team. His translator is on Facebook and has been posting photos almost daily!
the site where the building will be. They are now digging the footers, and about about 3/4 of the way done with that. He expects that they will pour the footers in the next couple days if weather holds and work continues to progress so well. In addition, the drainage ditches around the Nuevo Reto (which means “New Challenge”) facility are being improved so that water will not overflow into the facility. Weather has been mostly nice, but on Friday afternoon and again that night, we had rain. The Sunday services were an outstanding experience for the team. They did a full presentation including puppets, drama and two testimonies on Sunday morning, after which David Spindler also shared. In the late afternoon, the team sang some songs as part of the service celebrating 22 years of Nuevo Reto’s ministry to orphans. All the team members are really enjoying the presence of the Nuevo Reto children, and I know it will not be easy for them to say good-bye to them when the time comes. The children, likewise, are really soaking up the love and attention the team is giving them.
How are your daughter and son-in-law in NZ doing? Last year when my son went to Peru, it seemed surreal to me. I’ve never left the US.
I’ll post and update on BEN! and Adalia later this week 🙂
I agree, we need an Adalia and BEN! update! How are they doing, and how is Adalia adjusting to a new country?
Also, I am wondering about the well drilling in Malawi. Do they not have an engineer or a geologist or someone like that trained in well drilling? It surprised me that they mentioned guessing about what is going on underground based on their limited knowledge. Would that be dangerous or harmful to the earth? It seems like they should need a professional supervising. Then again, I know absolutely nothing about digging wells so what do I know?
I’ll post an update this week. Just trying to give them some “space” 🙂
I really can’t answer the question about well-drilling. I would assume they have a professional (or at the very least someone with well-drilling experience) supervising. Contact is one-way, so you know as much as I do. What I can say is, Teen Missions has drilled well in the past and I know they had a lot of hoops to jump through to get the proper permits, etc to get the well onsite and have permission to drill.
I didnt mean to sound so demanding about BEN! and Adalia. Certainly fair enough that they should have some space….. but are we sure neither of them want to start a blog? haha
That is so cool that you are getting more pictures of Judah… that boy does love the camera 😉
I love reading the updates!
Yes, we are definitely being spoiled!
Hi
I enjoy your posts about your Mission Children’s trips.
My brother’s daughter Jacqueline is on a similar trip. She is with the Africa Trek group. With the last update they were in Zambia.
Here is a link to their facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/TheAfricaTrek
I keep praying for all of these young people doing Father God’s work.
Love see the updates- especially Guat ones! Thank you for sharing!