Dear Friends and Family,
At this point you can assume that no news is... no news. We got Elliot's jaundice level tested and it is a fraction lower but pretty much the same. That means he is fine for now but if it doesn't continue to go down we will have to get further tests done (and of course there aren't many tests that can be done in Burundi).
Thankfully, Elliot is gaining weight well, interacting well, and is seemingly healthy in every other way, so we are hopeful it won't come to that. We will get him tested again next Friday when he goes to get his 6 week shots. (Yes, six instead of 8 so that he will be protected sooner... you can pray he handles them well).
Once the novelty of school wore off, things have been hard for Zach. All that sitting still plus being surrounded by a language you don't know is tough. Much of our mental energy this past week has been spent thinking of how best to help him and talking it all over with his teacher.
Jesse's course, titled "The Christian Life" went well. The course is a survey of Christian disciplines, but to put it in the correct perspective Jesse talks about the way God gives us everything we need for life and godliness-- we need to spend so much time with Him that we are full to overflowing, and then we can pour ourselves out in ministry to others. One evening after class he invited the Bible School students to watch the film "The End of the Spear" as an illustration of this idea of ministry. They were blown away and checked over and over to be sure it was a true story. The resulting discussion was the highlight of Jesse's week.
The Discovery School is going well, but without us here to explain things, the parents of the new first graders are nervous because what we are doing is so different from other schools. The teachers had a hard time explaining, so two parents (out of 50, so not too much damage yet) pulled their kids out. The plan is to have a big meeting next Saturday where we can explain the curriculum and answer questions. This will be difficult to work around Elliot's schedule (in general I'm trying not to even go down to the school until next month), so I'll probably end up missing some of the meeting and the bulk of explaining will fall on Jesse. Pray that we can communicate effectively to the parents across cultures.
Praising the Lord for what He has done and looking forward to what He will do,
Jesse, Joy, Zach, Micah, and Elliot
