casi normal

Thank you for your prayers for our school these last several weeks. Since Christmas, things in the village have calmed down considerably. Tension still exists. A few missionaries working here will not be able to continue their work as normal and other missionaries will not be able to work in the village, period. However, the majority of our children have returned to school. We are missing maybe 1-2 children per class. A few of the missing children will not be able to return due to their families' involvement with the violence in the village.

Please continue to pray for our kids and their families. Just think about what it would be like to have your familiy threatened to the point of moving out of the community and then returning in a few short weeks to a somewhat unstable area because you can't afford to pay rent elsewhere. The children at our school are tough because they have to be. Please pray that God will provide them with peace in their communities so that they will able to worry about the things children should be worrying about-playing and education- instead of protecting their families.

I do have some very good news. All of the teachers and teaching assistants from our school attended a teacher's training in Jarabacoa last week. I can't even explain to you how excited I am that this happened! The training went really well and all of the teachers returned to our school with great ideas and enthusiasm. Though we are still learning together (our preschool teacher made several beautiful posters for her classroom, but she made them all in fancy cursive script- not exactly age appropriate), we are moving in the right directly. God has done incredible things with our teaching staff and I can't wait to see what happens during my last few months here.

On a more personal note, someone very special is coming to visit me starting on Thursday! It's been over three months since I've seen my boyfriend and he will be visiting me for over a week! I am excited to show him the project and my life here. Thursday can't get here soon enough!

Thank you again for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for the project, the children and their families, and the recent unrest in our village. There are still many families suffering that need your prayer support.

God Bless,
Georgia