MARANATHA

Cowman's principal, Angie Bundy, and I have been talking off and on throughout the school year about a way to get our kids to broaden their horizons a bit and find joy in serving others, preferably even outside the walls of Cowman School. 

About a month ago, we found a focus for our desire to serve:  A short walk down the street is a "Starfish" school, a church-run and OMS affiliated school which is supported, at least in part, by sponsorship of individual students. That means that just like thousands of other students across Haiti, the kids of Maranatha are able to get a solid, Christ-centered education thanks to the outreach efforts of a local church with the support of OMS and individual donors from the U.S. and Canada. 

What a beautiful thing!

Over the last couple of weeks, Angie and I made a couple of trips to Maranatha to speak to the director there and brainstorm about how our 6th and 7th graders might be able to serve her students.  Since our Cowman students are all fluent in English and her upper grade students are required to learn English, we decided one way we could serve would be in giving her 7th grade students an opportunity to practice conversations in English. 

So Angie, the students, and I walked off campus yesterday morning to spend an hour meeting some new friends in our neighborhood.

It took us less than ten minutes to walk down the main road that runs in front of Cowman.

When we arrived, the Maranatha director unlocked the church sanctuary, which is part of their campus, in order to give our 15 students and her 22 enough space to interact.

The Cowman students paired up and then each pair welcomed three or four Maranatha students in order to form small groups for conversation.

I quickly learned that the little game I had planned to lead them all in for the hour was NOT going to work - these students were in their FIRST year of English.  So on the spur of the moment, our Cowman kids were put on the spot to lead their new friends in questions and answers with very little help from me or Angie. 

And they did an INCREDIBLE job without even a fuss.  Angie and I were both so impressed - with both their attitudes and their abilities. 

Our kids really stepped up to the challenge, even the ones who are usually very quiet (which, admittedly, is only a tiny handful of my students).

Our Cowman kids even spent the last few minutes of our time together leading an impromptu rendition of "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" - and before we knew it, we were saying goodbye and shaking hands. 

The director assured us that she would love to have us return soon and we assured her that we certainly would.  Our students seemed more than enthusiastic about the whole experience.

The director headed back to the school grounds with one of her younger students ...

And we headed out the gate and back towards Cowman...

With the abiding sense that we had been of some small but concrete use in God's Kingdom ...

And that makes for a GOOD day at school.

 

 

I don't mean for this to be a back-handed compliment, but these guys surprised me by giving me so many reasons to be proud of them yesterday!  They really are a good group.