| We had a small team of intercessors from South Africa visit Guebwiller last week on Monday...that's the day that the students have been having a student-led half-hour prayer time after lunch. When asked if they'd like to have the South Africans come to their prayer time the response was an enthusiastic "yes!" (ok, they really said, "Oui!" ;) ). I translated for the team so I was privileged to witness the students' genuine desire for spiritual input and impartation. We asked how they usually conducted their meetings to see how to best proceed. They told us, but then said, "we just want to take advantage of them being here so we want them to pray for us!" So we prayed for physical healing for some of the kids and for other expressed needs. I was very encouraged at how the kids were hungry for more input like this. Depending on what you're experiencing right now, this may be small stuff, but given what we see on a regular basis, it's obvious that there is a stirring here that coincides with what the Spirit is doing right now around the world. This month, Noah had a 3-day "mini-internship" at a local printer. This was a bit like pulling teeth to get this arranged and Noah was certainly not excited by having to do an internship of any kind. It turned out very well for him though. Noah is quite interested in certain aspects of graphics (especially typography) and photography. So, Noah created a "photo journal" of his 3 days. You can see it at: http://noah.leighweb.com/noah/gallery/index.php?cat=4 to get an idea. This was a real blessing for us to see him excited about something related to school!
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- Leadership Transition - The Christian school that we work with, Collège-Daniel, is in a time of physical expansion, spiritual expansion and "vision expansion." At the same time, our director will be taking a sabbatical year for more training/education. Our pastor, and founder of the school, Luc Bussière, will be heading the leadership team of the school next year. This is exciting and challenging (read "not always easy!") at the same time. Luc is someone who has vision and a genuine calling to take Christian Education in the Francophone world and faith to implement what God asks for. Though the current director has not left yet, the transition is already taking place as much planning is already underway for next year, and as with most transition, this is provoking some instability in the school as we wind down to the end of the year on June 27th. Please pray for Luc and the leadership team during this time of adjustment and for everyone to be in their God-given roles for September and for a unity of team now and then.
- Rachel's Transition - Today, Angela is "pre-moving" some things home for Rachel from Black Forest Academy in Germany. We all return there on Friday to see her graduate and move the rest of the stuff home. Then 2 weeks later (!! :o !!) on June 25th Angela and Rachel are on the move again...this time to the States to settle Rachel in for college at the Art Institute of Indianapolis. This is an amazing whirlwind of activity that touches the whole family with a range of emotions and experiences that are essentially new for all of us (more details in Angela's soon-coming newsletter). Please use Psalm 139:1-10 to pray for our whole family during this time of transition.
- School "Fête" - Saturday, June 28th is the annual "school fete" (carnival, etc.) that is open to the public and presents probably the most public "face" of our school to the community each year. It's a fund-raiser as well as a time to recognize students and staff for their accomplishments in the academic year. This is an event that has impressed me each time I've experienced it (this will be the 4th) for the sacrificial effort and teamwork that goes into it. A tired team and the transition of leadership mentioned above has cut into our preparations and I'd say we're currently behind with less than a month to go. After having sent off Angela and Rachel a few days before and leaving me to be Mr. Mom, I also will have responsibility for the sound system for the fete and I know there are some challenges that I need to deal with beforehand (worn-out equipment, people to help with the sound board, etc.) Please pray for a new inspiration to sweep the team during the "stretch run" of the year. We need the Spirit to renew us for the responsibilities at hand, but also for the creativity necessary to celebrate a truly rich year and to give impetus for what God wants to do next year.
- Angela's Walk - God is revealing a deeper understanding of areas that continue to hold her back and re-evaluating how she wants to be involved in the church and the school next year so that she can be a vessel to better impact people on a more personal level. Please pray that God's current work on her heart and calling will have its full, intended impact.
- Construction Help - Both our church and school are in the need of construction help this summer in terms of: finances, construction site leadership, and construction teams. For the school, we really need to have new special ed. and first grade classrooms done by the fall. Time is particularly short and we appreciate your prayers for "construction miracles!"
- Technical team building - At the end of our church service today, I got the unexpected resignation of one of our sound table volunteers after a conflict with another sound table volunteer. These two young ladies whom I appreciate very much have struggled in their relationship with one another for awhile in different contexts, but this spilled over into the sound table duties and one of them decided to quit. I am admittedly not an experienced team-builder...not my forte in any sense of the word. I'm mostly a technician and just love it when every one simply goes about their job in a responsible and respectful manner (you can dream can't ya!?) Well...these are high-schoolers and certain expectations are simply not realistic. So, as the leader of the technical team at church, I'm faced with my weaknesses in team-building and the results of my weaknesses in team-building. I would appreciate your prayers to move forward in building a technical team that's based on discipleship of people and not simply good equipment. This is a bit of an endemic problem for the entire church as we are weak on structured discipleship and at the same time God is moving in ways right now where the need for structured discipleship is absolutely essential if we're to move forward at God's pace. So pray the same thing for our church in general please!
Keep on keeping on!
David |