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Family Update
We praise the Lord for another month of His faithfulness and goodness. We praise Him because He is worthy to be praised in good and difficult times. He is always with us, and we trust that in all circumstances He has a plan. This month, we have had some sickness but overall it has been better. The girls are growing and enjoying their time with friends, family, and at the school. They love the kids and the teachers a lot. Briella loves to be in the classrooms and she definitely has a special friendship with some of our teachers. Lilya is as sassy as ever, always getting into everything and riding her scooter everywhere. Felicity is starting to talk more in both English and Moore. We recently hired a teen girl to come help us with the kids during the day while we work, and it has been a huge blessing for us. She is definitely a gift from God, and the girls love her tremendously. Now, we can be in meetings, help at the school, and go to the city without the girls there right beside us. Barto has been working hard on construction projects and dealing with workers. I have been working a lot in the schools. Helping with making sure the kids sit down to listen, encouraging the teachers, holding the preschoolers why they cry, helping our second graders who struggling with writing and anything else that is needed. I really love being in the classrooms and building relationships with the children and teachers.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-7
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School Update/Sponsorship
This first month of school is going really well. The kids are getting used to coming on time, and even just showing up every day. It is a challenge every year to get the kids into a routine and also, because it is Malaria season, a lot of the kids are sick often. Because of the coronavirus, our second graders didn’t finish last year, and so right now they are finishing up their lessons from last year and then will move on into the second-grade material. The kids are doing well, I have added in more homework this year and monthly exams to see progress for the kids. They don’t normal do those things here, but I truly believe that it will help the kids succeed more. The preschoolers have a difficult time not being with their parents this month so we have a lot of crying, we know it will get better with time. The materials that people donated and we had shipped here on a container were delivered last week! We are so excited for all of that!
We have a little girl who signed up for school this year, she has some physical disabilities and when she was signed up, we were not sure what she would be capable of doing. She is in the older preschool classroom, and she has been doing amazing! She can write well with her left hand and can speak clearly. It was amazing to see her progress and that she wasn’t shy to try new things. We also have a boy who was with us last year with Down Syndrome. He barely spoke at all, but one of our teachers worked with him one and one last year and he started to speak. This year I had him come up, and he even started to read the letters off of the board! And he said thank you and good morning in French to me. That was huge! It us such a blessing to see the kids do well, these are children that most likely would just be left at home to sit, and not have an opportunity. So, we are so excited that they can be a part of our ministry.
The Lord is so faithful and always providing! We had more people sign up to be sponsors this past month! So now we only need, 5 more sponsors at $50 for this school year, this will cover all the salaries of our teachers, guards, other employees, and the supplies needed. With your help, you can help almost 400 children attend preschool, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. We are also trying to raise the rest of the money so that we can start construction on our third school building, we only need $6,000 more to be able to build it. Please pray if this is something you would like to be a part of.
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Other Ways to Help:
- $1,500 pays for an outdoor bathroom to be built
- $10,000 builds a preschool classroom/administrative building
- $6,000 more to build a 3-classroom school building
- $6,000 for a well
Prayer Requests:
- Our family to stay safe and healthy
- More sponsors for the school and finances to stay strong
- For Tenielle to grow stronger in French and Moore.
- Security issues and terrorism in Burkina
- Our teachers to be prepared for this school year
- Finish construction projects
- For our Students hearts to be open to the gospel
- For our village and the parents of students to be open to the gospel
- For the men in our village to know Jesus
We want to thank each and every one of you for your amazing support and prayers, we are so grateful for each of you. We pray that the Lord will bless you greatly more than you have ever blessed us. And we hope that you are well in this difficult time, with the coronavirus and all that is happening in our world.
Keep the SON in your eyes,
The Yelkounis
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