They Must be Angels!

“Ah! Look how tall they are! See how they laugh? They must be angels!” We were in the market in Santo Domingo, a large city in the Dominican Republic. The speaker, a woman who had her own stall in the market, and I were watching two tall Dutch-Canadian brothers bargaining with another shop owner.

“They are looking at jewelry for women. Who do you think they are buying it for?” asked another woman.

“Perhaps for their wives back in Canada,” was my reply.

“Ah, lucky wives!” And all the women standing around smiled their agreement.

The group of men shopping in the market that day, all from Ontario, were part of Worldwide Christian Schools’ HANDS (Help Another Nation Develop Schools) Program. They had traveled to the DR to repair roofs and build additions to schools that are part of COCREF, an organization of 21 Christian schools for 4500 children in the poorest regions of the country. Not only had the men paid for the expenses of their trip and their housing, they also provided the building materials needed for their work. The truth is that I hardly recognized the men because when I had met them at their work they were so covered with the dust that clung to their perspiring faces.

Worldwide Christian Schools (WCS) is an organization that promotes and provides Christian education in over 45 countries, always in poverty-stricken areas. The office of WCS (www.wwcs.org) is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Scott Vanderkooy is the Executive Director. WCS also has an office in Ontario, recently opened an office in Bangalore, India.

Why Christian schools? Because Christian education is education that helps children understand that God is the Creator of every single aspect of our world and therefore is in every single subject that they study. Many of the children who attend schools supported by WCS have parents who are not Christians but who want good education for their children. At other times these are the only schools available to the families.