Pip n Jay has sent a family to Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries. This is their story of what's happening, what's changing, and how we can get involved.

The Bates family has moved from Bristol to live and work in Blantyre (largest city, capital of the country’s southern region).

Jane and Jes are both doctors, and they have two sons, Tom and Peter. Jane works with people with HIV/AIDS (a huge problem in the country: 1 million). It's not an easy job, patients don’t get better, they die young, and this makes life in Blantyre very emotionally draining. Jes is an orthopaedic surgeon. He finds himself working mostly with trauma, accidents and gunshot wounds.

Jane and Jes attend Word Alive Church in Blantyre, where Jes is an elder and Jane helps with childrens’ work.  It is a very outward looking church, seeking top reach out to the community, in practical as well as spiritual ways. It owns a farm, just a few kms out of town, and employs local people to grow maize (staple food) and other crops. This provides food for the community and  the money raised is used to support needy people.

A few years ago, a bore hole was sunk on the farm and found to produce very clean water. 

So the church set up a small business to sterilise and bottle the water. It was then sold onto their partner, Timbala foods, who marketed it in the community under the brand name Mkokomo.

This provides further income for the mercy ministry of the church. Jes is chairman of the Mkokomo board.

There have been a few problems recently with the water bottling project. Timbala Foods has recently pulled out of the business arrangement but the church has decided to push on with the project and become fully independent. It has meant quite a lot of investment, learning to label the bottles and buying a small shrink wrap machine. The 3 men who work in the bottling house say they’re prepared for hard work and are really keen to move forward.

Jane asks us to pray for the re-launch of the water, that it will find its place in the market and it will soon generate funds to support other work in the area.

So how can we encourage the Bates family?  We can pray for them:

• That God will keep them healthy and safe
• That God will bless them in their respective jobs and give them opportunities to share God’s love with their patients. For Vincent that he will respond to the gospel.
• For Mkokomo water – that it will find its place in the market and soon generate funds to help the church continue with its mercy ministry.

We can support them financially through Pip n Jay offerings.

We also have a team getting ready to visit and join in with some of the work.

Here is the team travelling from Bristol to Malawi -

Caroline	Natalie	Joff
John	Jill	Rachel

Please pray for them, and for John, Jes, Tom and Peter.