Lassin Stories from April

Blog stories

I just wanted to write down a few more stories from the Adventist Primary School of Lassin before I forget. Our two years in Lassin are so memorable. We miss our true friends there. We are looking forward to being together in heaven!
At the beginning of this past school year (2010-2011), we opened the school to Grades 1-5. This was possible due to Gregory and Steve’s hard work pushing ahead on the rebuilding of the classrooms to make them fit for use. Naphtali also visited many people during the holiday months of June, July, and August ’10 and registered many students. There was general community interest in the school because of the success of the first year’s students. Rumors were circulating that one of our Class 1 students could read better than a Class 4 government school student. As such, we had no problem with having enough students for all five classes.

Lesly
Most of our previous year’s Class 1 students had passed on to Class 2, a few were repeating Class 1, and a few had been promoted to Class 3. Unfortunately two of our previous students: Lesly and Rodrick did not return. Rodrick moved to the Southwest Region to live with his mother, but Lesly was still in Lassin. In fact, Lesly lived right on the road to the school. Lesly had joined the school in January of the first year. He was quite feisty at first, but within a few weeks he settled into the routine with the students and was a quick learner.
When school opened, we saw Lesly and asked him to return. He seemed interested and happy to see us, but for some reason Lesly never came back. The rest of the year we passed him almost every day as he walked to the government school and as we were walking to our school. Although he never came back, it was always a highlight to see Lesly as he would always greet us with an enormous smile and bright eyes. Please pray for Lesly and his family.

“I Love Jesus”
Near the end of the first year, we invited three of the leaders of the Muslim community to eat with us at our house. Steve had been friends with them and we enjoyed their company.
Of the 76 students we had at the school this past year about 15 were Muslim. This was up from only one the previous year. At the beginning of the year, when we showed a short segment of the Jesus Film, the Muslim children were obviously disturbed. Often they would want to leave the room or sometimes they would hide their faces. One day, they pointed to the Jesus character and called him “Satan.” We teachers prayed for these students and were happy to see a change slowly take place as day after day we had Bible devotions every morning in assembly, Bible stories about Jesus illustrated with felt pictures (thank you, Becky!), and sang songs about Jesus.
Near the end of April while I was working with Class 3 and 4 students, one of our Muslim girls was working with a board with magnetic letters. She was enjoying making words on the board. She came to me, showed me her board with some attempted words, and asked me: “How do you spell: I love Jesus?” I was very surprised, happily surprised! I helped her re-arrange her letters until they spelled out her sentence. Two or three other days after that she practiced making those same words. The last time I remember her making these words, she showed me the board triumphantly displaying her words: “I love Jesus”! Praise God for the change in attitude!

Lawrence
We passed out the Little Friend, Primary Treasure, and Junior Guide papers every Sabbath after church. The children eagerly took the papers. Often we would see adults reading them too. One day as I entered Naphtali’s father’s compound, I saw Lawrence, Naphtali’s son, reading the stories from one of the papers to several children there. Lawrence attended our school this past year and was one of the few students who could read well.

Pennies
One day about the middle of the school year, I stopped by the Pinneapple Man’s compound on the way home to buy my usual two or three pineapples. This day Kenedy, Julius, and Matthew had accompanied me to see if I would buy sugarcane for them. I usually did. (Hey, a foot-long stick of sugarcane was only 25 francs—about five cents US-- and chewing on the sugarcane actually helps clean their teeth. These kids ate so little candy that the sugarcane was probably not detrimental to their health. Also, it takes so much energy to chew the hard stick, they probably used all the energy just eating it!)
As I was looking in my coin purse for change to buy the 40-50 cent pineapples, Kenedy spotted my US coins. He wanted to see. So, on a whim I showed him some pennies and then gave each of the boys one to keep. They were excited to have US money! This gave me an idea. Maybe I could give each of the kids at school a penny from America; it would be a neat keepsake from us. I emailed my friends at Sierra View Jr. Academy, and asked Brenda if anyone there could send me 100 pennies. Sure enough the pennies came before we left. The last time it was my turn for morning assembly worship, I told them about the four special words that are written on the US penny and how we cannot trust in money or anything or anybody besides God. Money can be stolen or lost, and other people can fail us, but God will never fail us. So I was able to give them each a penny to keep with the words: “In God we trust.” (Thank you, Brenda! You’re an angel!)

Our Last School Day
The last day that we attended school before we left was very special. Steve and I had planned a special unveiling ceremony of a sign honoring Gregory for digging the school well. He had given his labor in digging the well (7 meters deep). We also wanted to officially thank each teacher. What we didn’t know was that Elebert and Merlissa and the other teachers wanted to give a very special thank you to us.
We gathered all the students and some visiting adults near the well house. Then Steve unveiled the sign “Gregory’s Well” for Gregory and told how Gregory had given his labor to dig the well. Then Steve honored/thanked each teacher for their hard work and dedication. Juliana, my assistant, led a student choir singing a goodbye song that she had composed. Then each teacher thanked us. For a grand finale, the ladies (Merlissa, Juliana, and Vivian) served a wonderful feast of rice and beans. (I was wondering why Merlissa wanted a gallon or so of rice.) That dinner was really a labor of love because it takes a good hour to sort out about two cups of rice! We didn’t know it, but the ladies had lovingly picked that rice clean over the last few days.
It was hard to leave the school and the students. Some students were crying. Some students came to our house that afternoon to watch us make our final preparations to leave. On Sabbath afternoon Jacenta and her brother Rene came along with Naphtali’s children. They asked us for paper and pencils; then they wrote notes asking us to stay. Talk about heartbreak!
Christian education really works! Time after time we saw students make better choices and learn to trust in God. We are so happy the project will continue. We are looking forward to seeing these precious people in heaven.

Elebert & Merlissa’s New Blog Page
We were so thrilled that Elebert and Merlissa came to take over the school project. They are true-hearted Christian workers. In June they had to go back to Canada to take care of immigration issues, but they are planning to return to Lassin in September to start school again. They have started their own blog. Please join us in following the school project under their leadership and in praying for them and the children. They are currently raising money so they can return to Lassin.
Their new blog is: Lassi-family2.blogspot.com (sic).