Teachers and students the world over (whose school year runs concurrent to ours) are experiencing the same feelings we at Sahel Academy are. There’s amazement and relief that the year is actually over as well as excitement, anticipation and possibly apprehension about what’s next. Those involved with international ministries experience more sadness at saying good-byes, not knowing when they will ever see one another again. Re-unions are a little harder to plan when your student body and staff comes from all over the world.

Please pray for us as we are some of those saying good-byes. Most of you know by now that we are returning to the US for an early furlough. Please pray for our travels as we leave in just 5 days from now early on Saturday morning June 6^th.

For many reasons, it is unlikely that we will return to Niger. We’ve been struggling with this decision this past half year, wanting so badly to at least finish our four-year term, but slowly seeing that God was leading us home. We’re amazed that we’ve been here in Niger for three years, relieved that this busy and difficult year is finally ending, excited about returning to our friends and family in the US, sad about all the good-byes we’re saying once again, and filled with anticipation for what’s next for us. We believe that God is giving us a new vision. We’re anticipating the time with our pastor, our sending church, our mission, and you, our supporters, who will help to confirm this new direction in our lives.

Please pray for Niger. Recent political decisions have many concerned that the country is headed in the same direction as many other African countries that seldom resolves itself without loss of life or livelihood. Here in Niamey, the large African market burned to the ground this past week which will cause extreme hardship for those whose every possession was lost without insurance to cover the loss.

We will miss Niger and our ministry here at Sahel Academy, but we know that it is time to move on to a different ministry of Training the Next Generation. Our ministry once again will not change – only the location will change. Please pray for us as we seek to clearly know God’s direction.

As we wrap up another year with our students, we are reminded that the reason we are here at Sahel is to imprint our lives into the lives of our students. We trust that they will see Jesus in us and learn to trust Him and His Word. Our hearts resonate with the words of the songwriter who says: “I see a generation rising up to take the place in selfless faith…” One of my goals in teaching is to instill in my students an unquestioning trust in the complete Word of God and help them to realize that His Word gives us truth for every area of our lives. It is rewarding to hear from graduates about how this teaching of a Biblical worldview has prepared them for life after Sahel Academy. They are seeing it as essential for their survival, especially as they enter university studies. Pray that we will have the same kind of impact in the lives of the students we are teaching now.

This past week, a fellow missionary and I went out to a remote village one evening to show the Jesus film. This church is one of a group of churches where we have baptized many believers in the past few years. We do not have any missionaries regularly working with these churches, but they are doing quite well on their own evangelizing and spreading out all over that region. The last time I was at this  particular village, the church had just started with a hand full of believers. Since then, they have built a small church with a shelter along side it. When we arrived, there was a Good Friday service going on and about 200 people from all around the region were crammed into the shelter listening to sermons, one after another. Just before dark, they broke up and we set up for the film. The full moon was just coming up, and I could hear drums and singing coming from all directions as the people spread out into smaller groups waiting for the film. We set up a screen that can be viewed on both sides, women on one side and the men on the other. With the help of a generator, a projector and an amplifier, over 200 people viewed the film that night. Afterwards, many villagers came to the pastors to learn how to receive Christ. We guess that there will have to be another baptism soon, but not until the rains come and fill up the waterholes again.

We used my GPS to work our way out of the bush late that night. There are no roads out there—just donkey and bike paths that meander all over. Since it is not safe to drive late at night way away from the city (Niamey), we spent that night on the porch of the house of a missionary couple who are on furlough. There was no need for an alarm to wake us; the guinea hens woke us up in time to get on the road early so I could get back to my classes at Sahel Academy.

Reflecting on the whole event made me remember once again that the God who listens to our worship in our beautiful churches is the same God who works in the lives of these people who barely have enough food to eat. These people have the joy and love from the Holy Spirit, and they take their relationship with Christ very seriously. It is not just something they do on Sunday. It has become so much a part their lives that literally entire villages are coming to the Lord through their living testimonies. Once again, I was humbled and challenged by their sincere and simple faith.

Due to family health needs, Lois and I will be taking our furlough this next nine months, a year earlier than planned. We look forward to this time of re-evaluating our ministry, and visiting with our friends and supporters in the coming months and sharing the ministry that God has laid on our hearts. We will be contacting our friends and supporters to arrange for a time or ‘reporting’, but please feel free to contact us if you already have dates in mind.

The Lord has answered your prayers in regards to our French elementary school. Please read what our Regional Coordinator had to say about yesterday’s meeting with the Director of Education:

“We want to thank you for praying for our meeting today and also for the many notes of encouragement we received from so many of you stating that you were standing with us in prayer…At the meeting today we stated that taking the teacher back was not an option for us.   We were then able to come to a mutual agreement.  We have learned a lot from this experience.  We are thankful that it is finished and the case closed.  We have been assured that it cannot be opened again. 

Please continue to pray with us for the French School ministry.  Pray for the teachers and the director that they will be able to put this incident aside and work together with a spirit of unity. 

Thank you for fighting the battles with us through prayer!”

Thanks, team!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: We met with our team members tonight to pray; we ask you to do the same as you meet together this Sunday. Our Regional Coordinator summarizes the problem like this:

“Last year we made some policy changes at our French Elementary School with regard to discipline.  Corporal punishment in the school system has been an accepted practice in this culture for many, many years.  However, when we found out that it was against the law according to Niger government, we informed our teachers that this would not be an acceptable practice on our campus.  It was even stated in the teacher contracts that this practice would not be tolerated.

“We recently let a teacher go who was caught hitting a student.  The teacher of course is not happy and this past week we were summoned to a meeting with the Department of Education over the case.  After the Director listened to the teacher’s side of the story and then to our side of the story his first suggestion was that we reinstate the teacher and give him a written warning.  We were totally shocked. 

“We have met with the Director of our school and the committee who oversees the running of the school and have decided that this suggestion is not acceptable to us.  There is another meeting scheduled with the Department of Education for Monday mid-day.  We are asking that you pray much with us.  We will be stating that this is not a viable option for us.  He broke the contract he signed with us, he broke Niger law and we have already replaced him.  We will be asking for another option to be considered.  Please, please pray.  We do not want to end up in another law suit and yet we do not feel that we can reinstate the teacher.

“Satan seems to be attacking from all sides.  Pray with us that our testimony as a school and as a mission will not dishonor our Lord. “

We hesitate to say more, but please know that this matter is critical to the ongoing ministry of this school here in this country.

Some of you have written and asked about Boubacar. We don’t see him and his family much anymore since he no longer works for us. However, just this past week he came to talk to Bob about his younger brother who also worked for us on occasion. This 17-year old brother had a large fast-growing cancerous growth removed from his neck this past week and is recovering at home. Bob saw him today and was amazed at how emaciated and pale he is. Please pray for the healing of this brother and that God will use this time to turn their hearts towards His Son.

The concerns we mentioned in our February Update are ongoing. We’ve heard from many of you this past month and know that you are praying. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you!

“…Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.”
Ephesians 3:20-21

During our staff meeting this week, we were challenged to remember ways in which God has not only answered prayers and blessed us in the past few months, but also ways in which He has surprised us “according to His riches in glory”. Our time together in the Word finished with one of our teachers praying Eph. 3:14-21. I have to admit that at the time I didn’t ‘let’ God’s Word challenge me. I guess He didn’t need my permission though, because the challenge to think of His surprises and His Word that was prayed in faith keep returning to me. Let me mention some of the things that God is reminding me of:

• We experienced a month of eye-opening giving to this ministry - our largest since being on the field fulltime. This followed our lowest month during which we wondered if we might need to consider coming home to make more friends. What a reminder to us of Who really owns those cattle on those thousand hills! Thank you to those Who were (and are) a part of this surprise!
• Our renter has voluntarily left on his own (after 5 months of not paying rent) without causing any property damage.
• We’re seeing obvious growth and change in the lives of some of our Christian students, as well as increased interest in some Who don’t know the Lord - yet.
• God is providing teachers for Sahel Academy. Mike will join our staff the last week in February to take over the Phys. Ed. classes so that our director (high school phys. ed.) and principal (elementary phys. ed.) can be freed from teaching those classes.
• Our necessary ‘experiment’ in online education is working better than expected. Because we don’t have an English teacher for our Senior English class, our students are taking this class online from Sevenstar Academy. It seems that they may be actually liking the experience.

We know that these answers to prayers are not only our answers, but yours as well. Once again we thank you for praying, and send along these requests:

• A new dependable renter
• Continued support surprises as our promised support is actually lower than what is needed for us to stay on the field
• Family health concerns
• Sahel Seniors in their last semester in Africa; some are looking towards life in their home countries while families are still here in Africa
• Still more teachers…pray for English, French, and Computer teachers. You can see the complete list of needs on our website at http://www.sahelacademy.com/staff. We also have needs in the administrative area.
• Support for committed staff members who want to be here but don’t have the needed resources – yet.
• Added strength as our work loads are heavier than we’ve ever known them

We ask that you pray the above verses (Eph. 4:14-21) for us. We want what is promised in God’s Word. We commit to pray the same for you.