Vacation-time is over. What a bummer!

Jan is busy packing boxes as I type. She has been the packer for our family since she learned that from her mother during their many moves from pastorate to pastorate. This morning we saw Jayne, Aaron and Gabe off at the GR airport. They are headed back to Hawaii to join Bob who left last week. On Sunday we will leave from that same airport to travel back to Nigeria. The wonderful vacation-time has just about ended. We've enjoyed seeing family and friends--did lots of walks to the parks in GR, visited Dad's birth area and some relatives near Cadillac Michigan. Dad's 90th birthday event in Kalamazoo was great fun because all the sibs and their children and grands came for the party at Comstock CRC.

We've been poked and probed, screened and x-rayed and we're fit for duty. We've taken time to read and reflect on God's goodness here and in that part of the world where we've served for nearly 40 years. We are grateful to be able to go once more saying and showing that Jesus has risen so let's all live graciously.

Yours,

Dave

Jan's literacy work update

After receiving copies of the 1st Tsuva’di primer, Jan held a one week tutor training workshop for 18 CRCN church leaders and taught the same material to the 28 students at the TEKAN Bible School. The primer construction team has now finalized the corrections for the 2nd primer which contains health and agric lessons as well as 26 Bible stories. The corrections are being entered in Tulsa, OK and the copy-ready primer will soon be forwarded to Jos for printing. Last week, one church leader told me he is now teaching his wife and 7 others how to read using the new Tsuva’di primer. Praise God with us for all this progress. Pray that God will use these primers for the growth of his church.

The students and Dave planted 36 mango trees.

The second term at TBS ended on 8th June. The rains came early this year and so the students were eager to get to their home villages to plant their farms.

Dave’s Christian Ethics class has looked at changes in the environment—the causes, the consequences, and some responses. Students could describe how their villages used to include areas of huge trees and grasslands. Loggers have felled precious trees, people burn the bush annually and firewood collection is women’s continual work. The students coined a motto, “Cut a tree, Plant a tree”. So, just before leaving for their sending churches, the guys and Dave fenced a plot and transplanted 36 mango trees. Their ethics exam papers were full of the correct statement. I hope they go home and practice what they’ve learned.