Celebrate!

Hurray!  Stephanie gets to come back!  Yes, she leaves on the 18^th (Wednesday) for Burundi, but God has SO blessed us… she is coming back!  She felt the Lord calling her to serve here with us instead of teaching at Hope Africa University for the fall semester.  We have been pursuing the change for about a month and now it looks as if all the pieces are in place – praise God!  We had an afternoon of trust-stretching, after the local office of Immigration denied her return visa, but, thankfully, Rev. Joel took it up with his man at immigration in Akwa Ibom and it should be released tomorrow (it won’t hurt to pray for that)!  So, she’ll go relax in Burundi for a few weeks, enjoying the young people (we are short on young adults), the cafes (there is only instant coffee here – let alone a café), and most especially her cousin Rachel who is her roommate and a fellow teacher.  She should arrive back before school starts and stay until early December.  Yay!  Awesome!  Thank you God!  Look out Hope Academy!  By the way, if you want to send some funding for her, contact the church.  We are trusting the extra living expenses and expensive plane ticket will be provided by supporters of hers and Hope Academy’s.  We were laughing the other day that a year ago she didn’t even have plans to return to Africa – let alone to be diverted to Nigeria.  God is so trustable!  It’s a great adventure being His child.  She has done SO much for this place in her short time here.  It is going to be so different (with her help and by God’s grace) by December!