Answers to Prayer

This year at Sahel Academy we were blessed with a great staff!  There were definitely some places where we could have used another teacher but there were members in our community who stepped out and were willing to help us when we were desperate and overall things have worked.  Here's the good looking bunch!

One of the privileges we have as a staff is that as we hear of new individuals and families coming to join our staff we get to pray them through the process until they finally arrive here in Niger.  Usually we start hearing a little bit in the fall and more as the year continues.  However, by January of this year we were a bit discouraged because the picture with all the outgoing staff looked like this...

and we only had one family who were in the pipeline and for whom we were praying.

The amazing thing about the mission community that we live in is that when there is a need so many are willing to help by praying and by spreading the word to their sending communities.  The above pictures were shared at our SIM conference and word of our need began to spread.  God has been doing some amazing things in response to our needs.  I, for one, have been a little bit blown away by what I see Him doing. 

One of the first answers to prayer came in the form of the Falk family.  She is a kindergarten teacher and he has a background in construction and together they have two girls.  So they are learning French and raising support and getting ready to take on kindergarten and ....

This is an awesome provision for us because in this next year the school expects to begin and hopefully complete the building of a large covered court/auditorium type building and begin construction of some more staff housing on the grounds.  You can read more about the Falk family here.

There are a couple more families interested one from the United States and one from Australia.  There is at least one couple and then some singles who are also headed out this way.  Many of these have either visited Niger or actually spent some time here which is really neat.  In fact, one of the women who is a lawyer at home but will be teaching Sociology at the school came on an exposure trip this past year.  She expressed her desire to come and one of the other individuals on that exposure trip offered to fund her entire first year!  Wow!  See what I mean, God has been doing some AMAZING things!

Pray for each one of these people as they prepare.  Pray that others will come alongside and support them in the ministry God is calling them to here at Sahel Academy.  Also pray for the continued need for a Chemistry teacher, another elementary teacher and a youth pastor.  We are waiting expectantly because we know God has great things in store for us!