We just returned from a six-week, 10,000 mile, trip to the US. I’m a bit late in getting this update on-line because of this.
Overall, it was a good trip. We had the opportunity to touch base with the three groups that will be coming to visit/work here in the next couple of months, see Aaron & Kelly and their families, enjoy a family reunion/80th birthday (Noreen’s Dad) and do several presentations of the ministry. Right now we’re decompressing and getting ready to receive our first group; the Senior High Class Trip from Augusta Christian School (May 18-24). After this we’ll have a couple of days to recover before the arrival of a Family Trip from Pinewoods PC (Pensacola, FL; May 27-June 3). I won’t be able to put together our next update until Pinewoods is on their way home.
After we finish with these groups, the next big event will be graduation (July 6). In the meantime we need to start putting together contracts for our school staff, do interviews for new staff and update all of our policy manuals. We now have a waiting list for 7th Grade in spite of taking 2 groups of 25 students… Praise the Lord!. You might remember that we were uncertain that we would be able to fill two groups and that this was a bit of a “faith-step” for the school; I view this as an answer to prayer.
In July/August we will be receiving a High School Team from Second PC, Memphis (July 14-24) and then doing maintenance at the school in order to get ready for 2006-07. Noreen & I will probably return to the US around August 28 for another cycle of visiting friends/churches and raising funds. I thought that things would slow down a bit now that we’re no longer “hands-on” at the school… I was wrong. Although our role has changed, now that we have made the commitment to double the enrollment of the Junior High and to establish our first College Degree Program over the next five years, the “speed of life” seems to have accelerated somewhat.
In order to be both brief and informative, I’m going to try to summarize some our responsibilities and plans for the next 5 years. In future updates I will try to keep you abreast of how these are developing. Please be in prayer with us for the Lord’s clear direction as we begin these new steps.
School Development
- Make payroll for this summer (this is the last year that we will need to subsidize the Operations Budget) and pay-off the new building by December 2006.
- Oversee the organization of a scholarship fund (as much as possible, from local sources) in order to provide full scholarships for the children of our staff.
- Develop a scholarship fund in order to have our Director complete her Doctorate and bring more of our staff to Master’s Level. I hope to have funding available (about $5,000.00) for Lupita to start her Doctorate in January 2007.
- New Construction to manage the growth of the Junior High. We will probably need to start construction early 2007 in order to be finished for the start of the 2008-09 school year.
- Growth, focus and direction for the development of the Senior High School. We want to make this an Intensive Discipleship Program as well as a strong Academic Program.
- Continued academic and spiritual development of our staff. We will be more aggressive with regard to the integration of a Biblical Worldview in our in-house training and more intentional about the discipleship of our students and their parents.
Shalom Church
- Noreen & I have become Group Leaders for our Sunday School Program. We are running a two-month commitment for each class cycle that permits us to assume this responsibility when we are not traveling.
- As an Elder, I am involved in the “vision” aspect of the growth of the church. We have been experiencing the blessing of fairly consistent growth over the last several years. This has required that we adjust our church “programs” in order to accommodate quite a few “spiritual newborns”. We have limited facilities and leadership, so I ask that you be praying for wisdom to oversee this “problem”.
- In keeping with the need to develop new leadership, our pastoral team (including Noreen & I) is busy developing and adapting material for our Small Groups. These studies take quite a bit of time, so personal discipline is our prayer request.
PEF Mérida
- Although we will be losing Byron for at least a year while he takes a bit of a Sabbatical, both Noah and Julie have made a commitment to continue with us for at least one more year (you can check up on them at their respective Blogsites). It also looks as though we will be getting a 2 for 1 special when Sarah Black joins the team… she plans to marry (to Clayton Payne) next December and they both hope to join us early next year.
- Gabriel & Norma are continuing to raise support for their ministries. We are working with them to help them in this effort.
- Noreen & I will continue to travel twice a year to the US in order to continue to raise funds for the next phase of growth at the school, promote work teams and recruit short & medium term internships for the team here.
- I will be assuming the role of “Hispanic Ministries Representative” for PEF. This is a newly invented position that we will be “fleshing out” over the next few years. Basically, Noreen & I will be traveling to visit the different PEF team members working in Hispanic Ministries and reporting to our International Developer. Our hope is to put together a new Web Site featuring these ministries and organize an “Online Resource Library” using materials and links being used by all.
