Thank you for your prayers and part in the many ways God is at work through the channel of ROCK. Here are two samples from the first month of 2024 – in two distinctly different places on the African continent – in East Africa, on Tanzania’s verdant island in Lake Victoria – and in West Africa, in Senegal’s dusty Sahel region.

ROCKids
In early January, three ROCK board members (Rachel, Phil, Paul) traveled to Tanzania to celebrate and participate in the reopening of the 2^nd year of the boarding school that opened in January 2023. Rachel reports: Tumaini Jipya {New Hope} Secondary School for Girls started its new school year on January 8^th. Eighteen students returned to start year 2, and twenty started their first year. What a gift it was to be with these girls during their first weekend back at school! One highlight was when their “choir” (which includes all the girls) sang at church. There was much joy on their faces as they sang and made melody to the Lord from their hearts. We couldn’t resist singing and clapping along. During our visit, we also were blessed to celebrate the completion of two new classrooms, the successful start of the chicken farm project (chickens are presently laying more than 7 dozen eggs daily), and to prayerfully envision the foundation for the teachers’ houses that will (as the Lord provides) begin construction this year. We praise God for all He has done, is doing, and will continue to do at this school in and through the teachers, staff, and students.

ROCK Resources
In the second half of January, Dennis (audio tech expert) and I traveled to Senegal to work with a team of local believers to record the KING of GLORY movie in Senegal’s 2^nd most spoken indigenous language: Pulaar. Many were the obstacles. For example, our Pulaar narrator’s coming was delayed by officials. Then, once in the studio, it was discovered that the 70-scene timed-script had not been properly proofed, requiring loads of retranslation on the fly. Also, our minimally-sound-proofed studio was surrounded by seven mosques, each with its prayer calls at regular intervals. Add to that the daily mortar and pestle poundings of a neighbors’ noon meal preparation. Technical difficulties included the sudden deletion of a chunk of the timed-script text that had just been carefully revised…. “But the LORD delivered [us] out of them all!” (Psalm 34:19), and in 7 days the Pulaar synced recording was completed. Meanwhile, during that same week, up in Jerusalem, the Hebrew version of KING of GLORY was also successfully recorded. We hope to see both films released later this month. Praise the Lord and pray for prepared minds and hearts.