Dear Family and Friends,
We praise the Lord for his help, comfort, and guidance—for Micah's full term delivery, for a new type of injectible antibiotics brought into Burundi the week before Zach needed them, for a MAF plane ready to medivac him when we needed it, for a growth specialist in Indiana that fit Zach in at the last minute and then never charged us, for unexpected financial gifts, for people who offered to let us use their cars during our time in the states, for allowing us to make a difference in Burundi despite all the medical interruptions...
Thank you again for praying us through! Right now, we are all healthy!!! Both Zach and I have fully recovered from our surgeries, and Zach, though still very small for his age, seems as strong now as he has ever been. The pediatrician feels that as long as he continues to parallel the growth chart, we don't need to worry about his size. Still, our drawn-out battle with Zach's growth and health issues, a miscarriage, a difficult pregnancy, two surgeries, and facing one transition after another has taken a toll on our family, and in many ways we are still recovering. I continue to deal with "Mom-fears" about taking Zach back to Burundi, even though I can see that there is a good chance he could do well in Burundi this time. We have sought the Lord diligently (and at times desperately) about whether he has something new for our family, and the answer has been no. Our call to Burundi remains strong, and we feel led to return.
Time to evaluate things from a distance has also made it clear that I need some language training in French. We didn't take any time for language school before going to Burundi the first time since we thought most of our ministry would involve working just with Kirundi speakers. Jesse is already fluent in Kirundi, and there was no official Kirundi language school anywhere for me to go to so I had started studying with a tutor. I have been making some progress in Kirundi with my tutor, but if you imagine the principal of your child's school coming up to converse with you in baby-talk, you can get a glimpse of my problem. Not only is my Kirundi still woefully inadequate, but working with the Discovery School means that I am in contact with a much more educated group of Burundians, and since they know French it is rude as well as sometimes ineffective for me to try to communicate with them in my toddler-level Kirundi. To date, this has meant that Jesse has had to spend countless hours translating for parent meetings and teacher-training courses, and rewriting my lesson plans in French. Unless I learn French the Discovery School will continue to sap Jesse's time and energy, and the other ministries he has invested in will suffer.
So here's the tentative plan:
March: Continue recovering , make a trip to the Midwest to visit churches and speak at a missionary conference, gather supplies for the school, read some continuing education-type books (the current one is called Cross-Cultural Leadership), and do some mundane things like our taxes J. We will also continue to write, translate, and email the Discovery School lesson plans, which is almost a full-time job in itself.
April: Return to Burundi and focus on providing more training for the Discovery school teachers, hiring two new teachers, and helping them prepare for adding kindergarten next year
Please continue to ask for the Lord's direction for us, praying with us that God will get as much mileage as possible out of each situation he leads us into.
