FEBRUARY 2006
Dear Friends and Supporters of
The Queens and Kings School, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Please
help us to pay back our loans
Thank
you so very much for all those of you who have supported us
so far in any way with
money and with your prayers.
Recent donations have included several from Christian Science
churches – 2nd Church, Birmingham (UK) are sponsoring
two of our children. Other churches have had collections for
us
and
1st Church, Bournemouth (UK) had a Bring and Buy Sale for us
and 1st Church, Sheffield (UK) held a wonderful concert and
gave all
the proceeds
to The Queens and Kings School. We are very grateful to all
involved with this giving.
We also received a most marvellous donation from a Charitable
Trust which paid for more than half of the cost of our newly
acquired bus. It is a white bus and on the sides in green the
wording “The Queens and Kings School” and on the
back in red “Dagny” and on the back and front in
green “Educational”.
We received a lovely local donation from the Rotary Club of
Douglas (Isle of Man) to pay for all the costs involved in
getting our generator (and
7 boxes of school books [given to us by Claremont Fancourt
School - Surrey, UK]) over to the school. This consignment
is to be shipped on the
5th February and will arrive by the end of the month, in time
for Trevor to help with getting it in place.
We are most grateful to the six people who give us standing
order payments each month – these total £168 and are a
great regular help towards all our expenses.
We now have 11 sponsors for our children. These people have
paid £72
to be a sponsor for a year for a child. These children are very
proud to be scholarship children and most (together with their
parents) are corresponding with their sponsors.
We are very grateful to Bruce and Gina at The Art Store, Kirkby
Lonsdale for giving us the advertising space in their Quarterly
bulletins – a most generous gesture and several of our
donors have read about the school and our Workshops in the Bulletin.
It has seemed right to us to complete the school (at least
the ground floor) and to be making a start on the accommodation
for
teachers, and to purchase the school bus. All these further
our aim of educating these wonderful Nigerian children to embrace
and express the qualities of God in their lives. To give girls
as well as boys a good and well-rounded education and start
in
life. This has involved us in borrowing substantial sums totalling
over £20,000. Having the school complete and improving
the road and buying the bus will all enable more and more children
to attend the school and when they have paid their fees this
will make the school self sufficient as regards teachers’ fees,
school equipment and exercise books, writing tools etc.
Anything you are able to do to help us pay back our loans will
be most appreciated.
See right column to make a donation.
With love and gratitude
Ros
Below is a message from Trevor in Nigeria
Mustard Seed Update -
22JAN06/ 4FEB06-The Queens
and Kings School, Port Harcourt
I started writing this little note before going to church on
Sunday Morning
It
is a lovely sunny morning here, but at the modern flat where
I am staying there is no electricity (as usual!)
so I am operating
the computer by battery. Also we have had no running water
for some three weeks and so the water has to be collected
by bucket
and carried up three floors. Even when we will get running
water the wc does not work! Such are the challenges of an
underdeveloped country.
However on the school front there is only good to report.
· A GOOD ACCESS ROAD AT LAST. Last weekend we came to the conclusion
that all the promises of the road construction company were empty,
they had promised to provide the materials for free, but they
had done nothing, nor had they sent their machines in to work
the road, so Stella last Saturday went to the sand fields and
brought in 10 lorry loads of Latrite (brown mud) to fill in all
the holes in the road. On Tuesday we hired a big grader for the
day and they worked the road. It took all day, but then for the
first time we now have a good, wide, accessible road from the
main Airport Road all the way to the school premises.
· NOW WE HAVE A SCHOOL BUS! It is very necessary to have a school
bus so we can bring in children from different parts of Port
Harcourt as many parents have no transport facilities and their
children should not be discriminated against.
In December we had received one sizeable donation towards
the school bus so we transmitted this amount plus some smaller
amounts from the UK to Port Harcourt by bank transfer.
Stella and the teachers have done some research and it became
obvious that we would not be able to get the quality of school
bus we need for the original budget of N 1,000,000. For this
money the vehicles offered are very tired, 12 –15 years
old, probably having done over 200, 000 miles (even though the
mileometer may say 70,000!). They could be a liability to the
school.
It was clear we would need to pay nearer N 2,000,000 for
a quality bus . So we have borrowed some money and bought
a Toyota
Hiace
1998cc petrol engine bus, which is only four years old, and
has only done 80,000 miles. This vehicle should have cost
some N
2,500,000 but we managed to buy it for N 1,500,000 (£6,250/$10,870)
which is a very good buy indeed. On the 1FEB06 we started a driver
·
PTA MEETING 21JAN06. This was our best PTA Meeting to date, being
very constructive. At this meeting Stella told the parents about
the proposed PRAISE GIVING DAY on 27JAN06, which they thought
was a very good idea. It was agreed that the parents wishing
to use the school bus for transporting their children should
pay N5,000 (£21/$36) per term for the service of the bus
(fuel and driver).
· PRAISE GIVING DAY 27JAN06. This was a big success and 150 people
attended.
The school hall was dressed with ribbons and balloons. All
who attended enjoyed a meal of Chicken and Rice, cooked on
the school
premises by some of the parents, and they drank Maltina and
water. We sang eight hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal
(283, 280,
150, 58, 324, 275, 124, 1). A number of people said they
were highly impressed and that the children did very well
and scored
the school between 90% and 99%. Some people said that they
were truly uplifted. A Senator who attended asked us to make
sure we don’t lose the vision,
and told us to keep it up.
The event was videoed by CTL Cable Television, partly paid
for by the PTA. The Program for the day included a Mustard
Seed talk
by myself on the subject of gratitude and thanksgiving using
the texts, I Chron 16: 8-12,18,23-24,27-29,31,34 and Luke
17:12-19. This talk was based on the spiritual ideas found
in the healing
of the ten lepers and was very well received by a few people,
including a number of Chiefs, who requested the opportunity
to attend a full Mustard Seed Workshop in the near future.
· SHIPPING OF GENERATOR FROM UK We currently have no electricity
in the school but on the 3FEB06 a generator was shipped from
the UK to Port Harcourt. We have received a donation from the
Rotary Club of Douglas (Isle of Man) to cover the cost of the
shipment and installation at the school. Already we have started
buying and installing ceiling fans in the school, as we need
to keep the classrooms cooler.
· NEW STAFFS We are pleased to report that we are grateful that
we have been able to take on three new members of staff, Hyginus
a teacher for Nursery I, Oguchi a minder for the Pre-Nursery,
and Danjuma our driver.
· FIRST TERM EXAMS We have completed the first term exam, the results
of which will enable us to do more work on training the teachers
and re-enforcing the work done with the children. Mathematics
is still weak in the Primary section.
· DAY CARE FACILITIES The School has recently been requested to
accept younger children from 18 months old, so we are currently
organising a Day Care Centre in one of the classrooms and we
are having twelve small beds constructed for the rest room. Mattresses
have been bought for this purpose. Three Janglava pieces of equipment
have been bought, a swing, slide and roundabout. These are now
in use and the children are very happy playing on them.
· FUTURE SCHOLARSHIPS Now that we are
providing transport facilities, have increased teachers salaries
and have book lists for each
class the cost of scholarships in the future will need to
increase.
Much
love from
Trevor Leach
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