We have much to make us rejoice!
We rejoice because there has been another graduation of 26 women from our sowing school in April. You can see the outright joy in completing the 8-month training and receiving a sewing machine they helped to purchase.
We also have joy that God provided funds to purchase three new machines for the school to replace old ones that were worn out. These treadle machines suffer hard use! The new ones are the three in the front of the classroom.
In the first rice harvest from the land which Sowing Hope helped to purchase, the harvest was good! The women were able to gather 11 huge sacks of unhulled rice. This is a huge benefit to the 18 women involved in the project and their families.
Our newest project, the Oholiab advanced sewing school, had huge setbacks with almost no enrollment and periods without electricity at the workshop. So, our partners have redesigned the project, lowering tuition and offering services to the community. There is presently a small group from the most recent class in our foundational school who are getting trained in performance machines.
Let us share some upcoming needs for Sowing Hope:
· We need to purchase four more machines to replace worn out ones at our school. Cost: $125 approximately each.
· We are hoping to pay half the cost of setting up our partners in Burundi with access to the Starlink internet service to improve communication with them. Cost: About $400.
· Tim and I are planning a trip to Burundi in October or December. If you would like to help fund this, the cost is about $4,000.
We thank you so much for your support in prayer and in helping financially. You can see that we give approximate costs because the exchange rate and prices in Burundi keep bouncing around making planning very difficult.
With much gratitude for your interest,
Leslie & Tim Boettcher