Issue #17
April 18, 1999

Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings on this Sunday afternoon from hot Africa. It is rather warm today. Hopefully it will rain soon and bring relief. The weather is quite confused this year. It can't decide if it wants to be rainy season or dry season, but at least we didn't have the long, hot dry season this year.

School started back up on Wednesday. The middle school and high school went straight into Spiritual Emphasis Week. I think they had a pretty good meeting. I was only able to make it to one service. The speaker was Suzie Shellenberger of Brio magazine. (and she is from Oklahoma.) The kids really seemed to enjoy her. There were some recommitments made during the time.

My class had a hard time getting started. I had 2 or 3 kids missing all three days. Hopefully they will be there tomorrow. One of the students missing is a new student. She is just coming in from Japan. Pray the she will make the adjustment to being in a new country, and a new school. Her name is Mahoko, and her dad works for WARDA (West African Rice Development Association) in town. My class is getting more multi-cultural all the time. I started out the year with 9 Americans and 1 Canadian, and they were all missionary kids. Then last trimester I had 8 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Zambian, and 1 British, and they were 9 mk's, 1 banker's son, and 1 from WARDA. Now I will also have a Japanese student who is also from WARDA. Pray that this last trimester will be a good one.

Yesterday was an exciting day for the elementary kids. They had an intramural petit poteau tournament. Petit Poteau is kind of like soccer, but it is played on a concrete court with 3 foot walls around it. Almost all of the kids here love to play it. The 1st-3rd grade played in the morning, and the 4th-5th grade in the afternoon. I spent the day watching the tournament.

Please continue to pray for our staff needs here for next year. We still have many open positions for next year and few prospects for filling them. If you know of anyone who would be interested in working at ICA for even just one year, please let me know.

Thanks for you prayers and support.

In Christ,
Traci