Dear Friends and Family,
Have you ever had "Trust God Fever"? Maybe for you it is "Trust God Car Trouble" or "Trust God Money Trouble." Not out of any desire to be flippant, Trust God Fever is what Jesse and I have started calling Zach's latest illness—it's a way to remind ourselves of who is in control when things are out of ours. Apparently we aren't quite through with the latest health ordeal. Zach started running a fever Sunday morning, and Monday his urine test came back positive for infection, something we half expected after all that diarrhea a few weeks ago. On top of all that, he seems to have contracted strep throat—possibly in the doctor's office in Kenya?? Unfortunately the Augmentin (antibiotic) hasn't brought his fever down yet, and he has been on it more than 24 hours now. If it reaches 48 hours and the fever hasn't broken we will need to try to find somewhere in town that can culture some urine for us so that we can target this infection with a specific antibiotic. You can pray with us that it won't come to that—the 48 hour mark will be Wednesday at 9am EST. The Egyptian pediatrician we usually go to here comes home from vacation in Egypt tomorrow, so I'm thankful for that. We have the privilege of picking his family up from the airport and having them at our house for lunch—I hope he won't be too upset about doing a little consulting on the side J.
The Discovery School (the new preschool) is looking good. The walls have been patched where there was cracking cement and there is fresh paint inside and out. The yard that was full of holes and hills has been leveled, the pit latrines' septic system emptied (by hand!!!), and a fence built. There is a gate and driveway so that parents can drop of their kids and head back out. While we were gone a few extra students were enrolled, so it looks like there will be 40 students in each class when we start on Sept. 7.
I did my first training session with the teachers yesterday afternoon. We pretended they were the students and I was the teacher and I walked them through the rotation of the centers. They were a little overwhelmed by the idea of centers and carpets—it is a pretty massive change from having all of the kids sit at little desks all day—but they are excited about it at the same time. God has brought us some people that I think will be able to handle much of the operations on their own eventually. The main teacher will be Madame Dianne, who actually went to primary school in this same building before the war, and came to know the Lord in her class there. She has eleven years of preschool teaching experience.
Another blessing is that three men from an assembly in Ireland will be coming to Burundi on September 7 for a mission trip. We are still working out their schedule, but they will stay with us while they help to put up some playground equipment for the deaf school, the blind school, and the Discovery School. They will also speak at some midweek Bible studies, go on a film trip, and possibly lead a short seminar for the teens as well. Jim and Vicki Brooks (with Allow the Children) return to Burundi on Sept. 13. They run a sponsorship program for children at the Assembly run Deaf and Blind Schools and are bringing several teams with them. They depend on Jesse for almost all of their logistical needs, as well as for cultural advice.
The Bible School begins its next session in October. We are praising the Lord that a new system for sponsoring the elders who attend the school is in the works, to be headed by Jason Larman in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A gift from an assemlby there will help students this semester and hopefully help to build some cement shower stalls—previously the only bathing facility was a little cubicle made of sticks and reeds.
I'm sorry that I'm so behind on thank you notes to all you who have supported us financially, emotionally, and with prayer support these last few months. THANK YOU! Please know how very grateful we are.
God Bless, Joy, Jesse, Zach, and Micah
