Traci’s Tracks <e-mail edition>
Issue #5 Wed, 25 Dec. 1998

Happy Thanksgiving!
Note: not everything in my commentary is serious. Expect some humor on occasion and a number of spelling and grammatical errors.

For anyone who has not seen Traci in recent history, I have added pictures of her on my personal webspace. This was just before her departure from Tulsa, Oklahoma this summer for her return to Africa. The bear's name is Beaumont. http://www.possumranch.net/ica/tbear.jpg

If there is enough demand and Traci likes the idea, I can also add some pictures of Traci's family and friends, and *maybe* me. A web page for Traci and her class is still under development and if you have any ideas feel free to send them to me. Here is a prototype page with back issues of the e-mail newsletter linked to it: http://www.possumranch.net/ica/ If you would like to donate a domain name or host server space those would be welcome as well. We may include the content of her snail mail newsletters, short biographies of each of Traci's students, pictures and outlines of projects and ICA campus news. At some point others may be needed or may be asked to help with this page if it grows beyond our currently anticipated scope. Until then this will all live on my web page space.

Thanks for your indulgence,
charley.

Dear Friends and Family:

The end of the trimester is rapidly approaching. There are only three more days of school left, and they are going to be very busy days. Several kids are going to be missing a day or so to go to Abidjan to pick up grandparents coming for Christmas, so even while they are in school they will probably be too excited to focus much. Then of course we have to have Christmas parties this week. Also during break, the elementary school classrooms are being painted so we have to have everything off the walls, packed and moved to the center of the room. This is quite a chore, but it will be well worth it.

The excitement in my class this week was the arrival of the loft. I ordered it earlier this trimester to replace my reading corner in the back of my room. My kids have been very impatiently awaiting its arrival. They came in on Tuesday to find it in pieces on the porch. Finally Tuesday afternoon the carpenter came to put it together. It is 2 meters X 2 meters and is almost 5 feet off the floor. The underneath has two bookshelves and a small round table. The kids were thrilled. I hope to have pictures of it when my next mail newsletter comes out. We have to be careful right now though. The ceiling fan is a little too close to the ladder. Hopefully that problem will be remedied over break. My kids from last year want to know why I didn't get it made last year. It took me a year to figure out how to get things done here.

Some updates on earlier prayer items:

Still remember the Charter family. Larry is doing better but is still having to stay down. Jessi is able to use her arm once again. Jodi is doing better. They still don't really know what caused the seizures. She is going to Abidjan over break for more tests.

Continue to remember Dieudonne's family. They had his funeral Friday night/Saturday. The funeral started Friday afternoon when they moved the body from the hospital (morgue) to the house. They had a veillee (like a wake) all night long. Then on Saturday morning they had the processional to the cemetery. There were many people who were at the house on Friday night. The road in front of the house was closed. A group of high school kids from the school went and sang. Dieudonne had had a great influence on many people's lives. Many of those are not Christians. He had been a big part of starting several churches in this area. Pray that his witness will continue.

We also lost another of our African workers this week. He had been sick for some time. Remember all of our African workers team. They took this second death in such a short time really hard.

We also found out yesterday that one of our workers, Joseph, who works in Beth-Eden dorm (high school boys) is very ill. He will not be able to go to Ferke to the Hospital until Tuesday. Pray that he will stay stable until Tuesday and that the doctor will be able to find what is causing the problem. He is a Christian.

Please pray for Janna and Brenda our school nurses. This last half of this trimester has been very hard on them with deaths, illnesses and injuries that have happened recently. Pray that Christmas break will give them a time of rest and refreshment.

Pray for all of our parents and kids as they travel home this week. Parents will be traveling in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The kids will leave on Thursday. Some of them travel in areas where the roads are very bad and travel is hard. Remember the staff as they travel over break as well. Most everyone goes somewhere during the time we are off.

Continue to pray the Frederic Darriet will come to know Christ as his Savior.

On Monday of this week, one of our middle school students and one of our dorm dads will be having surgery at Ferke. Please remember them during this time.

This will probably be my last email until January unless there are some pressing updates that happen this week on some of the prayer items. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thanks again for all of you prayers and support!
Traci