Please enjoy this update from our Lifesong Ethiopia directors, Gary and Peggy Ifft:
On September 12 we turned over our new year here in Ethiopia and now we are in 2004. We are looking forward to many good things in this new year!
School started here on Monday, September 19. Opening up 3 campuses with over 600 students was quite a challenge. This is especially true, considering that we had two brand new school buildings to open up. Opening up 2 new buildings and adding over 200 students also requires a lot of new teachers, teachers' aides, feeding program cooks, cleaners, and so on. We now have a school staff of 62 employees and 5 employees in Samuel's Home. This is a great responsibility which we take very seriously. At times we lie awake at night thinking about all the families who are dependent upon us for their livelihood. We are especially grateful for faithful supporters!
We also want to recognize a special team which accepted the challenge of building 4 additional classrooms at our Adami Tulu campus. This team committed to building additional rooms to allow us to have 2 classrooms each of Nursery School, Lower Kindergarten, and Upper Kindergarten. As a bonus they also decided to raise funds for a brand new latrine for the students.
The amazing thing was that the team members didn't really even know each other personally before becoming involved in this project. The one thing they had in common was that each had adopted or was in the process of adopting an Ethiopian child. They went through a rather arduous fund-raising process and decided also to come to Ethiopia to do some "hands-on" work with the building they sponsored. So, in mid-August they arrived and spent a few days painting the buildings. They also taught Vacation Bible School to up to 200 kids and did a lot of other very worthwhile things. We are grateful for all they did, and we really appreciate the fact that they are also determined to help us expand the work in Adami Tulu!”
God's blessings to each of you and your families,
Gary and Peggy, Lifesong Ethiopia