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Ana and Bryan Start School
On Tuesday Ann Renee and Bryan will start school. This will be their first real experience with school and our first experience leaving them there. Needless to say, we are all a little anxious/excited about the change. Ann Renee will be starting 1st grade while Bryan will be in Kindergarten. We were encouraged to meet their teachers this week, see their classrooms and try to get them ready for their first day! Besides having to purchase supplies, the school also requires uniforms. We have included a couple of pictures below of both of them in their school duds! Please pray for all of us during this big transition. We are anticipating that Bryan will have the harder time and will need an extra meausure of God's grace.

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All dressed and ready for the first day of school!

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Ann Renee's uniform is blue because she is in the primary school.

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Bryan's uniform is orange because he is in preschool.

Women Serving Women
Recently Julie was invited to serve with one of ESEPA's ministries called Women Serving Women. This is a discipleship style ministry in which Julie will have the opportunity to help in the coordination of workshops. After the workshops she will facilitate a small group in discussion, application, prayer and follow-up. The ministry not only serves the women who are currently students at ESEPA but is open to anyone interested in attending. Please pray for her as this will help her to continue to grow in her ability to speak Spanish and will provide the opportunity for fellowship and relationships.
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The four coordinators for Women Serving Women.

Spring Semester 2017
The academic year has gotten off to a good start. Andrew is much more comfortable in his role as dean now that he has some experience under his belt. Enrollment is up significantly this semester, we have about 150 students enrolled in classes here in San José. Our extension campuses add another 60 students to that total for a grand total of just over 200 students! The Lord has certainly been good! We continue to pray for growth but we are also looking for ways to improve our courses and delivery methods. This semester we are offering about 25 undergraduate courses. Andrew is teaching two courses this semester, Spiritual Formation I on Thursdays mornings and History of Salvation online. We continue to pray for the growth of the seminary and we would like to see at least another 100-150 students enrolled over the course of next 18 months to two years.

One other bit of exciting news...ESEPA had the largest graduating class in its history this past December. The total number of graduates was 13! We praise God for his great faithfulness!!!
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Andrew's Spiritual Formation I Class.

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Some of our online students (the fellow in front is taking History of Salvation).

Support Needs
We continue to be amazed at God's gracious provision through each of you who support us. We do not take for granted your sacrifice to support the ministry God has called us to, however, our support needs continue to increase due to cost of living increases, ministry related travel requirements for Andrew and the education needs of the children.

We struggle deeply with when and how to communicate financial needs with you - especially because most of you who receive this email already give generously. However, we also realize that unless we make our needs known, they will not be met (although I suppose George Müeller would disagree). So we want to share our financial needs with you and ask that you would pray for God's generous provision.

Over the course of our (nearly) four years here our support needs have increased while giving has declined. We currently are receiving about 65% of our monthly need. As a result we need about $2,000 in regular monthly giving. We realize this is a tremendous amount of money but we believe that God wants us here and He will provide what we need.

We also have a new expense this year - the kids' education. As we have mentioned in other newsletters, we don't have the option of public school for safety and educational concerns. As a result, we have chosen a private, Christian school for our kids. The difficulty is the price tag. It is going to cost $10,000 for their education this year. We have already received $5,000 towards that expense but we need another $5,000 in order to pay for the rest of 2017.

We ask you to pray with us that God would bring in these funds. In addition to praying with us we would ask that you prayerfully consider helping in one of the following ways:

1) If you don't currently financially support us, prayerfully consider doing so
2) If you do currently support us, consider an increase in your monthly commitment
3) Connecting us with people or churches who would be interested in hearing about our work

Regardless of how the Lord may move your heart in response to our needs, we are grateful for each of you. We would not be here without you and your faithful prayers and financial support. We give thanks to the Lord for each of you and your partnership in the gospel.

Much love,
Andrew, Julie, Ann Renee and Bryan

How you can pray this month...
The transition to school for the kids
Continued growth for ESEPA (especially our San José campus)
Our financial need - specifically $2,000 in monthly support and $5,000 in one-time
Praise and Thanksgiving this month...
A good school to send the kids to (and their current excitement to start)
Great enrollment this semester at ESEPA
God's provision of $5,000 for the kids education this year

Interested in learning a little bit more about where we live and what we do? Click here and check out our ministry video!