Author name: Lois Gillespie

This has been a good and uneventful week, although a busy one. Juniors are secretly planning the Junior/Senior banquet; seniors are taking Advanced Placement tests for college credits. 

Many of you received an e-mail yesterday about our need for staff for next year. Please continue to take this need to the throne of grace. Some feel that the ‘unstable’ political condition is scaring people away. We can only say that we are ‘safe’ in the hollow of His hand, no matter what comes our way. We would love to welcome any of you if you feel God could use you here.

Today, our most ‘urgent’ pray request is that we have no water! There was a main waterline break in our supply from the city, and our water tower/well which we use as a backup is dry because of the dry season. We are told that ‘specialists’ are coming from Abidjan (4 hours south) to fix it and water should be restored sometime later today – but we will be very pleasantly surprised if this happens. Needless to say, this creates some hardships as well as creating health problems. In the states, school would be canceled – we don’t have that option. And there is nowhere around with ‘safe’ water…

As mentioned last week, we are presently preparing to take about 48 staff and students to a town called Toulepleu which is located on the Cote d’Ivoire/Liberia border. We have a busy schedule ahead of us, but God has blessed us as a school and we are looking forward to passing on that blessing (which started with you) to other schools which have far less than we do .We are going to be building as well as doing evangelism. This will be a very unusual outreach weekend for us because we will be able to minister in English. Our focus will be the Liberian refugees in this area. There are at least 5000 in the Toulepleu area. There are also two Liberian refugee schools who are members of ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International). We have already sent some text books to these schools. This weekend we are taking up some more books and several computers and we will roof a number of classrooms at the Christ the King School. Right now most of their classrooms have thatch roofs and they have to cancel school when it rains as the roofs leak badly. Since this school is located in the rain forest region of Cote d’Ivoire and the rainy season is approaching, this project will be a big blessing to them. 

There is a lot of planning that has to go into this weekend since we will all be camping and we will not have any missionaries in the area to get everything ready like we did at Sikasso. Four staff men will be going up today to get things ready for the majority of the group that will be leaving Friday morning at 5:00 to make the long trip. We will be taking vans and four wheel drive vehicles. There are about 60 kilometers of dirt road so please pray that our travels will be safe and that we will not get stuck.

Bob and I will be deviating from the weekend schedule slightly to visit with Jim and Rosie Johnson, missionaries supported by our home church in a little village about 1 1/2 hours east of Toulepleu. We hope to attend Sunday morning services in their village. We covet your prayers for this weekend.

Although the ‘yellow flag’ of caution was flying earlier today (indicating that we should go into town only if necessary and then with caution), it has been lowered now. Apparently there were student demonstrations earlier which have been known to get out of hand in the past. We at the school are thankful for those in town and at the embassy who keep us informed. As our director recently stated in his State of the School address, “We praise God that here at ICA we have not had a single instance of loss or harm to our students or on our campus, other than occasional petty theft.”

When sharing his vision for our school, our director continued, “I want ICA to be a school that is professionally challenging, that cares for its staff, (and) that helps them (students and staff) to appreciate their vital role in carrying out the great commission …And certainly my vision for ICA is for a caring community of believers who demonstrate a supernatural love for one another to the extent that visitors to our campus comment on the loving atmosphere; the care and concern for one another that they observe.”

To that end, this week our students are not only taking their SAT tests (or online aptitude and abilities tests for seniors), they are filling out evaluation forms for teachers and dorm parents. All in all, this is a time of evaluation as we look back so that we can better plan ahead. Our pray would be that students will take these tests and evaluations seriously and that those tallying the results will accurately interpret them so that we can continue to offer a quality program here at ICA. Please pray with us toward that end.

Also continue to pray for our outreach next weekend near the Liberian border. We are busy with plans and practices. We will also be involved in building a church for their worship. (I’m even scrounging up computer parts to come up with a few working computers to take to the refugee school there.)