Ekisa Kyo Kimala (Your Grace is Enough)

Hello friends and family,

The Amazima School - Primary completed its first term in April and began second term last Monday. Praise the Lord! We are so thankful that we have had the ability to educate, feed, and interact with our students for the past 14 weeks and look forward to a wonderful Term 2. We ended Term 1 with an Easter celebration, praising God for all He has done at our school and above all, for the gift of eternal life through Jesus.

This has been the most challenging, growing, and stretching job I have ever had. It takes time for kids who have been through years and years of trauma to trust someone, and I'm learning to be patient and intentional about building relationships....but it's hard! My students have triggers that I don't always understand that cause them to shut down or act out in surprising ways. I've learned to pray more than I ever have before and ask the Holy Spirit to guide my every step. I continue to ask God to fill me with His unconditional love so that I can love my students well, no matter if they are responding well, shutting down, or responding with challenging behaviors. Thank you for continuing to pray for me - I am so thankful for the amazing prayer warriors in my life! 

I am so thankful for all I have seen God doing in the Accelerated Education Program. Before January, we were unsure if our students would attend school or drop off the Amazima program. Many of them had said to their mentors that it would be a waste of time and that they hated being the 20 year old in the class of 14 year old students. One student even ran away for three months last fall. Leadership told his mentors to just get him through the door of our class and we'd do the rest. Praise the Lord that each student we had chosen for the program has attended all throughout Term 1 and the first two weeks of Term 2! I had three boys say to me "Teacher Hummel, when I go to secondary school you must come visit me." I love that they're already planning ahead to future years of education. It was beautiful to see my students' confidence grow during Term 1 as well. Many of them campaigned to be school prefects and had to give speeches in front of the school. I helped them write and practice their speeches and I stood there taking pictures and filming them like a proud momma as they gave them in front of all 324 Amazima students. Such amazing growth from the start of the year! 

I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many of you in the past few weeks. Thank you to Kristy Tucker and Forest Lake's 11th grade class for organizing a donut sale and sending so many awesome gifts to me and students. Thank you also to my mom's kind and thoughtful friends, as well as my friends, who sent gifts from the Amazon lists with my sister and friend. You guys are amazing!!! Thank you for Christmas in April! Your gifts have been such a blessing and a reminder of all the support and prayers behind what I am doing here.

I am so blessed that Katie and Jenny (my sister and friend) were able to come visit me during the break for Term 1. These two are the best! I'm thankful for the time we had on safari, relaxing, and just being together. Thanks for visiting!

Prayer Points

• Please continue to pray for the Accelerated Education Program. I'm so thankful that we have been able to provide a space for our older Primary students. Pray for wisdom for the AEP teachers as we seek build our students' academic skills while also helping them heal from years of trauma. TBRI training has been so helpful and we have seen many positive moments - please pray for many more. Pray that we would not become discouraged, but that we would continue to be strengthened in all we need to minister well to our students.
• Please pray for The Amazima School teachers, staff, and leadership. Beginning a school is hard work! We are in week 2 of Term 2 and we are tired. Pray for our team to be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. We can't do this work on our own, and are so thankful that we don't have to.
• Please pray for my sister Katie (and the rest of my family as well) as she prepares to move to Iraq in a couple of weeks to work with Samaritan's Purse. Pray that her remaining days in the US would be sweet and prepare her for her move. Thankfully, she's moving to the same time zone that I'm in, so I'll be able to communicate with her easily.

Thank you for caring about what I am doing in Uganda. I know that I am prayed for and supported by so many and I am thankful for you!

💜 Jaci

*My morning prayer on the way to school each day.