There are 9 young men living at the Timothy House. Three are faithful church youth who are serving as leaders. It is our goal to continue to develop these young men in the area of leadership and ministry. The other 6 young men are all orphans from the surrounding area who are going to high school. It is our goal to reach them for Christ, disciple them, and mentor them to be dedicated followers of Jesus and leaders of tomorrow.
We were also able to dedicate and start using our new classroom building for the Truth Learning Center on Jan. 9. These new classrooms will enable our school to continue to add a grade each year up to grade 7. Currently the school is up to grade 4 with over 120 students. In December we had our kindergarden graduation and end-of-the-year school program with many parents and visitors in attendance. 
The Basotu Baptist Church has a new church building that was dedicated to the Lord on Jan. 8. This church had been meeting in a rented building for over 2 years and is now ready to move forward on its' own land and in its' own building. The church also has new leadership as missionary Nate Wolf tranfered leadership to Tanzanian pastor Christopher. Christopher was saved and sent from the Truth Baptist Church in Katesh.
We had a costume party in October, a Thanksgiving meal in November, and a Christmas party in December with missionary friends and Peace Corp Volunteers in our area. It was fun to have the fellowship and remember some good American tradtions like turkey, pumpkin pie, gift exchange, and football.
It is hard to believe that our "little girl" Hannah is 9 years old already. We celebrated her birthday in Katesh and in Arusha with missionary freinds. Her favorite present was a new sewing machine which she has enjoyed so far.
We had a great Christmas as a family and the kids had a blast opening their presents. Hannah's favorite was her new ipod, Caleb got a telescope, and Sarah some princess dolls.
After losing our long-time family dog Scout we decided to surprise the kids with two German Shepherd puppies. Lulu (Swahili for Pearl) and Taji (Swahili for Crown) have been a great addition to the Burkholder family although they already know how to open the front porch gate and steal our shoes!
The kids dressed and ready for the first day of school at Kweli Learning Center. Sarah will be going to nursery school this year.
Steve and Caleb got to go on safari with a missions group in January. They stayed in the bush and saw hundreds of elephants, giraffe, and lions.
