We have asked Practicum student Becky Forrest to let us publicly post the recaps e-mails to friends and family. Becky is an American and has just begun full-time missions after 29 years as an accountant. Through her posts, we hope you will understand a little more about what the Practicum is and what students are learning. Below is her most recent e-mail. Thanks for sharing with us, Becky!

I can’t believe we only have three more weeks of training. The students all miss home, but we have become one big happy family. We share our problems and unite in prayer together. My friend Raphael from Nigeria received a call from him wife last night to tell him that her sisters were in an auto accident yesterday. One sister died, and the other is in serious condition. He was greatly troubled because he cannot be there for his wife, so we all prayed with him for her and her family. It is very hard for our international students being so far from home. The American students will be experiencing much the same when we travel to our various mission fields.

This week we have continued in water and sanitation. Monday, we built a sand filter for cleaning and sanitizing water with sand. It is a very simple design perfect for people to use in their homes to have safe drinking water, which is one of the biggest problems in the developing countries. Living here in the U.S., we don’t realize the importance of clean water and just going to the tap whenever we want. One of our students said he walked 3 hours to get water from one of the villages where he works as a missionary.

Tuesday, our class was on latrines with a visit in the afternoon to the water treatment in the big city of Wedowee. Wednesday came the fun part of the week. Well drilling!!!!!! We tried 3 holes and hit rock every time. The system we used was the one Addison learned in Bolivia and drilled 2 wells in Ixiamas, where I will be interning next year. Manpower does all the work. We all were covered in mud by the end of the day Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday was our big outing to Auburn University. We met with one of the professors there and learned about Water Watch. They are teaching communities all over the world how to take care of their watersheds. We had lunch at Auburn UMC, a very mission minded church with 4000 members. They have been having mission teams since the 90’s and raised the money to help SIFAT build a bridge in Bolivia. On our way home we stopped in at Auburn’s fisheries and learned about fish farms. Many tropical communities have ponds of tilapia for cash crops. Auburn fisheries are the best in the world.

The international students are going to Ft. Walton Beach for the weekend to speak at the First UMC there. A couple of the U.S. students are going to take the weekend off and maybe go hiking or to a movie – for sure out to dinner. We are supposed to get hooked up to DSL next week. We have been praying that would happen because out internet service is really slow.

My seedlings in my tire gardens (my class project) are really growing and I’ll post some pictures on Facebook when we get DSL.

Love to all,

Becky

What’s been going on at SIFAT? A lot! We’ve finished Learn & Serve for the summer and welcomed Practicum students. Schools and groups are coming weekly for CARES field trips, not to mention the retreats on weekends. Wow. Busy!

We have asked Practicum student Becky Forrest to let us publicly post the recaps e-mails to friends and family. Becky is an accountant who has been called to missions. Three years ago, she went on a short-term mission trip to Panama. In 2007, she traveled with an UMVIM group from South Carolina to Ixiamas, Bolivia to work with SIFAT. In 2008, she returned to Ixiamas to work with SIFAT again. Now, she has quit her job and is taking part in our training to prepare for being in full time ministry.

Through her posts, we hope you will understand a little more about what the Practicum is and what students are learning. Below is her most recent e-mail. Thanks for sharing with us, Becky, and welcome to the SIFAT blog!

Hi Everyone

It’s so hard to believe October is almost here. I have completed 4 weeks of training. Last week was not as exciting, no rabbits.  

We had TOT (Training of the Trainers) which is a training method by an organization called Life Wind. It is going to be a very useful tool regardless of where I end up going. With the course, I have access to 1800 lesson plans for almost any subject you could want to teach. The instructor is a retired missionary that spent most of her time in Albania.  This plan is used a lot in closed countries to introduce God’s word by first teaching moral values. The lessons use drama and storytelling. Friday was our turn to teach. My group was the 4 ladies I room with and our subject was physical examination of a goat. Fortunately for us right, outside our class room is a pasture containing 4 goats. We used the youngest and demonstrated how to see if we had a healthy goat, and then we had the class do it. It was so funny. Just imagine 4 women trying to hold a goat still while he was crying for him momma and our fellow students coming up looking at his ears, mouth, hoofs and checking for signs of diarrhea. I think you get the picture.

Every Tuesday one of the local churches sends a woman’s group with a covered dish lunch. I was talking to one of the ladies last week who told me she had grown up in Greenville (SC). Come to find out, her father’s brother was married to my mother’s sister. I guess that would make up cousins in law? It is truly a small world.

This week should prove to be interesting we are going to learn how to build fuel efficient cook stoves and gardening.

Please continue to pray for all the students here, we have all been away from home over a month, and everyone is missing their families.

God’s blessings to all,

Becky

International Aid’s Lab in a Suitcase training will be held on SIFAT’s campus August 10-12, 2008.

Imagine you are in a jungle area with no electricity. The nearest medical lab is days away. You need to make a diagnosis to determine which life-saving medicines to give…

Learn how to use International Aid’s convenient, portable medical lab specially designed for remote areas.

• Performs 80% of the most commonly needed lab tests.
• Uses alternative energy sources—solar panels, hand-crank, car-plug, etc.
• Ideal for medical teams. Useful for disaster areas globally.

Who: This training is designed for health care personnel who do not have extensive laboratory training backgrounds

What: Lab in a Suitcase training.

When: August 10-12, 2008

Where: SIFAT’s international campus, Lineville, AL

More info: www.sifat.org/workshop.html or contact Kathy Bryson, brysonk@sifat.org

Today, three groups came to SIFAT to tour our campus and learn how we “share God’s love in practical ways” from Alabama. If your group is interested in coming for a tour, contact Haley Lewis, lewish@sifat.org. Tours are available on Thursdays throughout the year.

Our eight Learn & Serve counselors will begin training on Monday. Please pray for their safe travel as they arrive throughout the weekend and for their stamina as they prepare for the next nine weeks of camp. Are you still interested in registering for L&S? Limited space if available. Visit www.sifat.org/learnandserve for more information about L&S 2008: 360.

The Field Course Study begins next Wednesday, May 28. Many participants will begin arriving Tuesday afternoon for orientation. For more information about this 10-day training, visit www.sifat.org/fieldstudy.html.