Dear Friends and Family,
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! As you might expect, it isn't a holiday here, but we will have a nice Thanksgiving supper at the home of Jesse's brother and his wife Anne. This has me thinking about delicious food and hoping we can create some dishes that taste vaguely like they would at home ☺. In Kirundi, the word for delicious is biraryoshe (bee-ra-gio-shay). The fun thing is that it can be said about things other than food, so here in Burundi you can watch a delicious movie, attend a delicious concert, or read a delicious book. So, instead of a "thankful for…" list, I wanted to share a few of the things we have found delicious this past month. Some are delicious everyday fare. Some are things we would normally take for granted but that have suddenly tasted extra sweet since they were figuratively taking a bad taste out of our mouths. Some are delicious opportunities for prayer…
- · Listening to the Discovery School students' sweet voices practicing for the Christmas play and exclaiming with excitement over the action in the Bible videos they have been watching. Performances will be Dec. 11 (younger kids) and Dec. 12 (older kids).
- · Finding out that the Association of Christian Schools International has an African branch that Discovery School can afford to join as a path toward future international accreditation for our high school, and hearing the parents clap when we announced it at a meeting. (A lot of work will go into applying and then switching over from government curriculum to a more American-style curriculum for the middle school).
- · Connecting to the internet from home again after a lightning strike took out our internet receiver, and it took us several weeks to get a small dial up cell-phone modem working as a replacement system.
- · Taking a hot shower-- We had several weeks of the city water going off every night, and then that same bolt of lightning killed our hot water heater. After weeks of no showers or cold showers, hot water definitely felt delicious!!
- · Jesse working with local leaders to develop a rescue plan for a struggling local church, then preaching at the re-launch on Nov. 15 and witnessing their joy at the renewal God has brought them.
- Attending another local church where Jesse was preaching as a family last Sunday and getting to share the experience together (Jesse is scheduled to preach the next 4 Sundays at various local churches).
- · Having a quiet night. We still hear shooting at night on a regular basis, so anytime there is a quiet night we savor it! Keep praying for complete peace in Burundi!
- · Applying for permanent visas. The type of visas (999 year indeterminate visas) that we have now are being discontinued. We have been invited to apply for permanent visas in January even though we have not technically been here enough years to do so. This is an amazingly delicious possibility, and is definitely the best decision in the long-run, but it will cost our family 2400 USD. Please pray that God will provide!
- · Surfing the new Discovery School website!! There are still a few details that need to be tweaked, like putting in this year's school calendar instead of last, but our amazing team of volunteers (all people who have visited on previous teams) has been able to take our new website live. Check it out at <discoveryschoolburundi.org>
- · Knowing you all are praying for us and standing with us. THANK YOU!!!
Praying you all have a delicious Thanksgiving,
Jesse, Joy, Zach, Micah, and Elliot
