Handover

Prayers appreciated this week for the Pierces, Scott, and our new Head Teacher Deus, as well as accountant Loy and deputies Godfrey and Ejeku.  Since CSB was founded over ten years ago the intention was to establish a fully Ugandan staff, with the mission providing ongoing vision and support and continuity.  The Barts ran the warm-up and then the first eight laps of that marathon, then there was a transfer ninth lap, and the Pierces have run two more strenuous rounds on their own.  By Friday, the baton should, at last, be in the hands of Deus.  So much work and prayer has led to this point . . .and yet the work and prayer to follow seem even greater.  Many closures are merely steps through a door into a whole new set of corridors.  David and Annelise are investing tremendous effort to tie up loose ends on policies, funds, staff, and schedules, use of property, down to the adequacy of the furniture and design of the renovated library space.  For them this is a bittersweet time of completing the calling they heard God give them, and moving on to find their next direction in life.  Scott needs to establish solid rapport with the new leadership team.  For them it is a challenging but potential-filled time of beginning in new working relationships.  And all needs to be ready for the return of the full staff next week, and the students the week after.  Not so that we can have a perfect school, we are far from that, but so that CSB can continue to be a Kingdom outpost, a plot of holy territory where rules and love both matter, where girls are safe, where lessons are actually taught, where God's creation is respected, where the Gospel is clearly heard and seen, where prayer changes hearts, where lives are set in directions that will ultimately transform Bundibugyo.  If that depended upon us, we would despair, but we settle in for the next term, expecting God to show up in new and clear and rescuing ways, bringing PEACE to our tumultuous hearts.