Just today, 7/20/10, we received this message from our pastor Josia in Lassin-
I visited the workshop where Franklin is making the benches. As I saw, the benches are almost finished, in fact the remaining part is to go and fix (assemble) them in the school. He still has to start the doors and the windows and the tables.
You should know that Franklin had a lot of troubles: he felt sick (2 weeks) just after you went and two weeks ago he lost his father; all these events explain why he has not yet finished the work. But he said he will finish on time, and to that, he is planning to do some work with machines and he is also now working by night with a generator.
For the classrooms, Nephtali told me they are ready, they removed all the soil already. (clean, level, and compact the dirt floors)
Nephtali is doing a good work in the registration process: he is going house to house to register the children. The statistics he gave me about the children registered are as follows:
Class, enrolled
Class 1, 18
Class 2, 26
Class 3, 9
Class 4, 8
Class 5, 14
Total 79
There are four registered not yet in the statistics.
We still pray that this number should be maintained for the first classes and that the others (3 & 4) should reach the required number. They told me there is a risk of decrease, because the people of the village are making a bad campaign against the school, convincing some parents to not send their children there. But since the results of last year are there to testify for the seriousness of the teaching, some people are committed to register their children and we are confident.
That is why we don’t take these statistics as final: the number can still increase. And I told them that given the mentality of the place, we will have more children.
From Steve,
Look how God is working! We are really excited about having a really full school this year.
In summary, we have 3 ladies that will help Carol teach. We purchase plane tickets this week.
Collecting necessary items for the project is going well.
Tonight, I work on a hand or electric solution to washing cloths- may be a bucket and plunger; we'll see.
The job of an electric water heater for warm showers will progress soon; yes, I'm soft, but should be able to fabricate it for less than $20.
We're really in need of your prayers.
Steve & Carol
