June 2008

In May, after 7 years of valuable service in the library and fundraising departments, Caroline Gilmour-White has said goodbye to FEISA and is now focusing on her other ministries in the diocese. We thank God for her commitment to providing an outstanding service to the students and teachers in the library and for her hard work in bringing in much-needed funds. Please pray for peace and guidance for Caroline as she continues to follow God in this new phase of her service for Him. May she experience God’s rich blessing and abundant love in new ways.

Praise God for the provision of several donations during April and May which have eased the cash flow problem for the time being. There are a number of funding applications which need to be made to several major donors before the end of June. Pray for the time and wisdom to prepare the applications and also for their acceptance by the donors and the quick release of the funds.

Praise the Lord for the success of the workshops at the ACSI conference on 9th and 10th May. Altogether, 240 teachers attended the sessions run by Marisol and Marina and the feedback was extremely positive. Please pray that the teachers will have the time and energy to process and put into practice the things they learned.

Give thanks for the fruitful time the FEISA leadership had during their strategic planning days at the end of May. They have come up with an exciting and ambitious five-year plan, including the following projects:
• Introduction of more courses.
• Generation of income from within Paraguay though educational business ventures.
• Extension of the training in indigenous communities.
• Establishment of a permanent play space for street children from the local area.
• Purchase of a new building in order to provide the infrastructure for the above.
Please pray for the leadership team as they begin to implement the various aspects of the plan. Pray for patience and guidance and for the timing of each project to follow God’s priorities.

Strategic planning meeting: l-r; Gloria, Sam, Ana, Ruth, Estela

Please continue to pray for the release of funds from the Ministry of Childhood and Adolescence so that FEISA can continue with the indigenous nursery project in Yatnata.

On 14th June, there will be a meeting in the Chaco community of El Estribo, where nine schools are keen to take part in the indigenous pre-school training programme, due to start in August. It is an ambitious project, covering a relatively wide geographic area and the indigenous teachers all have very high expectations for it. Please pray for wisdom and strength for Sam Parsons, in charge of the project, and the FEISA teachers involved.

At a meeting of the Anglican Church in Paraguay on 31st May, a British bishop was elected by an overwhelming majority to replace John Ellison. He and his wife are expected to arrive next year. Praise the Lord for the sense of peace and unity at the meeting and pray for them as they begin their preparations for moving to Paraguay.

May 2008

Praise God for a very positive student integration day on 25^th April. We heard the Word of God from a visiting speaker and the students played games and sports all afternoon. It was organized so that the teams were made up from the different year groups and the girls had a lot of fun getting to know each other better (see photo).

Thank you for praying for Andrea, our former student who is now in Oxford and needed accommodation. She is now settled in a new home, a little further away from school, but she’s living with someone who works at the same school, so they go into work together. God is good!

The annual Paraguayan conference of the Association of Christian Schools International will take place on the 9^th and 10^th of May. For the third year running, FEISA has been asked to run workshops at the conference. Two of our teachers will be taking part: Marisol’s workshop will be on creativity; how to develop it in yourself as a teacher and how to encourage it in your pupils. Marina will do two workshops; one on how to stimulate thinking and language in children, the other on creative approaches to literacy and making it relevant to your pupils’ context. Please pray for wisdom and inspiration as they plan these workshops and for the teachers who go along to be inspired to improve their teaching as a result of what they learn.

On 28^th and 30^th May, the leadership team of FEISA will spend the whole day together, working on a strategic plan for FEISA’s future. This is something which is particularly important considering the continuing fall in the exchange rates, given our current dependence on foreign funding. Pray that the discussions would not be directed by financial concerns but by God and pray for wisdom for the leadership and courage to follow God in whatever direction he wishes.

The indigenous nursery project FEISA is running with the community of Yatnata in the Chaco has had to come to a halt this month because the final installment of funding has not been released by the Ministry of Childhood and Adolescence. The project is having great success and the women who are being trained are doing very well indeed. Please pray for the Ministry to release the funds so that the project, which is nearing completion, can continue.

Praise the Lord for peaceful general and presidential elections on 20^th April. It is the first time ever that power has passed from one party to another without bloodshed. The new president, Fernando Lugo (see photo) will take office on 15^th August. He is a former bishop, influenced by liberation theology (which emphasises God's preferential option for the poor) and has caught the hearts and minds of a Paraguayan people ready for change. He and his coalition partners have pledged to fight the corruption and poverty which are such pervasive problems here.