Sowing and Harvesting
Dear brothers and sisters,
Greetings to you in the name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
A year and one month ago tomorrow, the school at Highland started. We have named the school John and Helen Meyer in honor of my good friends and longtime partners in ministry John and Helen Meyer. John went to be with the Lord last month. Helen and the rest of the family need our prayers to go on.
Whether it is in Highland, Marmelade or Gonaives all of our schools are fields to sow and fields to harvest. We are doing both simultaneously in these schools and other Living Water institution. So the new school year offers us these opportunities again.
Now we all know there is more than one way to sow. At the end we make sure that seed gets into the ground. Hopefully with enough moisture germination will take place, followed by growth and producing fruit. We also know that gemination does not take place at the same rate, even in the same kinds of seed, let alone growth. So fertilizing and watering are all parts of the process. Likewise feeding with love, teaching kids songs, playing with them, teaching them the Word of God, teaching them crafts and preaching the Word are different ways we do the sowing. The Holy Spirit is in charge of using whichever He wants to bring the seeds to fruition. Our job will always be: sowing, watering, caring for the plants, and harvesting.
Yes, it is a time to harvest as well. Since the school has opened we have had many conversations with both parents and students. Some of those conversations have led young people to choose Jesus. This is true at Highland. It is true in Gonaives. It is true in Marmelade. Now the level of commitment of those children may not be the same, but they have started the growing process in the Lord. And, the other amazing thing is that all those schools are growing physically. In all of them we have one common problem: space. The situation is more complicated in Marmelade and Highland, but we have space issue in all of our schools. That is why we count on our supporters and partners to join us in building more classrooms so we have more ground to sow, or bigger fish ponds, so we can have way more fish for great fishing.
Last year in Gonaives we had roughly seven hundred students. This year we have about eight hundred. At Highland we had about two hundred fifty (250). This year we have over four hundred. Last year in Marmelade we started with three hundred sixty (360). This year we started with close to five hundred students. We would have more students in Highland if we had space to welcome a 10th grade classroom. We had to send all those kids away because our building plan for the third floor did not come to fruition. Yet, we need to start building as soon as possible for the third floor. This way we could be ready for the next school year. The same is true in Marmelade. We would need roughly $40,000 for Marmelade to add classrooms, and roughly $75,000 for Highland to add classrooms and finish this building project. The speed of growth at Highland is unbelievable. Sowing and harvesting at the same is a wonderful thing. Let us do those things for the Master.
Part of Sowing and Harvesting is influencing and investing in these future leaders, future business women and men. They are the future transformers of the nation. Two of the pictures included with this newsletter are about introducing teenagers of Highland to the world of business where they will raise chickens so they can reproduce to be sold at one point. Thanks to Paula Beauchamp and Shari DeGraaf and their teammates at Connection Christian Church. The other photo shows the result of the things the kids learned at the Summer Church Camp sponsored by First Christian Church of Mountain Grove. The baskets (aluminum color) you see in the photos are all made of trash like chips wrap. The teenage boy learned this trade at the Camp. He knew nothing about that prior to coming to the camp. Furthermore, the table is full of bracelets, things tens of children learned and produced during camp. They can do great things. We just need to teach them at an early age.
May the Lord lead YOU to be one of those workers who are sowing and harvesting with us at Living Water.
Yours and His,
Salonique Adolphe
P.S. At the present, Gine and I are in Oklahoma. We arrived last Wednesday in Texas for the procedure (Stem Cell Replacement) which was scheduled to be done on Gine’s knees the next day, October 11th. We are blessed to have had two highly qualified and wonderful Christian doctors (Dr. James Mahony and Dr. Randall Moore) work with her and on her. Pray for the success of the procedure.