Thanks for your prayers and support over the years of our family and the ministries we are involved in. Many of you have helped or have had an interest in the Discovery School—the assembly-run Christian School that Joy started. We currently have about 300 students. We wanted to let you know about the future plans for the Discovery School. We have enough classrooms for next year, but after that we will need more. We have plans drawn up for a great building, but it will cost about $160,000 to build—two stories, housing eight classrooms. We currently have about $18,000 in a building fund, so not even an eighth of the total budget. I just recently read these verses:Luke 14:28-30 28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
Given that we do not even have a third of the money, I am really not at peace with beginning this extensive project. However the Lord has brought something else along that might be able to ensure the continuation of the Discovery School in the meantime. This past week we found out about an amazing opportunity. The UN peacekeeping mission has left Burundi and they are selling some of their portable buildings. (See photos below). Each building is the size of one and half of our current classrooms, and they are selling them for 10,000,000 Burundi Francs (8,000 dollars) each. To build a classroom and a half (that size) would take at least 20,000 dollars, so these are classrooms for less than half price! If we could buy at least three, that would give us four classrooms so that we wouldn't need to start building anything else for two more years—giving us more time for preparation for the larger building project. We have enough already to buy two of these units if we use the money in the building fund. We wanted to let all of you know about this in case anyone might feel led to contribute to buying a third or even a fourth. I do not think they will be available for much longer and they would be a great asset to the school and its ministry to reaching the children of Burundi. We just wanted to pass that information along to you as friends and partners of the work here. We're so thankful for you all and your involvement in Burundi! You are a blessing to us, to the work here, and to the believers here.
Thanks and God Bless,
Jesse and Joy Johnson
