Dear Friends and Family,
In an effort to keep
our kids busy and engaged in learning and creative play this summer, I created
an elaborate game. They would work to
earn points to travel around a map of the Roman world, purportedly searching
for original copies of Paul’s epistles. Each time they reached a city, we would
have a treasure hunt. We didn’t manage
to make it to the sites of all of
Paul’s letters, but they did have fun…
Zach invented a board game, Micah built his own tree house, and Elliot made
a city out of mud bricks. Along the way
they dug for treasure, found words in the symbols of elements on the periodic
table, followed yarn of different colors to find their clues, and even
discovered one surprise hidden in a papaya.
With a part of my mind always busy planning the next hunt, it is no
wonder that I have found myself seeing all of our ministry here lately through
that lens. Jesse and Joy… missionary treasure
hunters!
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| Micah and Elliot check out the trap door in the papaya |
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| Game Central |
Literal Treasure
from the King
Thankfully, finding literal “treasure” is not our
responsibility—God is the one who provides for His work. We get to tell people about what He is doing,
in person and through grant applications, and then sit back and be amazed. As you know, Discovery School needs to build
4 new classrooms each summer through 2021 when we will have a complete primary
and secondary school. This year God
provided for those classrooms through a memorial gift given through Windermere
Baptist Church near Orlando and grants from the Micah 6:8 foundation and Great
Lakes Outreach (GLO). Praise the Lord
with us! The grant from GLO was
completely unexpected—they had offered to allow their videographer to help us
make a video, and ended up funding two classrooms themselves in addition to
that already amazing gift. You can check
out the new video at https://youtu.be/6VbYUZ384i8. We are currently working on grants for next
summer. Please pray that God gives us
the right words and will open the hearts of those in the position to give. Above are some pics of the new classrooms going up.
You can pray they are finished in time for the first day of school on
Sept. 4!  |
| New classrooms and Patrick, the admin director |
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| From above, courtesy of Google Earth |
At the suggestion of the local leadership, we have also
opened a second branch of Discovery School on the other end of town. Like our original school, the land belongs to
the Emmanuel Churches, but this site is only 1 block from the local
mosque. This is an incredible new
opportunity. It also means we needed to
build 2 more classrooms this year and will need one extra every summer until we
reach Grade 6 at that site (also in 2021).
The local elders felt so strongly that God was leading us to begin the
school now that they authorized an inter-departmental loan to build those
classrooms, but please pray that God will send just the right students (it is a
harder neighborhood to break into), continue to provide as needed, and give the
teachers who will work there grace and wisdom. To the left are some pics of the new
property:
Treasure Hunting as Ministry
Much of Jesse’s time
this past few months has been devoted to ensuring that the new classrooms are well-built and the grant money used wisely.
This quest illustrates, the type of “treasure hunting” that is our daily
ministry— SEEKING EXCELLENCE. We spend our days looking for excellence,
encouraging it, explaining what it looks like, and spurring others on toward it.
Of course, excellence in construction is
nothing compared to the value of spiritual excellence… I could go on an on. And I will.
However, treasure hunts are episodic with new bits of the adventure
revealed little by little…
so I will make this newsletter episodic as well…
you’ll
have to wait for Treasure Hunters Episode 2!
Thankful for your help on the journey,
Jesse, Joy, Zach, Micah, & Elliot
