We started them off with the goal of learning 1,000 words in English, conversational English and life skills. They spend half a day in our school and half a day working. So far they learned how to landscape, garden, put up fences, electricity, and build a mud house! Avoda staff joined in the fun. We dug up soil and mixed it with water, cement and chaff, using our bare feet. We then made over a thousand bricks using a special wooden box and waited for them to dry. The process continued on to building a foundation, painting the metal posts and stacking the bricks. The house is now standing and almost complete.
One of the most important lessons the students from Laos are learning are Biblical principles and its practical applications. Most of them do not know the Bible well if at all, and have only started praying here. Every day we loosen the bonds of unbelief and undo the heavy burdens of doubt with Biblical Truths. Daily exercises focus them on the power of our God and the plans he has for each of them. Our main goal is that they not only learn life skills that will enable them to earn a living but help them be transformed by the renewal of their mind.
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?