Good Try!

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday after church Zach and the cousins were playing pretend Rugby in the backyard.  Rugby is somewhat similar to American football.  What has always made me chuckle about it is that, since a  is score is called a "try," you can shout "Good try!" whether your team scores or just falls flat on their faces.  Try is a pretty funny word all around.  You can "try hard,"  "try on," and "try again," etc…, etc….  We have been doing all kinds of trying since arriving back in Burundi two and half weeks ago.

Jesse tried out a new way of explaining some of the concepts in his Spiritual Disciplines in the Christian Life class at Timothy Bible School last week and found that his new ideas worked well.  He felt that this was the best the class has gone in the six years he has been teaching it.  The twenty men in the class were thrilled with the methods of Bible Study Jesse suggested they use to understand hard passages, and they had some excellent discussions about problems related to spiritual disciplines that the elders were facing at their home assemblies.  In some groups of believers people have been having fasting contests to prove who is the most spiritual.  In others certain ladies have set themselves up as the best prayer warriors and are inviting people to come to them to be healed—almost the Christian equivalent of a witch doctor!  Pray that as the elders return to their local churches in early June that they will have the boldness needed to teach on these issues, and that God will give them wisdom in their choice of words and timing.

We are also praising the Lord because of a witch doctor who was saved through door to door evangelism done in conjunction with the planting of a local church about th hours away.  He heard that many of the people who had previously purchased charms from him were receiving Christ ad burning the charms.  The witch doctor went to see the fire, saw that the things he had trusted in had been tried and found wanting, and trusted the Lord with his own life.  Pray for the new church plant at Ngozi as they continue to make inroads in their community.

Zach has been trying to make up for lost time by catching as many critters as possible.  So far his room has been home to a tree frog, a locust, many grasshoppers, a toad, several geckos and a praying mantis.  Much to my surprise, one gecko he caught at school made its way home in a backpack!  Zach has been loving being back "home" and is settling well into school.  Praise the Lord!

  praying mantis     Zach plays the sun in his school play on Sat. May 5

Micah has been a little trying.  Despite his excitement about being back, Micah has been struggling with the transition.  In the US he often cried about missing Burundi; last night he was crying that we couldn't go to CiCi's Pizza. School has been especially hard for him, and last week when he got a bad ear infection, it seemed to be the last straw. He is whiny and quick to burst into tears. Please pray that God will calm his little heart and help us know how to help him.

  Picking up Micah after school 

Elliot has been trying to build up his immune system.  He had a great first week back, but since then he has cycled through a bad cold and sore throat, an ear infection, and now a stomach bug with vomiting.   Please pray for health and safety for all of us.  When he feels well enough, he has also been trying some new tricks.  He likes to try to stand on his head as if he was about to do a summersault.  He can finish the song Old Macdonald had a farm by putting in the sounds that go with the animal you sing.  He is generally super-cute. 

I feel like I have been trying out for the juggling troupe as I have unpacked, organized, taken care of sick children, started to write the needed science lesson plans for the third grade, and tried to at least make an appearance down at the Discovery School.

We have been very thankful for Naomi, our volunteer from Bluegrass Bible Chapel in Kentucky, who has tried hard to manage teaching reading groups, making audio recordings of English stories, teaching in the computer lab, and many other helpful tasks without much guidance from me since I have been tied up with things at home.  She has been a huge blessing, and a help with our kids as well.   In all, there will be twenty people passing through our home this summer as visitors or volunteers for periods of 3 days to two months.  Pray that their time here will be a blessing to them and to us and the ministry here as well.

 Naomi teaching the two-year olds

Two summers ago Jesse managed the building project for the new Bible School facility.  Last summer it was the portables at Discovery school.  This summer he gets to try again as he begins construction of two new guest rooms that will free up an apartment for his brother and sister-in-law Danny and Anne and their daughter Ruth, who will be arriving in August to work with us for two years.  Hooray!!  Danny is hoping to teach at the Bible school, and Anne is a nurse.   We will see how their roles here actually pan out, but we are looking forward to having a team to share the burdens with.  Please continue to pray that God will also send a teacher to help at the Discovery School this next school year.

 Pray also that we will be content with trying our best, even when things take longer to accomplish than we would like, or we can't seem to accomplish anything because of sickness.  Whether we actually score or just fall flat on our faces, our goal is to hear the Lord shouting, "Good Try!"