Prayers for cool breezes were answered - so thank you! There were some very “tropical” moments during the workday that had us emptying our canteens – both down the throat and down the neck - just before a breeze came through! We made excellent headway on the fence yesterday, even when several pickets had to be reset as our 2 helpers had not been using the level on the vertical as well as the horizontal. We stood back and weren’t sure if we were leaning or if it was the fence! Here we are resetting the pickets.
But all is corrected and we continue cutting what seems like an entire lumberyard of pickets. Here we are cutting and measuring endless pickets.
We hope to get done with all except the gates today. The work is demanding, but the progress is so wonderfully VISIBLE!
Today is the graduation for the 8th graders – a very important day in their lives as many will go no further in their education than this level. Shara helped decorate alongside of the students yesterday; the results are quite amazing – once again using the flora from the jungle to bring beauty from outside to the inside. Everyone is very excited about the ceremony today, and practice continued even as we left to go back to the mission house for the evening. We are all looking forward to this afternoon’s event as we do not know what the students will be presenting as their program – surprise! Here you can see a packed-up classroom and the walk from the playground to the mission house.
Landan was invited by Emerson – the young man who runs the school – to go striking for Tuba fish last evening. Striking is at night, when the fish are sleeping (no, we are not kidding here!), and they are speared in the shallow waters. Landan “caught” about 20 fish while they were sleeping (sounds sporting doesn’t it), and Juliana’s mother prepared the fish wrapped in Waha leaves and seasoned with Cow’s feet leaves and spices. Here is the Juliana with the fish that Landan speared.
Additionally, we had homemade tortillas to go with the Tuba fish.
There were a multitude of tiny bones to pick through, but the fish was a feast, and we enjoyed the cultural experience.
Emerson and Juliana joined us for our fish dinner, and we learned much about them as they both shared their lives with us – a conversation which came about because it was their 8th wedding anniversary. They have quite a testimony of God working in their lives and in the school. We knew the upper level students had been taking the government required achievement tests this past week; Emerson reported to us that Toledo Christian Academy had ranked in the top ten schools of the region when the scores came in. We were reminded of the importance of the existence of this little Christian school in the midst of both other private schools and the public schools. The presence of teams such as ours is crucial to the ongoing functioning of the school in such a poor area. We provide much needed “feet on the ground” support to the school as it makes every effort to meet the needs of its students and community. They are hungry for our help.
It is unfortunate that they will no longer be able to offer the high school grades due to funding and difficulty in finding teachers. Here is a picture of their upper-grade classrooms.
This means there are currently high school students who have spent their education years from pre-K to 10th at TCA, but who must now attend public high school to finish. Our prayers are that these students will have the strength and grounding to be a light in the darkness, rather than being consumed by it in an area with significant drug and alcohol problems. Please keep them in your prayers as well.
We have much to accomplish today and look forward to a productive time as well as an enjoyable one. We love getting your emails; I print them out and we read them throughout the day. Thank you for your continued prayers and words of encouragement.
Patricia and the Team
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