Praise items.

A couple of praise items.

1) For 3 years a teacher from John's former school (7 hours north of the Gilgal International School) has been asking him to come back to Nigeria for a visit. This is the site of the Church/clinic/school complex where John pastored and founded the school which he and Ester had to abandon in 1998 due to the muslim massacre of christians in that state. The last weekend of his Nigeria trip, he and the team who accompanied him traveled the 7 hours to his former church for Sunday service. After the service, this former teacher begged John to come 'see the clinic'. What he discovered as he rounded the corner of the building was that his former school has for 3 years been re-established and successfully educating 200 children. This teacher who was 18 years old when she taught for John is now the principal, carrying on his mission. A new state government is in place and the muslim unrest has significantly diminished.

2) John and his mission team travelled to Otada village (his 'father's village) to give gifts to the widows and underprivileged children. The elders of the village approached him with the request that he educate 100 of their village children who have no school to go to. John was unable to help them as the cost to bus the kids to Gilgal International school isn't feasible. The elders asked him what it would take for him to teach their students. John said "I need land for a permanent facility" THE VILLAGE DONATED and is transferring title to Gilgal of the eqivalent of about 3 quarters of land . . . we'll know for sure the size when the survey is done and the title transferred. When John described the 'very big, very big' parcel of land and I asked him to tell me how big, he told me from my house to where he and Ester lived before moving to Grande Cache and that same width. Their old house is 2 miles from my house!!! There is enough land for a huge compound AND excellent farmable land to raise food, chickens, etc to feed the children. AND if that isn't enough. . . John and Ester have Nigerian immigrant friends in Grande Prairie. The husband is an architect who is drawing up the plans for the facility FREE and will work with the Gilgal board in Canada to plan phases of development as money comes in. PRAISE THE LORD!!!
So John is planning to take a 1 week leave from his Church in Grande Cache to go back to Nigeria in January to complete paperwork etc. Building will begin this spring.Who wants to go on a mission trip this spring/summer to help build our own facility? Anyway it looks like first week of February we will have a board meeting here in Wetaskiwin (perhaps at the Gwynne Church).