God Has Been Good!
Ready or Not Here We Go!
Time is flying as we are almost at the beginning of the new school year. We will officially start the school year on the 18th of February. Lots of the students from last year will be arriving within the week, which means for us staff, here we go! No rest for the wicked. There is still alot to do in preparation for the school year. I am up to my eyeballs in paperwork to get sorted out, with the inscriptions and the documents required for the District office. I have been trying to put it off long enough for the rest of the staff to arrive, so we can plan and organize and delegate together the responsibilities, classes and year plans. Looks like most of them will arrive at the start of things, so we’ll just have to work with what we have got 🙂
I have been also trying to clean up my little Jungle house and yard to make it pleasant and clean and organized/liveable before the troops arrive, because after they get here, that will be the end of homemaking details for awhile! We will soon enter survival mode…
We are excited to have a bunch of new students this year, as well as most of our students from last year returning. A bunch of the students keep messaging me and saying ” cuando puedo ir teacher? Quiero ir ya!” which is “when can I come teacher? I want to come now!” . Soon kids, much very too soon lol. Your sleeping in and boredom will end much too soon. Enjoy those last licks of chicken and charque. Enjoy chatting on your cell phone and using internet. Enjoy those nice soft hands for a bit longer. It is almost time to return to UETIRG. Muahahaha. lol. We will have close to 32 brand new students starting out this year. In all we have 62 boarding students inscribed. That is 32 more than we had last year. Our Dorms are FULL! 35 girls and 27 boys.  Our boys dorm is going to bursting at the seams, with the boys just sleeping in there, not to mention “living” in there, as only boys do. We have the floor poured for the new Boys dorm. We are praying that we will be able to finish it this year for the boys. It will be a lot more comfortable, private, and sane for the boys who really want to have their personal time to focus and study. There will still be close to 4 to a room, but that is much better than the sardine can dorm with 27.
The rainforest Jungle is very green right now, and grows very fast. It is a full time Job to keep they place from getting grown over, and our faithful director has been on top of it! The Tractor that was donated last year has been such a super blessing!  It has helped clear the brush very nicely around the school to keep the snakes a little farther away and the bugs down a bit. It has also made it possible to rediscover the runway on campus that appeared just beside my little garden house. It was planned and begun quite a few years back, but got grown over and forgotten for awhile. Now with the prospects of my brother-in-law pilot being stationed up here with one of the mission planes, the pista ( airstrip) has come back out of the Jungle and is looking good thanks to Cornelio our director, and the pretty red tractor.
The prospect of having the little plane here is opening up a ton of ideas for being able to reach more people deeper in the jungle, possibly have a more varied food supply, and make emergency flights from here quicker and more efficient.  You can read about my sister and Brother- in-law’s plans and stories on their blog- stevehelenmissions.blogspot .
Here is the funny jungle irony for the week.
Guayaramerin has an International airport. It can land some pretty big planes. This is their control tower.
The other day when we were there to Drop off Steve, I heard this tapping noise coming from the “tower”. I went to check it out, climbing the little hill that the tower is on, climbing up the steps past the motorbike, chickens, and guard sitting in a hammok parked under the main floor. There I had a good view of the airstrip , the bright orange windsocks, the airplane, the tree where they hang the ” collect luggage here” sign when flights come in, and the cows across the fence. I then saw what I thought I had heard. There it was a beauty of an old manual typewriter that was being operated by a very professional looking gentleman, as he copied in air traffic code the information he was receiving over a solar powered radio. “Tack”” tack “”tack”, quite fast for an older Bolivian, and then “whirrr’ as he slided the arm back to start a new row… Sometimes the good old fashioned ways work jolly fine when you’re at an International Airport in the Jungle.
BIG ANSWER TO PRAYERS!
Thanks to all who have been praying and willing to give so that these two young men can study at the International Bible Institute in Honduras. They are on the plane right now and will be by the Grace of God in Honduras and heading to the school within a few minutes;) There have been so many little miracles along the way that have made it possible for these boys to go, and I an without a doubt that it is the Lord’s oplan that they go! Pleas continue to pray for them, as their missionary life experience has just begun, and the great controversy for their souls is very real.
Prayer Requests:
Thanks so much for all who support us out here in the jungle! Â We are doign what we can and leaving what we can’t in the Lord’s hands. He is blessing and will supply our needs. At the moment we still need:
- girl’s dean,
- a chief for the kitchen, (we are almost 80 to feed!),
- an agriculture team,
- a sewing teacher, and of course ….
-  any teachers!                                               Â
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If anyone is interested in a Jungle adventure and a faith walk with God, let me know! Â The info is below! God bless you all! Â Until next time!
Sara Ross 🙂
The “Richard Gates Industrial School”, (“Unidad Educativo Tecnico Industrial de Richard Gates”) Â located near Guayaramerin, Bolivia, is a non- profit organization operated by all volunteer services along with donations.
If you are interested in volunteering at this project, please contact myself at farmgirlzsidekick@yahoo.ca, or go to this website: http://gospelministry.org/volunteer/.
If you are interested in supporting this project financially, 100% of donations go directly to the project. You may make a tax deductible (US only) donation via:
1. PayPal (timt@gospelministry.org)Â
2. Â Cheque: P.O. Box 506. Collegedale, TN 37315
For either method, please specify that funds beÂ
directed to the “Richard Gates Industrial School” project.
 We are very thankful for your caring and  support in prayers!
Here’s my blog address if you want to check out past newsletters!Â
sarasfaithwalk.blogspot.com
