|
Two Lambs Deserve Congratulations!
They are sister
and brother, Elisa (age 12) and Princy (age 10). They’ve been at
Betikara for almost seven years. On June 20th of this year, they
both took the CEPE, the island-wide, extremely competitive, junior high
school qualifying exam, and they both passed with very high marks.
We are very proud of them.
These two lambs
studied last year in one of the best public schools this country has to
offer. In August of last year, when the lambs were moved to the location
of their new home, about 15 miles from city center, they were placed in
a much poorer public school, poorer equipped and much poorer in terms of
quality of education. The Betikara folks have been biting their nails
all year wondering just how this would work out.
Elisa took the
same exam last year and failed. She was devastated at the time.
We hugged her and wiped away many of her tears explaining that the fail
was not her fault. Even in the best public school this country has
to offer, we could plainly see that Elisa’s teacher was unable to teach
the children properly. For the last nine months of school, we have
continued to hug Elisa, continued to encourage her and calm her nerves,
continued to instill in her a sense of confidence. She passed folks!!!
No one could be happier than Elisa herself and the Betikara folks.
Princy was another
story. This child grows in cycles. Four years ago, Princy was
a serious little scholar. Three years ago, Princy was the master
gymnast. We rarely saw him head up as he practiced incessantly to
gyrate. Two years ago, he took to drawing and every wall and chalkboard
in the center was full of Princy’s artwork. This last year, Princy
decided that fishing was the be all and end all of life. We have
spent this entire school reprimanding Princy and worrying that he couldn’t
possibly pass the test. He would just shrug at us as we tried to
encourage him to study. We didn’t know what he was doing, but Princy
surely knew what he was doing. He passed the test with the highest
score area wide. Hoorah for the lambs!!!
On Their Way South
Barry, John,
and Rivo left this morning for a trip south to the twins orphanage of Madagascar,
located in Mananjary, southeast part of the island. Barry and John
made a similar trip years ago just to see the orphanage. They were
overcrowded with more than 50 children in residence at the time.
Barry and John promised to take on some of their overflow when Betikara’s
new building was finished. That time is now.
However, we
have had a few problems in the process. John has tried for more than
a month to reach the orphanage by telephone and has been unsuccessful.
He received word about a month ago, that the man who founded and ran that
orphanage has died and that the woman has been trying to carry on alone.
Today, they go to see in person what the situation is at that orphanage.
Mananjary is
a very remote part of Madagascar. It will take them 16-20 hours to
reach the orphanage depending on the condition of the roads. If the
orphanage does still exist, and if it does have an overflow of children,
Betikara will gladly take on children, but our problems will not end there.
These children have been abandoned. Most likely, no one has attempted
to get birth certificates or proper paperwork on the children. Government
regulation could prove to be an insurmountable hurdle.
We need your prayers. We ask you to pray that the Father
lead us to the children on this island who most need help, that He prepare
the way for the children to be moved to Betikara, that He accomplish the
task of government paperwork for the children’s sake, that He make it possible
for Betikara to serve the lambs to the best of our ability, that He give
them a chance for a home, food, education, and spiritual growth, that He
let us love as He has loved us and blessed us.
|
|
|
Mr. David Perry
is the Director of World Wide Youth Camps. He visited Madagascar
last month and we had a wonderful week with him. World Wide Youth
Camps would like to return to Madagascar with perhaps a team of ten and
do their first leadership camp in Madagascar at Betikara. Our lambs
would be the first in the country to benefit from this leadership training
using Biblical principles. We will keep you informed as the plan
progresses but we need your prayers to make it happen. If you are
interested in this program and specifically would like to become involved
in Youth Camps in Madagascar, please contact Mr. David Perry at :
325-667-1588
david@wwyc.org
|
