We spend our days...

“Because how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

Annie Dillard

Teachers Are Needed!

Every now and then a teacher writes to me to ask about teaching opportunities in countries around the world. Worldwide Christian Schools does not hire teachers. But we do know of places where teachers are very much needed.

1. In Binhai, China there is a new elementary and secondary level state school that is seriously in need of teachers to teach English. If you are accepted into this program your transportation and housing will be paid along with a stipend. If you are interested, please contact me at stro@calvin.edu.

2. There is a new Christian school in Vietnam with instruction in English. They need teachers at all levels and you need not seek your own support. Contact Hai Huynh at haisuperkids@gmail.com

3. The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI.org) has Christian schools in many regions of the world. ACSI is a fine organization. For more information go to their website.

If you read this and know of Christian schools in other countries that need teachers, please let me know.

My Trip to Haiti

I haven't written for a few days because I was in Haiti. The trip came up very suddenly because a friend was scheduled to speak there and then became ill. I admit that I don't look forward to going to regions of the world where the U.S. government has issued a travel warning.

I went to speak at a Forum planned by the CRECH organization. CRECH works hard to supply curriculum materials and other support to the many Haitian Christian schools. There were 250 Haitian teachers at the Forum and speaking there was a delightful experience.

I was very impressed with the school leaders who attended the Forum. They were extremely attentive and then moved into their groups and quickly became involved in discussions. I commented to an interpreter that everyone looked so well-dressed. He said, "It is our culture. Even though we might not eat for two days before a meeting such as this, we must come in very nice clothes and well-shined shoes. Otherwise we will be ashamed."

There are so very many Christians from North America and from Europe helping the people of Haiti in some way or another. But the need is extremely great.

Justice and Conscience

Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"What must I do to be saved?"

A student in grade eight wrote the following to me, "I am happy that Jesus makes it so easy to be saved. All I have to do is believe in Him. Nothing else is expected of me."

I answered him this way. "What you have written is very true. However, if we really are saved by the grace of Jeus Christ we will surely want to live in ways that show our gratitude for that salvation by helping those in need. Remember that Jesus said the second great commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. When his disciples asked who their neighbor was, Jesus told them the story of the good Samaritan. Once we truly belong to Jesus our lives will be completely changed because we will live in obedience to the second great commandment."

Alvin Alexi Currier wrote the following: Because Jesus' teachings are so challenging and radical, it is much more comfortable to focus on a quiet, private, personal relationship with him than it is to follow his teachings that call for a public prophetic witness.

A Beautiful Family!

Here is a picture of Ezekial Selvaraj, Director of Worldwide Christian Schools-India, and his family. Rachel, Ezekial's wife, is a great help to him.

Josh and Daniel, the two handsome young men in the picture, look very much like their father, I think. They even hold their heads the way he does his. The Selvaraj family lives in Bangalore, India.

We are extremely grateful for the work Ezekial does for Worldwide Christian Schools in India.

Praise God for a miracle: From Daniel and Avitha

Dear Friend,

Greetings in Jesus' Name.

We are so happy that, by the grace of our Lord, we have at last found a place for Agape Hostel. We praise the Lord for this wonderful Miracle. Today we have finalized the agreement by approving the draft agreement and paying Rs.40,000/- as part of the Rent Advance.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

We waited for the Lord to answer our prayers for more than a year. It was a huge learning experience to wait patiently in faith, without losing hope, when we were pushed into despair, with constant rejection. But the Lord has been so faithful to us that He condoned our wavering faith, and reached out to us, and in His prefect time granted us a suitable and convenient place.

We listed 15 features that we wanted in our new place. We believe the answer to prayer came when we submitted to the Lord and said that we are ok with any place that He gives even without any of the features.(Of course we know we need separate place for boys and girls).
Praise the Lord, this new place has 13 of the features. It is a BIG Miracle. Praise be to Him.

And the biggest surprise is that the houseowner of this new house decided to remodel the house, suddenly, about six months ago. And the most important modification he did was to put four attached bathrooms and four toilets, which was our specific requirement. So it is not "suddenly", it was the Lord's doing. The answer to our prayers. Maybe each one of our prayers was a brick building this new place for us.

Keep praying that the new house would be completed by this month-end, and we would have a smooth shifting from this place to the new one.

"....stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, ...." 2 Chronicles 20:17

Thanks again for your prayer support.

In Christ,

Daniel & Avitha

What are the tendencies our children must learn from us?

Most Christian parents would agree that the following tendencies are among those important for their children to develop.
1. We want our children to develop the tendency to be people of strong Christian faith.
2. We want our children to develop their different abilities and ways of being intelligent.
3. We want them to develop the emotional intelligence necessary for empathy for those who suffer.
4. We want our children to develop the tendency to recognize and be outraged by injustice in any form. They should become willing to take action against that injustice, living with kindness and generosity.
5. We want our children to develop the tendency to be curious about the world around them, to grow intellectually, and to become critical thinkers.
6. We want our children to develop the tendency to be moral and of good character.
7. We want our children to develop the tendency to live with gratitude and happiness.
8. We want our children to develop the tendency for lifelong learning.

From the forthcoming book, Living in the Framework of Faithfulness by Julia K. Stronks and Gloria Goris Stronks

Government Schools or Private Schools: Which serves poor children better?

In an article in The Atlantic (March 2007) senior editor Clive Crook describes findings concerning the effect of small for-profit (often a few pennies a day) private schools in poor regions of the world. For years international aid agencies have declared that the only hope for equipping poor people with basic literacy and numeracy is to improve the free, compulsory, state-provided schools.

Crook reports the following: Public schools in most poor countries have long been recognized to be ineffective. Teachers are frequently unqualified for their work. Perhaps worse, they are often uninterested in it: In many poor countries, teaching jobs are viewed as sinecures, and many teachers are disinclined to show up for work at all. They do tend to organize, however. Their salaries add up, and public schools in most developing countries make heavy demands on the public purse.

British Professor James Tooley researched the reach and performance of private schools for the extremely poor in India and elsewhere, supported not by official agencies but by the private Templeton Foundation. These private schools were smaller on average and some of them offered free or reduced rates to the very poorest families. The parents of full-fee students, desperately poor themselves, willingly subsidized those in direct need.

Often these schools are run by one or only a few teachers. Tooley found that on the whole, these schools are doing a better job of teaching the poorest children than the far more expensive state schools. Many parents, poor as they may be, have chosen to reject the state schools and to pay perhaps a tenth of their meager incomes to educate their children privately, Crook reports. Tooley’s findings conform very well to the views of the late Milton Friedman, who spent the last years of his life arguing that publicly funded vouchers and a market of privately run competing schools were the way to fix another education system in urgent need of repair: America’s.

Letter from Daniel and Avitha in India

Dear Friends,

Greetings in Jesus' Name.

Thanks for your prayers, encouraging emails and ecards. The warmth of this e-fellowship that we enjoy gives us the confidence to know and feel the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus in seeing us through this tough experience in our ministry. Thanks a lot.

This is the latest on our "house situation". The houseowner of the house in the next street which we referred to the previous email has agreed in principle to let the house to us. Praise the Lord.

But the final negotiations would be on the 10th Sat. in the morning (IST). We want to cling this deal since we feel this is the Lord opening the door for us. But we need wisdom to talk correctly and seal the deal by giving atleast a part of the "Rent Advance", possibly by Monday. So we need special and specific prayer for the morning of Sat. 10th Feb. (IST).

The deal is for a monthly rent of Rs.9,000/- and a Rent Advance of Rs.1,00,000/-. We feel this is on the higher side, as per the existing local rent-rates, but because of our special needs and since this place is close to Able Computers and also independent with separate portions for girls and boys we want to take this house.

Thanks for the prayer support. We hope in faith on our Lord Jesus that we would be able to send a Praise Letter for the glory of our Lord about the good solution to our house situation by Monday/Tuesday. Keep praying.

In Christ,

Daniel & Avitha


From Gloria: India is about 9 hours ahead of our EST. Please pray for their housing need.

Hope Highschool Report - India

By Emily Klooster

This is a success story which illustrates just how much your donations mean to Worldwide’s partners: the students, teachers and administrators at Christian schools around the globe.

Hope High School is in the city of Madanapalle, in the Chitoor District of India. Founded by missionary Dr. Jacob Chamberlain in 1881, the school was named after Hope College of Holland, Michigan and is currently managed by the Church of South India. Since its inception, Hope has had a strong academic reputation. Its alumni include ambassadors, civil servants, doctors, engineers, ministers and political leaders. Most of the students at Hope come from families whose parents are rickshaw pullers, auto rickshaw drivers and daily laborers. Tuition is 50 cents per year per student, and in 2004 the school had enrolled close to 500 students.

Even though wonderful things are happening at Hope, in 2004 the school was struggling to meet some of its basic needs, such as proper toilet facilities and access to good drinking water. Hope’s prayers were answered when God blessed them through a donation to Worldwide Christian Schools from Christ Memorial Church of Holland, Michigan. Their gift paid for the digging of a new well and pump for drinking water, furniture and renovation for four classrooms, toilets for the students, a computer room with four computers, library books, and laboratory supplies for science instruction. Missionary Linn Gann wrote, “To God’s glory and the delight of Hope High School, all their needs will be met through the generous gifts of a local church in Holland, Michigan. They will have...the hope and encouragement that brings with it knowing their brothers and sisters in Christ stand with them.”

Worldwide sent staff members to Hope High School to witness the progress made through the donation firsthand. They were warmly welcomed at the school, which arranged an assembly in honor of their visit. The staff members were introduced to Hope’s committee members, correspondents, and the headmaster, and thanked them for their service to the school. The Worldwide staff reported that the joy of life in Christ was evident throughout Hope’s campus, the Hope community was kind and gentle, and the effort they spent learning.

What really matters?

How much longer am I going to think about my hair more often than about things in the world that matter?

- Anne Lamott
from "Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith"

Disability Ministry in India

I wrote earlier about the work that Daniel and Avitha are doing at Agape in India. Since November they have been on the lookout for a new location for Agape Centre and Able Computers. So far they have been rejected by many because they are Christians and by still more people because they have a hostel for young people with disabilities.

One realtor said, "There ae many houses vacant around our neighborhood which would be suitable to you, but when the owners hear that it is for a hostel for people with disabilities they refuse to rent it out."

We believe with them that, [The Lord] judges the world with righteousness; [and] the peoples with equity. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 9:8-10

We are grateful to God for the following blessings:

1. For the tenth group of 11 students in the one-year free computer training program.
2. For the wonderful January get-together held on January 21 with 43 people with disabilities participating.
3. For volunteer Mr. Arulthangam Kirubakaran who is of a great deal of help to the ministry and for their decision to join this disability ministry as a family.

We are praying for the following:

1. For the tenth group of 11 students to study well and above all to get to know Jesus and accept Him as their personal Savior and Lord.
2. To be able to meet the Rs. 95,000 February budget.
3. To increase the output of the OCR job-work and bring in more revenue and jobs for more disabled people.
4. For knowing God's plan for our residence for the future.
5. For a replacement for Mrs. Vasantha, Mess Supervisor, who left Agape in August of last year.

The mattresses have arrived!

The mattresses have arrived for the 50 children in the orphanage in Orissa, India! We are delighted that Worldwide Christian Schools was able to send money for the mattresses because until this time the children were sleeping on plywood.
Siani and Suphala, the young couple who started and maintain the orphanage, sent these pictures. It is such fun to see these happy faces.
We are now trying to raise enough money to build a Christian school for these children and for other children in the village. If you would like to help, go to wwcs.org.