August 2008

FEISA students in the computer room

Praise the Lord for a very good and refreshing winter break for all our staff and students in July. Estela’s health has improved and we are all very grateful for the wonderful, spring-like weather we were able to enjoy.

This month, there are several visits to the Chaco; please pray for safety in the journeys and fruitful training sessions with the indigenous communities:

Nursery project visits to Yatnata; 1^st-2^nd and 22^nd-23^rd

Pre-school teacher training visit to El Estribo; 8^th -9^th

There are also 8 mobile play sessions planned, including two special ones on 14^th and 16^th celebrating Children’s Day (16^th Aug). Please pray for safety as our team travels to poor areas and for the children to experience God’s love through this ministry.

In March this year we mentioned the fall in the value of the Pound, which was affecting our finances. We thank God for your prayers and the generous donations we have received which have helped our cash flow situation enormously. Unfortunately, the financial conditions continue to worsen and FEISA’s costs have now risen by a whopping 30% since last year. Please pray for wisdom for our Management Board as they seek God’s direction for FEISA in these challenging circumstances.

As our reliance on overseas funding has increased, so has the amount of work involved in managing that. At present, we have six people on our “Donor Relations” team; three UK nationals working in FEISA (Rupert, Sam and Fiona) and three volunteers in the UK (John Tompkins, Beth Totaro and David Orritt). The team’s responsibilities include seeking new donors, applying for funds (often a drawn-out and complicated process), sending our donors regular updates on the work they are supporting, as well as the whole accounting and administration side of this work. As the workload increases, we find ourselves becoming overstretched, since for all of us, these responsibilities are only a part of our ministries. Please pray with us for the provision of somebody with good writing and IT skills who can take on some of the responsibility for reporting to donors from our small and exhausted team!

On 15^th August, the new president, Fernando Lugo, will take office. Please pray for him and his team as they seek to fight corruption, poverty and a lack of jobs in Paraguay. Pray that the hope that his election has inspired will be fulfilled in a transparent and honest government and they will do their best to make the changes they promised.

Paraguayan schoolgirls