Our new mission is taking place in Kelma which is a village about ten miles from Bere. This is a village that Naomi and I visited one Sabbath morning and we preached in their church. We have been developing a relationship with the pastor there over the last few months before we left for our furlough to America. He shared with us his desire to buy the land next to the church to start an Adventist school. We of course started to pray and think about this. After some time we went back and asked the pastor how much it would cost to buy the land, $500. We felt as though that was something we could afford since there were a few donations that we got when we were in the states that the people said could be used for anything. Our first project from the ground up. We were very excited.
So this particular morning we were on our way to sign the papers for the land. But we have heard that there is another piece of property that they want us to look at first. When we arrived, we go around to the back side of the church and there are about 50 people waiting for us. Many were very important chefs from the surrounding villages. We had no idea that this was going to be such a big ordeal and so official. After introductions and a lot of hand shaking the meeting begins. Everyone tells us how happy they are that we have decided to put a school in their village. We all go and take a walk to see the new piece of property. They said that it would be only $200 more. When we go and walk around the land Jamie takes his GPS and figures it out to be about 12 acres. As we are walking we are in amazement that they want to give us this land. It was too perfect, nice and flat for the children to play on. The other piece of property was about 2 acres and had a big dug out hole in the middle of it with about 5 huts on it. We would have had to ask the people to move that are staying there.and they have no where to go We just can’t believe what God worked out for his people. This land had many different trees on it and some were beautiful mango trees. We of course tell them that this is what we want. We sign the papers and give the $700.00 to the pastor to give to the right people. We think that $700 is not bad for 12 acres.
About two weeks later we have the official papers saying that the land is ours for the SDA School. The pastor there says that he has done all the work paying everyone and he has a surprise for us. He hands me an envelope and there is $400 in it! He was able to get the land for only $300, unbelievable! God is so good! I just know that He is letting us know that He is with us in this project. We know it is going to be a lot of work, but we also know what this can be if we put everything before the Lord. We are planning on making this school the model school for all the Adventist Schools in Chad. We want it to be the location for summer training for teachers. Many teachers do not know how to run a school yet alone a school room in the proper way for a true Christian school. Right now Gary Roberts, the pilot, has agreed to go to the Congo and get a couple of people that he knows that do just this, train.
Jamie and I feel like reaching the children is going to be a big way of reaching the people and changing their way of thinking. We can help be apart of teaching children the love of Christ as number one importance in education. We can be apart of how a man treats his wife or children in the next generation. We feel like the children here are just starving for knowledge.
We have many things in motion on how we are going to do this. We have someone helping us purchase a new brick machine to fabricate really beautiful bricks. We have a little money put aside to get this building started but we are going to need help. We need to try and pull all of you together with us in this project and see if we can get Christian education out there. We need you all to help us to purchase the materials that we will need. Please pray with us about this project. We know if we have Him as the center everything will work out.
We also want to just put the option out there if anyone is in the position to be a sponsor a “One-Day School” that would definitely be a great option. You can get more information on this at www.asiministries.org or www.maranatha.org
If you have any questions or comments please email us at Parkers4bere@gmail.com
Thank you and may God bless the mission here in Kelma!
You guys are doing great things.
ReplyDelete