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_______________________________________________________________________________________ Dear Friends,
Happy New Year to everyone. The first part of this letter will be family news and the second part is ministry news.
Family News
We had a great holiday season with all three sons with us and one of our two foster daughters able to visit. Through the church we are attending we had lots of volunteer opportunities with things like looking after small children while their mothers shopped to serving Christmas breakfast to homeless men in downtown Atlanta. Jean also helped officiate at the wedding of one of his two foster sisters. She is the daughter of the family that took him in when he first moved to the US to go to school.
Lémec has moved from California to live with us until we leave. Even though he walked in graduation last May he still has two more classes he needs to finish. He is finishing them in a school near us and working two different jobs; one as a desk clerk at a Hampton Inn hotel and the other as a waiter. He is thinking he would like to work in the hospitality business so both jobs give him good entry level experience in that field.
Jacques is a junior at Berea in Kentucky and is currently doing a winter term study in Denmark. He took a class and joined a club for Danish gymnastics. He is one of four chosen from his school to go on this trip. He gets school credit for the trip as well as getting to participate and learn more about a sport he thoroughly enjoys. He is also on his school soccer team and loves snowboarding.
Josiah is a senior in high school and has adjusted well to going to school in the US. He played soccer for a YMCA team for the Fall season and is hoping to make the school team for the Spring. Tryouts are this month. He has applied to several universities and has had several interviews, but is still waiting for acceptance letters.
Manise, the daughter that came to visit, is only three hours away from us this year in Nashville, TN. She is in her third year of dental school and is now working on human patients with a professor watching over her shoulder.
Fonia is now living in New Orleans with her husband and two sons. He teaches at a community college and she just got a job working with young boys in trouble. She graduated from Jackson State last Spring.
Ministry News
The schools are doing well and from the generosity of some school children in Mississippi our students were treated to a large Christmas dinner. All the children from the satellite schools also came for the dinner. The school calendar had to be changed because of the late start because of the hurricanes. School will not close this year until June 27th. One teacher that started the year with us had to leave because of health issues. Fortunately, Jean Francois had no problem finding a replacement for her.
Jean Francois and our potential future pastor, Yves Labady, worked well with the school principals and teachers during the holidays hosting several activities. Yves is still in theological school and visits Fond-des-Blancs once a month. However, he came with two of his friends and stayed for the holidays. Together they did revival meetings the week between Christmas and New Year using Psalms 103:1 as their theme. They also helped host a young adult day and a children’s day at the church.
Lastly, on January 4 all the satellite churches gathered at the main church for everyone to fellowship together.
Yours in Christ,
Joy
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Bulldozer Fundraising Drive Report:
As of today, we have received $26,440.00 toward the purchase of the bulldozer. This is quite short of our stated goal of $50,000.00 but there are a couple of factors that give us hope that we will be able to procure the bulldozer for the people of Fond-des-Blancs:
1. We still have around $4,000.00 in outstanding pledges that have not yet been received.
2. We are pursuing a corporate contact that might be inclined to give us a substantial discount toward the bulldozer.
3. We also have an outstanding general fund pledge that can be applied toward the bulldozer.
I want to thank each and every one of you who made the sacrifice to give toward the fundraising drive. I will keep you posted on the purchase and delivery of the bulldozer to Fond-des-Blancs.
Jean Francois needs a dependable vehicle.
Do you know someone with a pickup or SUV, preferably with 4x4 who would be willing to donate it to the ministry? Please let me know. The car would be considered in good enough shape if it can be driven from its present location to the shipping dock in Miami.
Thanks you very much. I hope you give this request some serious consideration.
Yours in Christ,
Jean L Thomas
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Bulldozer Fundraising Drive Report:
As of today, we have received $26,440.00 toward the purchase of the bulldozer. This is quite short of our stated goal of $50,000.00 but there are a couple of factors that give us hope that we will be able to procure the bulldozer for the people of Fond-des-Blancs:
1. We still have around $4,000.00 in outstanding pledges that have not yet been received.
2. We are pursuing a corporate contact that might be inclined to give us a substantial discount toward the bulldozer.
3. We also have an outstanding general fund pledge that can be applied toward the bulldozer.
I want to thank each and every one of you who made the sacrifice to give toward to fundraising drive. I will keep you posted on the purchase and delivery of the bulldozer to Fond-des-Blancs.
Jean Francois needs a dependable vehicle.
Do you know someone with a pickup or SUV, preferably with 4x4 who would be willing to donate it to the ministry? Please let me know. The car would be considered in good enough shape if it can be driven from its present location to the shipping dock in Miami.
Thanks you very much. I hope you give this request some serious consideration.
Yours in Christ,
Jean L Thomas
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