Progress Continues
A lot of progress has been made this month. Thanks to so many of you for your prayers and financial support. Things are moving!
Thank you to all those who have agreed to sponsor a student! We have 12 students sponsored for this first year of the middle school. Praise the Lord! We are still praying for 20 sponsors total, but however many God provides will be how many students we educate this year. We are going to close the opportunity for sponsorship by the end of July so we can plan well. If you’ve been meaning to say, “I’m in and ready to sponsor a student,” please let us know this next week. If you’ve agreed to sponsor a student and have not yet sent any funds, we’d appreciate that first payment to come early August so we can be prepared for the first day of school in September. Thank you for blessing our students already!
Students started applying for the school last week and the application process will close by the end of July. At that point our staff will review those applications to see who really fits our admission criteria, administer an entrance exam to help us understand their true academic level, and participate in an interview as well. This will help us ensure we admit the poorest of the poor, those without hope of getting an education, and not those trying to weasel their way into something not meant for them.
One adjustment we should let you know about is that we’ve decided we have to allow for some boarding students. This was our original plan, but we sort of dropped the idea for a while due to lack of facilities. Yet as we discussed things further, the kids who really need the help we are planning for don’t all live in our neighborhood. They live in other parts of Ibadan and beyond. We have students applying from other states! We have to house them somehow. If they can afford transportation to school, they aren’t meant for our school. So we are planning for the possibility of as many as 16 of our students coming from far enough away to need housing. This is a change, this will increase our costs, but we feel it’s the best and what we need to do to stick to the vision and ensure God’s children have a chance at the education we can provide for them. The house we’ve been renting will become the boy’s dormitory, and the large fellowship hall in the school will be temporarily reconfigured for the girls. We aren’t changing our monthly sponsorship plan, $30 a month still takes care of most needs, but along the way we might need some bonus cash to help pay for some extra meals. Please be praying for these students, and the dorm parents who will help care for them outside of the school day.
Over the last two weeks, we’ve also hired a few teachers. God has provided some quality teachers who are excited at the prospect of knowing and loving these students no matter what level they are at academically. They will start work mid-August in preparation for the first day of school mid-September. Please be praying for them even before they get started. We will introduce you to these folks soon!
