March Update from the Clark Family

Welcome to March. If you are reading this and you have not seen my wife find her on Facebook and seek her out. When you meet her tell her we miss her in Africa. If you have the time, buy her coffee or a meal. She is on assignment now to deliver a baby and visit those who sent us but she can still take time to make connections. Please keep her busy. The more she has to do the less she might miss us. It was unforeseeable that her making this journey alone would amount to her feeling like the sole survivor of the African Expedition. It is the blessing of our era that we can reach across oceans and communicate almost daily but it isn’t the same as wrapping your arms around them and squeezing. I fear Jeri is not getting her quotient of daily hugs. She normally gets hugged daily by six different people, so y’all have to make an effort to compensate.

Keeping us busy here is the Sustainable Agriculture School. Eleven Africans and one white girl from central California have come to Hopeland to learn how to transform the agriculture practices of this nation. This is the same school that brought us here in 2014 and now I am on staff. For our family this is the fulfillment of the vision to bring transformation to Africa. Last school the ratio of foreigner to local was five to seven. Almost all of those seven students were able to direct one or two new students for this class. Clearly the white people didn’t agriculturally evangelize as effectively. This school was never intended to transform Americans. They are welcome and the skills we learned are good solid sustainable techniques but this is a school in Africa for Africans. As a staff we can’t wait to see what these new students are capable of next.

The children are back in the routine of homeschool, volleyball, and the local homeschool co-op. They are moving through their workbooks, some donated math textbooks, computer teaching programs, a local language teacher, reading books on their internet tablets, and once a week I lead the world history lesson. Zoe has stepped up to cover Jeri’s absence as well as finishing up her own high school curriculum. If she keeps up this pace she will graduate from school this spring and be ready for the next adventure in life. We couldn’t do this without her and also can’t wait to see what she is capable of next.

Thank you for persevering with us to see this realization of vision. It might have been enough to just be here and grow food to feed people. Seeing this school forming and repeating has gone above our expectations. When this school finishes this summer our participation (your support also makes you participants) will be a part of the blessing these Africans bring to their nation. These are relationships that have eternal consequences. Thank you for sending us to be a part of it.

Oh yeah, she is learning how to drive.