After we had to take our dear friends back to the airport and said good-bye, we got an email that another potential teacher was not going to be joining us. When we received this message, David and I were both very discouraged. We are both juggling many classes along with other ministry opportunities. As our students are getting older, we are needing to offer more higher level classes. This year David will be teaching high school Human Anatomy and Physiology and Biology, middle school Physical Science along with Omnibus 2 and 5 (a literature, theology, history course). I will be teaching 5th - 7th grade math, Pre-algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Health and Physical Education and supervising/grading Pre-Calculus and Calculus. Without a separate elementary teacher, we would both be taking on even more classes! We were feeling very overwhelmed!
Thankfully I had received an email that week from one of the parents of some of our new students about a Ugandan woman named Miss Vicky who has been teaching missionary kids in Jinja for many years. I was intrigued, but since I thought we had someone joining us, I decided to wait until our visitors left to get in touch with her. When we heard the news about the other teacher not coming, we contacted Miss Vicky the next morning. She was very kind and easy to communicate with one the phone. I had recently spoken with several people who highly recommended her and she was available and willing to come interview. As we met with her, the main thing she mentioned is that she is most comfortable teaching younger students. I was thrilled since that is exactly our need! As soon as the interview was over the teachers all agreed that we need to invite her to work with us. Miss Vicky is truly an answer to prayer! Here is a photo of our four full-time teachers!
There were details to work through as we realized we would now need to be paying a salary. That week another family from Jinja asked if they could come visit and see if their two boys might be able to attend our school. Since our primary ministry is teaching the children of missionaries here at Good Shepherd's Fold, we raised the support to cover those expenses. We met with the missionary families here and agreed that is we were to accept students from other ministries, we would need to charge tuition to cover expenses. We realized that these two new students would help us cover the cost of hiring a teacher and would also help with the ratio of boys to girls. Before this new family, we were going to have only 2 boys and 12 girls in our 6th-12th grade. Elijah was thrilled to have another boy his age joining us!
This past week we have been preparing for the start of school, organizing new classroom space, planning a schedule, organizing curriculum, and working on lesson plans. It is exciting to see our school grow. Our first day of school is Wednesday and we have 27 students enrolled in Pre-K through 12th grade. As more than half of our students are new, we are praying that God will bring a spirit of unity and love among our students. This year will be a transition for all of them. Most missionary kids have experienced a great deal of transition in their lives already, and we want our school to be a place where our students know they are safe and loved while they learn and grow. Please pray for us all as we work toward creating this culture in our school. We are thankful for many of you praying for us and our students. Please keep us in your prayers this week in particular! And thank God with us for sending Miss Vicky as an answer to our prayers!
There were details to work through as we realized we would now need to be paying a salary. That week another family from Jinja asked if they could come visit and see if their two boys might be able to attend our school. Since our primary ministry is teaching the children of missionaries here at Good Shepherd's Fold, we raised the support to cover those expenses. We met with the missionary families here and agreed that is we were to accept students from other ministries, we would need to charge tuition to cover expenses. We realized that these two new students would help us cover the cost of hiring a teacher and would also help with the ratio of boys to girls. Before this new family, we were going to have only 2 boys and 12 girls in our 6th-12th grade. Elijah was thrilled to have another boy his age joining us!
This past week we have been preparing for the start of school, organizing new classroom space, planning a schedule, organizing curriculum, and working on lesson plans. It is exciting to see our school grow. Our first day of school is Wednesday and we have 27 students enrolled in Pre-K through 12th grade. As more than half of our students are new, we are praying that God will bring a spirit of unity and love among our students. This year will be a transition for all of them. Most missionary kids have experienced a great deal of transition in their lives already, and we want our school to be a place where our students know they are safe and loved while they learn and grow. Please pray for us all as we work toward creating this culture in our school. We are thankful for many of you praying for us and our students. Please keep us in your prayers this week in particular! And thank God with us for sending Miss Vicky as an answer to our prayers!
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