Thank you so much for your prayers!! They have definitely been felt. The horrible mouth sores are gone, the migraines are less, Neema, our nanny is back, and many encouraging things have happened this past week. You have made such a difference by interceding on our behalf.
Here are some praises we want to share with you:
The engineers have headed home now, but the Lord helped them to ask the right questions and to create good plans for handling water drainage and electrical issues as well as planning future buildings for this mission property.
Three visiting speech pathologists are currently doing a great job teaching Discovery School teachers an intro to speech therapy course and screening and creating treatment plans for students with speech difficulties. There are no speech therapy services available in Burundi, so this is huge. Another nice surprise is that they have been able to work with the teachers to help improve their English pronunciation, which will in turn help the students produce more accurate English sounds. (For those interested in this type of thing, Kirundi does not have an "L" sound and the words only end in vowels, so the "l" sound as well as English words ending in -er, -ing, etc... are quite difficult). This group of three will be here until the 25th.
The Timothy Bible School is currently in session and things are going well.
A Discovery School second grader won an on-air radio quiz show competition last week, earning us lots of excellent free publicity. Even more importantly, the Parent Committee had nothing negative to say in their meeting yesterday, and instead was full of encouragement to keep going.
Jesse met with an organization interested in helping education in Burundi. We thought we were meeting to give them advice in their own independent endeavor, but it turns out they are praying about contributing to the Discovery School's future building projects. That was a nice surprise, and then they pulled out a care package that was sent by a member of the team that was here in March. What a wonderful blessing!
Please keep the prayers coming, though:
We need continued health and strength.
A retired missionary couple David and Anne Cliffe, arriving May 30th, who will be volunteering here with us for the summer were commissioned by their chapel (Westside Bible Fellowship) today. Pray that they will be blessed and be a blessing during their time here.
Pray for a Discovery School teacher who had to be fired this past week, as well as for his family and all involved in the issues that led to the termination of his employment. We praise the Lord that this is the first time in five years that we have had to deal with severe discipline, but it is still difficult for all involved.
Please continue in prayer for a teacher(s) and an accountant to volunteer their services for the coming school year.
Thank you again for making a difference in our lives and in God's work here. Thank you, too, for the many notes of encouragement you sent our way these past two weeks.
In Him,
Jesse, Joy, and the boys
