Greetings from Vientiane, Laos! Here are some of the highlights from our past few months:
CANDLELIGHT SCHOOL: I (Kirk) enjoyed a great trip with the staff up to Luang Prabang (a World Heritage Site and the former capital of Laos many years ago) during the New Year. It was a great time for me to bond with the staff and learn more about them.
Classes are going well, but we are in need of English teachers. If you know anyone who has a heart for others, is ESL or TOEFL certified (or willing to become), and interested in serving in Laos, let us know.
The Candlelight staff is excited to participate in our first service trip tomorrow. We will be going to a small rural Khmu village to get to know their community and work in partnership with their school. Please pray that this connection works well in bringing hope to others and will open doors for future opportunities.
This is a picture from a short exploratory trip we took a few weeks ago. Since then we have gotten permission from the District to work with these people, which is a big deal. My vision for Candlelight is that someday we could open a branch in a rural area to teach development and agriculture that would benefit rural villagers. Hopefully working with this village and others like it will be a step toward achieving this dream.
The Co-op: The co-op, the school where the girls and I (Calah) go for the morning, has been such a blessing to us. The girls love going to school with other kids and have many friends. For me, this is a place where I feel my love for education is finding its use. Having experience teaching and having an education in elementary education, I have chosen to help out the school as the principal. With only 40 some students, I am able to continue teaching the first and second grades along with spend a few hours in the afternoon to fulfill my principal duties. I love being able to encourage the other moms, most of whom don’t have any education experience but need to find some way to meet their children’s educational needs. This last 2 months we’ve spent time on professional development, discussing classroom management and tools to develop our students’ writing. For all of you who cringe at the sound of professional development, I’ve actually been pretty excited to get back into it! =)
We would appreciate your prayers as we consider ways to develop this co-op into a school. We are communicating with a couple organizations who have an interested in developing Christian schools in countries like ours; so we would appreciate your prayers that God directs our steps as we depend on His leading. A Christian school in Laos would be such a blessing to many other workers like us!
Thank you so much for your prayers and support! We think of you all often, knowing we couldn’t be here without you.
Love, Kirk and Calah
Prayer points:
· English teachers for Candlelight who have a passion for sharing their faith and desire to work with a team.
· Upcoming Candlelight outreach to a small town where we have received permission to begin working with these villagers.
· Direction for the co-op as we pursue new teachers for this upcoming school year and a future as a school.
