October 2007

As those of you with e-mail addresses heard, in August and September there were many forest fires throughout Paraguay. We asked you to pray for rain and God was gracious and sent enough rain to put out 99 % of the fires. Unfortunately, there has been no rain since then in some of the more remote parts of the country and there are now over 400 fires burning, mostly in the Chaco region. The lack of rain also means that there is a severe shortage of water for the communities in that harsh region. Please pray for significant rain to fall and put out all the fires for good and to provide the desperately needed water.

Praise the Lord for a very successful trip to the Chaco with the third year students, which counts as one of their teaching practice placements. The school at Yatnata had its pre-school and year 1 classrooms painted and the students organised activities for the children.

In July, we told you about the translation of children's Bible stories and teaching materials into Enxet for communities in the Chaco. Praise God for the completion of these materials and the successful first teaching session at the Yatnata school on 24^th September. (the photo shows Remigio, who did the translation, teaching the children)

Please pray for Estela, our Head, who fell and broke her arm and is in a great deal of pain. She has been on sick leave for two weeks and is still unable to return to work due to the pain she is in.

Please pray for the six third year students who are struggling financially. Due to various reasons they all have to pay for re-sit exams and this is adding to the financial burden they are already under. Please pray for them to be able to find the money so that they can get up to date with their fees and do their exams. Those with fees outstanding are also unable to do their teaching practice placement with their classmates. This situation puts in jeopardy their graduation in December.

Some of our fist year students lack motivation and a small minority also lack respect in the classroom. There are some very strong personalities which have a negative influence on the rest of the group and the Christians in the class are very quiet. Please pray for increased motivation for the difficult students and for the love of Christ to reign in the group. Please also pray for the FEISA teachers, to love the students and to teach them without prejudice.