End of term...

The past few weeks have been a busy time for Burundi Youth For Christ, especially in regards to Gitega International Academy, which wrapped up their school year and sent the kids home for the summer. There will be a lot of construction work going on at GIA over the next couple of months as we prepare to add a new grade to the school. We are currently working on securing funds for the construction, and the process will begin shortly so as to be done by the start of the next academic year.

We are also saying goodbye to many of our long and short term volunteers who are heading back home, some to stay and some will only be gone for a season, but they will be dearly missed regardless. Our terrific headmaster of two years left near the beginning of the month, and we are in need of a new headmaster for the coming year. As well as some of our wonderful teachers and aids who are returning home to pursue the next chapter of their lives. We are sorry to see them go, but we are keeping them in our prayers that they will be blessed as they move on with their lives.

Alongside the end of the school year, we have begun the Bujumbura GIA summer classes that are taking place here at the BYFC Office. We have had a few short time volunteers come in already to teach music, bible and hygiene classes, and we eagerly await to see what the next volunteer teachers will have to offer these students.

It is crazy to see GIA add a grade 10 class to the school as it seems like only yesterday that the first grade 7 and 8 classes started at the school. GIA has grown so quickly in such a short period of time, and the kids have as well. It is so apparent that many of the students will indeed become the future leaders of Burundi because many of them are driven, hard-working, bold in their faith, and have a knack for leadership. We wait in anticipation to see the men and women that will come from Gitega International Academy, and the change they will incite within their nation.

We ask that you would keep BYFC in your prayers as we continue to teach the GIA students throughout the summer. That they would be driven and eager to learn even in the midst of their summer break.

May God Bless you all, and thank you for keeping BYFC close to your hearts