Branches (Satellite Schools)

I’ve heard that things are best told in pictures. The truth is that seeing things with your own eyes is what you will remember the longest and understand the best. But since I know that most of you will never walk on this land, I want to give you a picture. More than a picture — a vision.

And it looks like this . . .

Steep, green mountains; wet, fertile valleys; simple, bamboo huts; big, mighty rivers; tall, lofty coconut palms; — you can imagine the beauty. But the part I didn’t mention . . . Well, it’s the part that really matters.

People — beautiful, simple, humble, hospitable, hardworking, resourceful, peace-loving. Yet they are poor — very poor. I don’t just mean that they don’t always have enough necessities, like food to eat or clothes to wear or medicine when they are sick. The riches of literacy and Christianity are far more scarce in this war-torn corner of the world. Some of the people have heard something of Jesus, and some have even seen a Bible. But what do you do when you can’t read? And how will you learn if there’s no teacher?

That’s just what the Lord has given us a burden to do something about. This school here is a huge undertaking. But the work mustn’t stay here. The cry has come from many villages for someone to come. And by His grace, we now have not just the one “satellite” school that we had two years ago . . .

BawThaRaw

. . . or the two additional schools that we had last year.

MehGuhDue

GaLawGwee

God is expanding our borders. After visiting the village of PahDuePoo, Thara Ehganyaw saw the need and opportunity for a school there. So he asked four students . . .

First and third from left and the last two on the far right were the students who started the school in PahDuePoo.

. . . to spend one to two months of their summer break giving a jump start to the students there for the coming school year. During the time that they were there, a permanent school building had not been built yet, but, after much discussion among the villagers, this beautiful building was put up.

PahDuePoo

The needs at the beginning of the school year are always the greatest, and so has the provision of God been made very evident. Each of the first three schools have over 60 students this year while the new one has between 15-20. By God’s grace we were able to supply the very basic school supplies of these schools for this school year, but even more wonderful was how the teachers were provided. Three of the ten teachers are our students from last year that have finished grade ten. Two of those had finished grade ten before coming here last year to learn English. However, that desire to learn English waned as they caught a passion for mission work. And now they are the teachers at our newest school in PahDuePoo. The other one graduated from grade ten here last year and was committed to teaching at the school in MeGuhDue, but, when he arrived there to teach, it was discovered that another had already been found to fill that place. We found that to be a great blessing because that meant that he was able to fill the place of second teacher in GaLawGwee where we previously had only one teacher but were desperately needing a second to help manage the quickly growing group.

We praise God for this work that He has made possible in a place where we cannot go and for people who cannot come here. This work could not be done without God’s help. It also wouldn’t be done if it wasn’t for those who have given to make it possible. “Thank you”if you are part of that group. And if you’re not, would you consider joining that group? God can do this work without you, but should He?