The following people will celebrate birthdays in June! Comment on this post to wish them a happy birthday and we will forward your note to them!

GRANDMOTHER – JUNE 1

SONDRA – JUNE 4

SMALL MIKE – JUNE 29

KEN – JUNE 30

The 3^rd term at the Right Steps Christian Schools is usually a very busy term. What with student elections, 9^th grade state-wide exams, graduation, field trips, and this term, the publication of the maiden edition of our school magazine—“The Town Crier”. The CROSS Competitive Common Entrance Exams into Junior Secondary Class 1 for September has kicked off. The entrance exams will be conducted in 4 different churches that are being used as centers, plus the final one that will take place at Susana Homes on June 25. Elections were held on Friday after the students had campaigned and presented their manifestoes. This is RSCS effort at teaching the children practical good governance. Some of them won the posts they vied for while others did not. All together, they are learning that there are things you must do, not just during election week, but all through your days at the school and these are the things that will determine if you go into student government or not. We congratulate those who won—especially the Senior Prefect of the School who was re-elected to complete her second term in Office. We encourage those who did not win to work harder and to perhaps change their strategies next year.

We have no reports of ill health this week and that is always such a blessing. Karen’s skin irritation has gotten so much better and she is doing very well. Amarachi received her usual monthly infusion of normal saline and is doing very well. Chinasa’s foot has healed very beautiful and we are going to wait and see how she does with it. It could be that the surgery took care of the growth and since she is not HIV positive, we take it that the diagnosis of Kaposi Sarcoma was wrong! She is doing very well in school and we thank God for this. Pray that we continue to enjoy the good health that has been our portion this week.

The 11^th graders had the privilege of taking a recent field trip. They went to the Unity Bank PLC and after lectures by bank officials, they filled out deposit slips and put money into the Right Steps Christian School bank account. Below is one of the essays that came from that experience. The Senior Prefect of the school—Blessed Esionye—wrote the attached essay. Blessed is a recipient of the CROSS—RSCS scholarship program for academically endowed young Christians.

MY FIRST TRIP TO A BANK (unedited)

BY BLESSED ESIONYE  (Blessed is in 11^th grade and a recipient of the CROSS)

I’ve always longed to go for an excursion especially to a bank. My desire was granted when we were informed that we could go to a bank at Port Harcourt by our director.  On Wednesday morning which was the 25^th of May 2011, we prepared for our trip to the Unity bank at Port Harcourt. We were 8 in number (the members of ss2 class) I was very happy because that was my first journey to port Harcourt. We were taken there by our dean of studies and our economics teacher Aunty Okwuchi.

 We left the school at about 10 o’clock in the morning. On our way, we saw the Imo river. It was then it dawned on me that it also separated Abia from Rivers state. We drove for about one hour 30 minutes before arriving at the bank itself. When we got there, I saw that there was a security door that is cylindrical. It works with electricity and you press a button to enter the first door. It accepts one person at a time. The door is used for checking and reducing theft. It does not allow metallic objects inside it. I was told that it is found in all banks. After that we were taken upstairs to a room where we were lectured by Alex Chinwo a worker in the bank. He taught us the requirements to open a savings account. He also told us that the minimum amount for opening a savings account by students is N3000. 

We were also told that you cannot issue out a cheque to a third party in savings account but this can be done in a type of savings account called Hybrig Account.  Hybrig allows a third party to withdraw cheque not more than N50,000. but in current account you can withdraw more than N50,000. 

He told us how to deposit each into an account. We were given a deposit slip to fill in. we were given the school’s account number and how to fill in the slip.

The bank manager Mr. Jukius Nnaji came and welcomed us. The deposit slip had three sheet. The white sheet is given to the cashier, the yellow sheet is put inside the teller box as an evidence of payment. Mr. Alex also told us about the A.T.M card. It is a compulsory card because it is always subcharged. The A.T.M card is used for withdrawing and not for depositing money.

A current account goes dormant after 6 months while a savings account goes dormant after a year. The dormancy of an account is when the account is not either withdrawn or deposited. After 12 months a savings account is dormant and will be therefore be reactivated before any transaction is done in it.

Later, we went down stairs and deposited money. Each of us were given N5000 to deposit into the school account. We did it excellently and the cashier praised us.

Then we left the bank. On our way home, we bought some snacks. I enjoyed the ride although it was tiring. My sincere thanks goes to our able director who planned and mapped out an event like this. I am also grateful to all who made the trip a success. I am also hoping for another excursion it was such an enjoyable experience that will never escape my memory. 

Marvelous and Meso are twin brother and sister and have been at Susana Homes since they were 8 months. Their mother did not die giving birth, but she always had episodes of psychosis following the birth of her children. Marvelous and Meso are her 5^th and 6^th offspring. Her husband had always raised their infants. However, and in the case of Marvelous and Meso, they were twins, and he already had 4 others that were not much older than these two. He needed help with them—especially after their mother did not seem like she was going to recover from the episode this time around. Susana Homes accepted the twins on the grounds that he will look for their mother and get help for her. He did and the babies came into care. He kept in touch, visiting them often and bringing the upkeep he had agreed to give at the end of every month. But then, the hard times hit—he lost his job, and his wife started roaming the streets again, now fully insane. He has had his hands full, and we have not seen him in over a year. 

The children, now soon to be 5, are doing well. Meso (the girl) has struggled with ill health, but is doing much better now. We do not know how long it will take for their father to come back for them, but we are glad we have been able to help these two precious children. We pray that what little help and love we have shared with them in the last 4 years will come to their aid someday when they need it.

BEHOLD THE CROWN PRINCE OF SUSANA HOMES! JOJO is the first child to be born at Susana Homes—12 years ago, this September. Jojo’s mother was a teenager who was thrown out by her family as is common here when young girls get pregnant out of wedlock. When she was in her last month of pregnancy, she decided to find her mother’s relatives. She never made it to them. She collapsed on the way, after trekking for days and without much food. She was brought to Susana Homes and Jojo was born a few days after.

We had hopes of keeping both mother and child and helping them together, but she disappeared when Jojo was about 3 months old, and we have not seen her again since then. Jojo has grown up at Susana Homes and is greatly loved by all. He has not grown very much physically, but you will know who is in charge the minute you walk into Susana Homes. If you are a new child and you think you are bigger in size, Jojo will put you in your rightful place before the day is over. And don’t think of getting close to Grandma Lillian because it won’t work either. Jojo already has that place of honor—next to Grandma!

Jojo struggles with school, but his personality, he might just be my ticket to Hollywood or Las Vegas! Life in an orphanage is not the best, but we are thankful for the obviously happy childhood that Jojo has had at Susana Homes. He is greatly loved and by God’s Grace, this will come into play when he needs to move on.

If you wish to leave a note of encouragement for Jojo, you can let him know you care by commenting on this post. We will forward your message to our precious CHILD OF THE WEEK!

Please add DAVIE and SONDRA to your prayer list this week. Sister Gift has reported what sounds like a stomach virus making its rounds at Susana Homes. Davie and Sondra were the first victims but are doing better now. Please remember them this week as they recover. 

We have decided to try and get slides of CHINASA’S specimen to another pathologist or if possible to the U.S. for another opinion. She is not HIV positive and so cannot have Kaposi Sarcoma. Either her specimen has been switched or somebody is not reading it right. This means that she will not be going to the specialist hospital where she was referred to until we sort out the pathology result. For now we rejoice and we thank God for small mercies—the fact that she is not HIV positive! Please continue to pray for her and for AMARACHI.

If you would like to leave a note of prayer or encouragement for anyone on our prayer list, please leave a comment on this post, and we will forward your message.

Queen Mary Grace the 1^st of Susana Homes will be one on April 22! Happy Birthday, MG! Please be sure and send your birthday notes to MG by then! She survived infancy! Her twin brother, Allen, was not so lucky. Allen was so traumatized at birth he only lived about 2 weeks. But MG has made it through Year One. And we truly celebrate with her this week. We hope you join us in this. Moments like this make whatever difficulties we go through worth it!

No news of ill health in the past week. We are thankful for this. However, Chinasa has been referred to a teaching hospital about 200 miles from us. They are accessing her for chemotherapy. When they are sure she can withstand it, I imagine they will do it. Please continue to pray for her and for Amarachi.

If you would like to leave a note of encouragement for Chinasa, please leave a note on this post, and we will forward her your well-wishes.

Join us on Friday, April 29th at 7:00 p.m. for our Kentucky area-wide Right Steps Benefit Dinner!

Soutside Church of Christ

1533 Nicholasville Road

Lexington, KY 40503

Tickets are $30 per person, and all proceeds will benefit Susana Homes!

To RSVP or for more information, email info@rightsteps.org or call 866-547-7162.