March 1, 2014

I wish you all could watch it also: the six minute video that Ibrahima filmed as he walked around the land where the new school will be built. The seventh, eighth, and ninth grade students stand four meters apart, marking the perimeter.  They stand still and patiently as he walks within the human fence, showing the size of the plot, the borders, and the old small building with a tree growing inside that will have to be removed.  About two minutes into the film the children begin to sing. With one of the teachers conducting and Ibrahima leading they sing Christian hymns in French, clapping out the beat and filling the dusty flat plot of land with their voices.  It is a truly great moment, filled with pride and hope.

We hope to see a school spring up on this land within the next year.  The first phase will contain three classrooms and the administrative area on a single floor.  The construction will be sturdy enough to allow a second floor to be built, adding an additional three to four classrooms in the future.  By having their own building, there is a much better chance that Grace Private School will continue to grow and eventually become self-supporting.  The plans and construction bids are in place; all that is needed now are the donations. 

This is an amazing opportunity to make a tangible, measureable, important difference.  Some of these are children who, without your help, would either be in public school or no school at all, with little hope of learning enough to reach their potential.  We all have the same needs right? The same dreams?  We want to have enough to eat, to be healthy and strong, to be safe and loved. Especially loved. We want to be valued, to know that we matter to someone.  These children know that someone is there for them. Someone that they have never met, from a country that they will never see. But they know that we are here.  Ibrahima is there to tell them how much they are loved and how intensely we want them to succeed, to find peace, happiness, and fulfillment, and to reach their God-given potentials.

Please pray for the school and the children. Also, consider making a monthly donation to help us move towards breaking ground on the new school.

Peace,
Brandon