Quite a few things have happened since our last post! As you can see in these pictures, Paul and
the Emmanuel Training Center staff have worked very hard to fix two compound
walls and paint the inside and outside of the building.
Some
of the rooms have been equipped with chairs and tables and electricity.
They currently have a sewing program with 13 students, English program with 10
students, Computers program with 11 students, French program with 8
students. Paul has said there will be many more students once all of the
rooms have been equipped with tables, chairs and electricity.
Paul
has started an English Club that also serves as a Bible study which he feels
will allow him to start a church within the compound soon. The club
meets every other Sunday evening, and typically between 15-25 men attend.
Paul’s
plan for the church is to have a bilingual service to gain both English and
French speaking students, teachers and other people in the community.
When Adam traveled to the DR Congo this past
July with Glenn Clark, he was able to preach to the English Bible study group
at the Emmanuel Training Center.
The center
just had a graduation for the sewing students. Most of these graduates
were sponsored by the Reeds of Hope organization, which provided tuition
scholarships for these young women.
Paul’s
wife, Micheline, has a small boutique where some of the sewing center graduates
may work. The boutique has many sample clothing patterns available, and
customers will bring their own fabric, and have clothing custom made at the
boutique. Graduates who are selected work in the shop for 12 to 18
months, and have the opportunity to earn enough money to buy their own sewing
machine so they can start their own business at the end of their time in the
boutique.
Paul told me in July that he was hoping to
start a primary school in September of 2017. The Project 127 members were
overjoyed at this news and have been praying for months about this
opportunity. By mid August, there were
400 children interested in attending this primary school! These children
are made up of some that are paying students and some that are from local
orphanages. The paying children will enable Paul to pay the teachers
although Paul said the fees are way less than other schools to enable children
to attend that would not otherwise be able to. They will teach grades
k-8.
With this news, they
quickly began making changes to the compound rooms in order to accommodate the
primary school students. They have taken four of the rooms and cut them
in half to make 8 rooms.
They were able to begin school this past
Monday and as of Friday, they had more than 250 children coming. Paul said more children are coming
everyday! Please be in prayer for the
teachers, students and families.
Project
127 has held many fundraisers (a craft bazaar, homeless neighbor blessing bags,
a Paint Nite, two chicken bbq’s and a yard sale) and we have had numerous
donations. The Christian Fellowship and Joy classes just donated $500 and
we are so grateful! The current balance for repayment is $45,378. A
visual to show our progress of raising the funds is located in the narthex and
updates are posted on the Project 127 bulletin board in the hallway off of the
sanctuary.
We
feel very blessed to be a part of what God is doing in DR Congo and we are very
grateful for the support of the Summerdean congregation! I was reminded this week of an old proverb… Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him
for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a
Lifetime. You
literally helped to change hundreds of lives this past week so on behalf of
project 127 and the students at the Emmanuel Training Center and Christian
School, THANK YOU!
