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April 2003

Dear Friend,

This prayer letter is quickly moving to the top of the list of urgent things that need doing.

These last few months have involved a lot of traveling.  (See our website for pictures.)  We have been to Asia to visit Rachel and Giovanni plus three grandchildren.  Harold has taken three trips outside the city: for personnel consultation meetings, board meetings, and the countrywide church meeting way down at the South end of Ethiopia.  Then, on a ten-day trip around Southern and Southwestern Ethiopia, both Harold and Becky visited 29 of Amharic Bible Schools run by the Ethiopian Kale Heywet (Word of Life) Church.  We accompanied the Amharic Bible Schools Coordinator, Ato Girma Hanano.  We traveled 1500 – 1700 km, most of the time on dirt/gravel roads.

What did we find on our Amharic Bible Schools trip?  Well, most are struggling along valiantly under difficult conditions.  Some exist only to bring prestige to the church and should probably be closed.  Most are not using textbooks.  The teacher just writes his notes on the board and the students copy them into their notebooks.  Most either have no libraries or if they do have a library they are not letting students use it.  In some places, the teachers are not being paid regularly.  The worst place was where the teachers have only received one and a half-month's wages in the last six months.  In many places, they would like to upgrade their buildings or want to build new ones.  They generally look to SIM for assistance with this, but Harold has very few ideas of where to look for funding for these kinds of projects.

But, praise the Lord, about 600 teachers are faithfully teaching 5,000 – 6,000 students in 256 Amharic Bible school programs throughout the country.  Pray that this work will continue faithfully.

Also pray that God will supply the estimated $150,000 US needed to provide scholarship assistance next year for about 350 students in Bible and Theological training programs in Amharic Bible Schools, three diploma programs, a women’s training program, one degree program, a masters level program and a Missionary Training School.  These programs and their funding needs are all part of Harold’s responsibilities.  We are enclosing a flyer about the Scholarship needs; first, to give you a better understanding of Harold’s responsibilities, and second, to inform you about giving opportunities in case God lays it on your heart to give.

In His Service,

Harold & Becky Jongeward

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