Garlands of Hosannas!

God's my island hideaway, keeps danger far from the shore, throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.  Psalms 32:7

Hello!

We held the fifth graduation for our Turkana Bible Training Institute students on December 3.  It was a day full of ceremony, fun and praise!  These students studied for two years and finished eighteen intensive classes on the Bible, church leadership and Spiritual formation.  We had a festive day as you can see in the picture above.  It was taken after the ceremony.  Do you see the grass?  That is the result of recent rains.  We even got rain during the main speaker's talk.  It was fitting that he was talking to the students about rain.  It is very good, but it can cause some short term hardships - like having to stop the speaker because he can't be heard over the sound of the rain.  :) He said studying can be the same.  He encouraged them to use what they had learned so the good results could be seen by those who helped them and sacrificed so they could attend.

1 of 5 choirs that sang and danced during the ceremony

  

Singing praises during the rain intermission

The Students, their friends and family were very proud of their accomplishments.  They gave them gifts and showered them with garlands of praise.  It is our hope and prayer that these students will take the things they have learned and use them to heap garlands of Hosannas upon our great God!

I have enjoyed getting to know these students over the past two years as I have taught some of their classes.  It was fun getting to hand out their certificates and encouraging to see the support they had from friends.  Please keep them in your prayers as they go out to spread the Good News.  Pray that they will be able to endure the hardships of life here and be good witnesses of that wonderful news!

Handing out the laminated certificate to Joyce - our top student!