updates!

Thankful for another off-line Sabbath yesterday and to be back with you today!  Updates, updates.

Sofie's little tooth is still somehow hanging in there, and our emails with the dentist said it could re-attach but just always be a bit loose, or become discolored and fall out, or just fall out. It's still awfully loose, but we can't bring ourselves to pull it, so she's just eating soft foods and time will tell.

The team is doing a Vacation Bible School program in our village today and tomorrow.  As soon as Lily heard what they were here to do, she flipped!  "It's for the kids in Saccanville?  YES!  This is the first team that came to do something fun for ME!"  I love that she is entirely unaware of why, if the VBS is for kids in Saccanville, that wouldn't also include her.  And I LOVE how excited she was all  weekend, and how thrilled she was this morning, skipping out the gate, joining up with her school friends.  Great pix to come, I'm sure!

Power.  We continue to only have power with the generator is on, which costs about $9 an hour, so we're running it as little as we can.  Every time you open the fridge door 100 degree heat floods in, which means water isn't freezing, milk is spoiling, and the fridges are struggling.  Our visiting team has been such troopers, working in the sun all day and then sleeping without fans at night!

After working through Facetime with an electrician, he believes he knows what the problem is, and thanks to HELP!, we ordered those parts on Friday.  We continue to wait for those parts to come, hoping and praying that when they DO, we'll have inverters again.  If they finally come and then don't work, we'll...try something else.

Our urgent needs!

We shared that we need $10,000 in start-up costs, $3000 for our power situation and a sponsor for Louis Claudin!

As of this morning, you have generously come alongside us with almost $9000 dollars!  We have ordered the parts we think we need for our power system, we are buying all the start-up food tomorrow, and we are getting there!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing our need, for helping with it and for praying with us.  Instead of a daunting $13,000 needed right now, we now only need an additional $4000 and a parter for Louis Claudin!

What has blessed me the most by this generous giving the last few days, as always, is the relationships.  A friend from high school...a new friend who is already supporting a student fully...a missionary already living on support in Europe...several already working in non-profit ministry...pastors, farmers, faithful friends.  A little bit of help from a lot of people and a lot of help from a few people has entirely changed things for us.

Made it possible to order parts for the inverter.  Made it possible to list out the foods we need to care for returning staff and students.  Made it possible to run the generator the hours we ARE running it so we can do laundry, charge our phones and computers, store up water and keep from losing all our refrigerated foods.

After some great conversations with staff and students these past few days, we are so passionate about and excited for what they are doing in His Kingdom.  We want so badly to help them continue...to encourage them in these ministries.  And YOU are helping us DO that.  We are so very grateful.

Please continue to help us get in the last $4000 that is needed, and please continue to lift us up during this time of challenges.

This is one of those times we are grateful for, because it demands full reliance upon Him.  Your help and prayers, poured out unto Him, have His praise on our lips.

that we might be found faithful.