JSA is off to a Grand Start!

 I have to admit that January has been a tremendous and wonderful blur! I am quite behind on all my blogging stories! It is hard to believe that we are already into week four. The start of the year has gone very well for teachers and students!

This little guy pictured to the left of the screen is our new little addition this year. He has joined Nelson and Musa to be our third little guy with albinism to join JSA. The first day was a bit rough for all of us. He was excited to come to school but found the new environment extremely terrifying. He has not been in many new situations and it was obvious the poor child has been homebound in fear. If you have seen previous posts about what my friends with albinism go through here in Tanzania you should scroll through the archives to have a read. I spent most of the first day with Joel building a relationship and holding him as he screamed for almost 4 1/2 hours. The pockets were few but I saw several glimpses that we would get to a place where Joel would feel as one here at JSA. I sang to him and we watched the class from the outside window looking in. I prayed over him that one day he would no longer be bound by fear and one of the happy children of God playing inside the classroom. I can now gleefully share that Joel is one of the happiest children inside Teacher Pina's Class!! He has the best smile and LOVES his school!! He has improved by leaps and bounds. Joel's favorite thing to play with are the toy cars in the class and he LOVES to sing!! He wrote a song for the class this week and it brought tears to my eyes as he shared it proudly for his loving new friends.

Prayer Points~

• Pray for Joel's ability to catch onto the material. This is his first year of educational instruction and he is a bit developmentally delayed. Pray for Teacher Pina and myself as we lead Joel this year in his learning journey. 
• Joel needs a SPONSOR! Are you willing to partner with us as we share the love of Jesus with Joel!!? If so please visit our sponsorship page for JSA at  http://www.joshuaschoolarusha.com/153/ or email me at wendy.tanzania@gmail.com with questions.