The Mayor’s Invitation
The mayor left the meeting fuming. Why won’t the Department of Education send teachers? She had been trying to reopen a village school on her island for ten years. How are the children supposed to get any kind of education when they have to walk three miles each way to the nearest school?
“I will show you!” She declared, pointing her finger at the unhelpful officials. If the Department of Education won’t help, maybe the Adventists will.
Not long after, the mayor received a courtesy call from Pastor Ranny, Adventist Missions director and JFA Unit Director in the southern Philippines, and some others. Just the people she was hoping to see. The mayor happily welcomed them inside, much to Pastor Ranny’s surprise. While a large portion of the Philippines is Christian, this area is not, and the locals are not always welcoming.
As Pastor Ranny and the others chatted with the mayor, the topic turned to education. Pastor Ranny started to understand why the mayor was so excited to see them. She explained her frustration with the Department of Education. U.S. aid workers had built a nice school, complete with classrooms, offices, and even a library. Over 100 kids in that village needed an education. Why wouldn’t they send teachers there?
Here are some of the SULADS in their locations of service. In addition to teaching, the SULADS also help people in other ways like accessing healthy food and clean water.
The Mayor shared her jealousy of other nearby islands that had SULADS as their teachers. (SULADS is an organization based out of Mountain View College that reaches out to unreached indigenous peoples through education and other activities.) From her perspective, the mayor shared, the SULADS’ students were more successful than those taught by the Department of Education teachers. She dreamed of the children on her island achieving that same success. She asked if the SULADS would come and teach at the school.
As much as Pastor Ranny was surprised at the mayor’s warm welcome to them, he was even more amazed at her invitation for the SULADS to teach on her island.
Normally, when they want to start work in a new area, they have to ask the local government for permission, but now, the Mayor was asking them! God had opened a door they hadn’t even knocked on.
Pastor Ranny was so excited at the prospect of setting foot in this village, teaching over 100 children and sharing Jesus with them. He felt a burden to start the work as soon as possible. He found four missionaries willing to go, however, the SULADS’ budget for the year had already been used up. Not wanting to miss this God-given opportunity, Jesus for Asia agreed to sponsor these missionaries as Bible Workers who will use education as the entering wedge to share the Gospel.
In addition to teaching, this opportunity comes with an added blessing. Although the village is located near a beautiful beach, it also has a rare source of fresh water. the Bible Worker teachers will be able to use some land near the village to grow a vegetable garden. Fish is the staple food in this area, so the they hope to share these fresh veggies as a healthy supplement to the locals’ diets.
What an amazing blessing. Please join us in praying that soon this whole village will know who Jesus is, and then the whole island.
If you would like to support these faithful teachers and Bible Workers in their efforts to share the Gospel, please click the button below.