A New Hope to Asia, Center for Education.

I almost forgot! How could I forget?

Something I'm really excited about is the vision for our school at the church. We have a preschool class, and grades 1-3. Our teachers are Ate Mona, Ate Beth and her husband Jomel, Ate Marivic (aka Teach), Ate Marilyn, and myself. Marilyn takes the students with special needs, or the ones who need to study in a different way from the other students. I like to watch her and one of her students, April. They write out the alphabet with clay, and take things a little bit slower. I'm always blessed to see the gentle and patient way in which Marilyn works with her.

This school is about more than offering a few grades to the younger kids. There is a long term vision which is so much more. The dream on the hearts of the leadership here, is to educate these kids now, so that they have a good, strong platform with skills in English, and then to help the same kids get into college later on, offering financial assistance if needed. The church already pays for the education of 13 (?) college students. But of course, college education is going to be harder if you haven't had a solid upbringing in school all the way along. "We want to raise up world changers", is what Pastor Ding told me yesterday. Currently, none of the children are sponsored for their schooling, and the budget is getting tighter and tighter. There is an option to sponsor one of the students for 35 dollars a month. It provides for their books, papers, pens and pencils, erasers, sharpeners, snacks at break-time, lunch, and the salary of the teachers. (Myself not included, of course.) Currently we are working on setting up a website where sponsors can check how the students are doing in their classes, and look at pictures and understand exactly what our school is all about. I think it's a great idea, and I'm excited about it. We are walking in faith right now that the students will be sponsored, trusting that God will provide the money. If sponsoring one of the students is something you think you'd like to do, I'm going to ask Ate Mona to compile some specific info for me, and I can share it here. I will also get her email address so you can forward any questions to her :)