Since returning from the DR, these
leaders have already had several large (70+ people) meetings to
share their experiences. Today they had 180 people show up (100
more than expected) to transport, on their heads, a second load
of fertilizer CODEP purchased. Are they motivated?
Several weeks ago we had six teacher-trainees preparing for summer
school. Two Saturdays ago we had 26. This past Saturday we stopped
enrolling and had reached 30 hopefuls. Of these 80 percent are
new this year. Constantly training new teachers is exhausting
work but greatly aids and leverages CODEP’s educational
efforts into a much larger community.
Summer school is scheduled to begin Tuesday, June 29. It appears
we will have about 140 children. Thanks to a tremendous response
by many individuals and several churches, we were able to greatly
reduce the parent contribution this year. Several folks have written
about food costs for the summer school lunch program. I can’t
give too many specifics yet but, looking at the beans and rice
alone, they have increased 200 percent and 250 percent respectively
compared to last summer.
I mentioned earlier that we were able to purchase a second load
of fertilizer. It was a larger purchase—of 22 tons. While
not exactly what we need, it will give a real boost to the nearly
500,000 trees we planted this spring.
At our home base in L’Acul, we’ve had some good and
bad news. We were several weeks into a feed trial comparing several
mixes of our local experimental fish food (crushed leaves and
manioc flour). One of our older watchmen was left to feed the
fish while everyone else was in the mountains for several days.
He got confused about which group was receiving what feed. Three
and a half weeks of feed trials literally down the drain. Secondly,
and unrelated, in early June we had our oldest generator die for
the last time. It was only used a couple hours a couple days each
week. It was a backup to the solar panels and the newer generator.
The purpose of a backup is that in case something goes wrong with
the primary unit, there is a fall-back position. While all is
operating perfectly fine at the moment, stress levels are high
as we worry what the future holds. Clement, who is most involved
with the fish project (and not the one who fed the wrong food),
brainstorms daily how to deal with a potential problem. This is
amazing and encouraging because very few people plan ahead and
try to develop crisis action plans until the problem has surfaced.
To me, this is a real example of education, training, and buy-in
that comes from leadership training.
The good news from L’Acul is we had 125 school kids come
for a day at the beach. This group came last year as well. Their
school is an excellent Christian school located a dozen miles
from here. When they left, the beach and yard was the cleanest
it has been for a long time. If only you could have seen and heard
the excitement and squeals of delight of 125 elementary kids visiting
the ocean.
The second piece of great news from L’Acul comes from the
fish program here. A couple years ago some people contacted me
about helping them with training and teaching plus supplying fingerling
fish. The project hoped to raise enough fish to provide some protein
for the school lunch program. With some technical help from us
and a few thousand fingerlings from CODEP, this project now produces
800 fish a week. It supplies two different schools with fish for
the lunch program twice a week. Doesn’t it feel great to
be part of the multiplier effect of CODEP?
Prayer concerns start with summer school. Elementary kids from
a dozen schools, teacher trainees from that many more communities,
food, supplies and an unstable government all combine to create
ways we can see God at work. We praise God that Wisline’s
house is progressing and pray its symbolism will encourage others
to become and stay involved for a long time in this program of
helping people help themselves.
In Christ’s service with you,
Rodney & Sharyn
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
136 |
