April 2008

Praise the Lord! We now have 21 students in the first year of the diploma course. This is great news and is a confirmation that God wants the course to run again this year. They have now done a week of teaching practice and are starting their lessons on Monday 31st March. Please pray for them to settle into FEISA quickly, for a positive group dynamic between them and a positive learning atmosphere in the class.

Praise God for the start of the 2-year degree extension course on 24th March, with 25 students.

Give thanks for a wonderful Easter service, led by the third years (see photo below). The service was well-planned and very touching. These students are a lovely group of girls and a great blessing in FEISA.


In March, the director of an oil company which has donated funds to FEISA for a number of years, came to Paraguay for a few days with his daughter. He took the opportunity to come and visit FEISA and he seemed to be impressed with what he saw. He told us he would be letting his company know that we spend their money well!! Praise the Lord for this wonderful opportunity to meet him and express personally how much the generosity of his company has impacted the lives of children in Paraguay.

Please pray for our second year class. There are one or two students in the group who are very strong-minded and can be argumentative and disrespectful at times. The few Christians in the class are very quiet natured, so the overriding atmosphere is often more negative than positive. Please pray for the staff as we work with them, for Christ's love to shine out from us and for the students to be touched by Him.

Please pray for the two visits to the Chaco in April, continuing the training in the indigenous community of Yatnata. We are helping the community set up and run their own nursery school for the very youngest children. The visits are on 11th-12th and the 25th -56th of this month. Praise God for this opportunity to work with the Ministry of Education and for all that FEISA is learning from the experience.
(The photo shows one of the mothers during a training session in March)


On 20th April, Paraguay will elect a new president. Please pray that the vote will be free and fair. There are four main candidates, among them a Roman Catholic bishop and a retired general, who spent time in prison for his part in the alleged assassination of a former vice-president. They all promise change and a better Paraguay. Please pray that whoever is chosen will lead the country in wisdom, justice and integrity.

March 2008

Urgent prayer please!
Please pray for more first year diploma students. We currently have ten applicants but we need an absolute minimum of 12 by 6th March to know we can start the course at the end of this month. Many have telephoned for information about the course, but few have come in for application forms. Please pray urgently for the right number and the right students to sign up. (the photo shows some of our current third years)


Thank you for your prayers about the new language degree courses FEISA was asked to take on for the University. After much prayer and discussion, the Management Team felt it was not the right decision to accept these courses after all. Praise the Lord for his clear guidance on this issue.

Please pray for our cash flow situation this year. The exchange rate has fallen between the British and Paraguayan currencies, which means that for every ₤1000 that is donated, we receive ₤100 less than we did last year. High inflation in Paraguay means that every year our cash reserve funds in the bank are decreasing. A number of our students have decided to leave and this means we are receiving less money in the shape of tuition fees. Several of our major donors will be giving us their donations in the second half of the year and all these factors combined mean that for the first half of the year, we will be running down our reserves. We need more donations earlier on this year to make sure the situation does not become critical. Please pray for God to provide the money we need in good time.

Several times last year, we asked you to pray about the possibility of FEISA running in-service training courses for teachers in order to provide much needed training for professionals and an added source of income for the college. The Ministry of Education never granted Estela and Gloria of the Management Team a meeting about this so now we would ask you to pray for wisdom as the FEISA leadership makes decisions about what courses to provide and how to proceed.

More urgent prayer needed!
Andrea Friesen (on right in photo, with Sam Parsons), one of our 2007 graduates, has been in the UK since January, working part-time as a Teaching Assistant in a Christian school in Oxford. She has been living in temporary accommodation and now desperately needs to find somewhere more permanent. She has been unable to find anywhere within her means so far and needs to move out of her current place by 7th March. Please pray for her to find suitable and affordable accommodation near the school as soon as possible.

In the middle of February, there was an outbreak of yellow fever in Paraguay, for the first time in 30 years. This sent communities into panic as people in their neighbourhood were diagnosed with the disease. It is carried by the same mosquito that carries dengue fever, but is much more severe because it has a 50% mortality rate. There is a vaccine, but when the outbreak began, there were not enough vaccines in Paraguay. Other governments donated or lent what was needed, but the help was slow in coming and there were long queues of angry people at health clinics in the meantime. Praise the Lord for the Government's eventual provision of free vaccines to immunise everyone and the apparent containment of the outbreak.