We are on our way!

Well, this week has seen us really into the new school facility. The teenage boys have been working hard, helping us get everything in shape. They have painted some of the rooms. We are waiting on paint for the others. Yesterday they came over to my house and took a truckload of bookcases, table & chairs, books, and teaching materials. Today they put up two blackboards, and helped to begin unpacking and sorting what they brought yesterday.

The teachers came in the afternoon, and began sorting materials and putting everything in order. For the moment it looks like we are going to have about 60 students. With five teachers, and a maximum class size of 12, every class may be full.

The Lord is providing...Today we got a sink. We basically have no functioning plumbing. The toilets flush with a bucket, and there are no sinks installed yet. We don't have electricity yet, but we are fairly used to living without it if we have to.

We have a promise of at least one door, and a few other things like that from a church that is doing some remodeling. Two of the classrooms don't have doors, real windows (just some criss-cross boards) and have zinc roofs. Because of this, they are too insecure to leave materials in them. They need a cement roof, and bars on the windows and doors. (Since the robbers aren't behind bars, we have to be!) There are lots of robbers in this barrio, but everyone knows who they are.

One of the them was over today, asking to get some water from the school's cistern... and keeping his eyes open while he did it. Please pray for our protection; the teachers and the students will be walking through a few drug-infested blocks to get to school. Pray that the Lord will protect the school from break-ins, as well, and that the "watchyman" as they call him, will be honest. Often the watchmen are in on the burglaries here.

Most schools have a night watchman, who basically lives at the school, in order to keep people from breaking in. We are supposed to have one provided by the school sistem, but we don't know when he will start.

Here's what happens when it rains--and this was just ten minutes of hard rain!


I'll introduce you to some of our new teachers in a later update.