The name came from the words of Jesus when he said that God cares for even sparrows. Like these birds, most people don’t think about or notice African schools.

Origins

Tamera Peters talks about how the program got started. “We had been invited by a bishop in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He had this vision of the Lord taking him in front of a river and a pond. The Lord asked him, ‘Where is it easier to fish, in the river or in the pond?’ And the bishop answered, ‘It is easier in the pond because the fish are all there.’”

The pond represented the DRC, the home of many Christian schools. Students come into the Congo from other countries but often leave hearing little about Jesus.

Peters says, “We were invited into Congo to help start a Christian school there. It was going to be a model school for other schools. We spent over two years training teachers in the biblical worldview, teaching skills, assessment, and classroom management.”

But it isn’t just two years of training, Peters says. “The relationship part is key. It’s not just dropping in. It’s walking alongside them and doing life with them in a relationship where growth can happen. We see that as being crucial to the training.”

Sparrow Project

Out of this, the Sparrow Project was born. TeachBeyond wants to provide this same training and guidance to schools across Africa.

Pray many schools will thrive as a result. Peters says, “The school wanted to share what they had been given with other schools who want to see a similar transformation in the lives of their students.”

You can support this program here.

Header photo courtesy of TeachBeyond. 

For example, technology is widely available in the United States, yet shifting to a digital classroom during lockdowns wasn’t enough to prevent education loss. A study of 5.4 million students showed “significant” drops in math and reading scores during the 2020 and 2021 school years.

It’s a different story in East Africa, where Set Free Ministries partners with local believers to run Christian schools. “During COVID, when the schools shut down, we sent teachers into the villages to do homeschool,” Set Free’s International Director Dave McIntyre says.

“Now that the schools are back in operation, [we’re] finding that our students are much more advanced because they [were] educated during the lockdown.”

During a recent trip to East Africa, McIntyre met with Set Free’s partners, teachers, and students. “The teachers don’t see their work as a job, but a calling, and they understand the role of discipleship,” McIntyre says.

“It was amazing to see how much our team in East Africa has caught the vision. They’re self-motivated to do this. We’re not telling people what to do. They’re telling us what they’ve done.”

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

Students at Set Free’s primary schools learn the standardized material required for national tests. Christian teachers also introduce kids to Jesus and the spiritual freedom He offers. You can help through monthly sponsorship.

“Many kids have been traumatized by demon worship and things like that. These kids are coming out of families [that] practice witchcraft, Islam, various religions,” McIntyre says.

“We’ve got about 3,600 kids [in our schools, and] about half now are believers, so that’s a huge mission field.”

Pray God will provide the resources needed to finish Light Academy, a vocational Christian high school. “We have 145 students currently at the high school, and we’re planning to expand that up until 2027,” McIntyre says.

In the header image, students worship the Lord at a Christian school supported by Set Free Ministries. (Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries) 

“The economic downfall in Lebanon has put so many children out of school in the streets or picking small jobs to bring a little income to their families,” Heart for Lebanon co-founder Camille Melki says.

Two years ago, Heart for Lebanon began empowering kids to stay in the classroom. “Right after the port of Beirut explosion, Heart for Lebanon joined seven Christian schools in Beirut to help provide scholarship support for 350 students,” Melki says.

Despite a further decline in economic conditions, education remains a priority for many Lebanese. Furthermore, Melki says the Lebanese value Christian education for academic excellence and character development.

See how God works through Heart for Lebanon and the Beirut Evangelical School for Girls and Boys (BESGB).

“The Arab world is rich with natural resources. Lebanese families say, ‘maybe Lebanon does not have the natural resources to build a strong economy. But we have the education.’ This is why parents consider education a major investment in their children,” Melki says.

“We are going through a lot of hardships today. This is true. The future of the next generation is more important than that.”

Heart for Lebanon staff visit students and their families at the seven Christian schools. Pray for deep relationships that lead to Gospel conversations.

“[In] every school that we partner [with], the Gospel is clearly and boldly shared,” Melki says.

“We’re not only building [young people] to have a good character, but we want them to meet Christ as their personal Savior.”

Header image courtesy of Heart for Lebanon.

The name comes from the words of Jesus when He said that God cares for the sparrows. Like these birds, most people don’t think about or notice African schools.

Tamera Peters explains. “The Sparrow Project aims at servicing schools that we call sparrow schools. Especially in the developing world, these are schools that are unseen, under-resourced, schools that we just walk by. There are thousands of them, but we just don’t see them.”

Christian schools

Specifically, the Sparrow Project will train and support the staff at Christian schools. The training will last 2-3 years.

Peters says Africa has a lot of Christian schools. But some of them lack quality education with a Jesus-centered worldview. “Because what tends to happen is people separate their academic with their spiritual life. It’s like this dualism: we live our Christian world, our Christian life, on a Sunday or at a Bible study. But in a school context, there’s total separation.”

In fact, Peters encourages readers to consider their own worldviews. Does the death and resurrection of Jesus matter from Monday-Saturday? Or does that only come into focus on Sundays?

“What is my worldview? Am I acting out of that? Or am I acting out of other stories in my life that have taken a lot of space and room?”

Get involved

Pray many schools will thrive across Africa as a result of the Sparrow Project. Peters says, “Maybe when you see a sparrow, you’ll remember to pray for these schools. There are hundreds or even thousands of them throughout Africa. Pray for them. They’re eager to learn, but sometimes don’t know exactly how to do it.”

Plus, you can support the Sparrow Project by donating here.

Header photo courtesy of TeachBeyond on Facebook.

John Pudaite of Bibles For The World says politics play a significant role in recent changes.

“Gujarat’s the home state of the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, and he is the leader of the BJP party — the very strong, pro-Hindu party,” Pudaite says.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigning for the BJP in 2009.
(Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera English via Flickr under Creative Commons License)

“We’re seeing some more things passed there as a testing ground. We’re worried that they may try to roll them out nationally, or at least state by state.”

As explained here, Gujarat’s educational change shifts power in private schools:

The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (Amendment) Act, which came into effect on June 1, stipulates that the appointment of teachers and headteachers will now be undertaken by a new Central Recruitment Committee rather than by the schools themselves.

Christians and other religious minorities are challenging the new law because it increases state control of religious schools.

“It puts the recruitment of teaching staff under the purview of the state government. [The] state will do the recruiting according to their guidelines and their norms,” Pudaite says.

“This opens a door [for] non-Christians being recruited for these posts in Christian schools, and this could be very damaging.”

Under the new law, Christian schools will have to submit their openings to the Central Recruitment Committee and let that group handle the hiring process. Allegedly, the law is a quality control measure designed to increase the quality of education.

Pudaite says if left unchanged, the law will affect Bibles For The World’s ability to place mission-minded teachers in their Christian schools.

“We need to keep tracking this story. Our ministry is involved in about 40 schools, primarily in northeast India, but some are closer to the capital, so we’re going to be watching this,” Pudaite says.

Join our email list for updates.

Most importantly, pray. “We do ask [readers] to pray for this legal action that the Christians are taking. Pray that they may be able to defend their rights as a religious minority in the state,” Pudaite requests.

“We also pray that the Christians who are involved in education may be strong at this time [and] unite together against this very, very serious attack on Christian education.”

Header image courtesy of Bibles For The World.

When you sign up for Experience India, Mission India will send you a free Adventure Pack in the mail which includes a cardboard virtual reality headset. You’ll explore India in 3D and see how the Gospel is spreading — through the eyes of kids!

Mission India’s Bartholomew says, “It focuses squarely on our Year-Long Children’s Bible Clubs, and there are four different weekly experiences. There is a traditional video that you get to view and then there’s also the virtual reality piece where [in some weeks] you’re immersed into a slum, and [in others] you get to see how God is working through the Bible Clubs [in the mountains].”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Mission India partnered with Sonlight Curriculum last year to create Experience India. Since then, they have improved and revamped the program.

“This is great for families who really want to grow in their faith and in their walk with Christ,” Bartholomew says. “It’s also great for churches that want to really, in a creative way, showcase the Great Commission.”

When people think of India, they may conjure images of colorful sarees or the Taj Mahal. But there is more to this beautiful country — a flourishing Indian Church. Experience India is a helpful tool to grow hearts for the Great Commission in India.

“There are 1.3 billion people that live in India and not many of them know Jesus.”

Bartholomew says the responses to the program have been encouraging. “The feedback has been fun to listen to and to read and engage with. Some of them come on as donors…and joined in helping us share the love of Jesus in India.”

(Image courtesy of Mission India)

If you live in the US or Canada, you can sign up for Experience India for free here!

“Within a couple of days, we’ll ship out your Adventure Kit and you can start the process of going through and learn more about India and the Great Commission.”

Meanwhile, pray for believers in India. Ask God to strengthen the Children’s Bible Clubs and their leaders. Please pray for kids who are learning about Jesus to grow in their young faith.

Header image courtesy of Mission India.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

That year, the entire middle school more than tripled their fundraiser goal, which enabled them to fund the installation of three catchment systems instead of one.

For students in Uganda, clean water can be the difference between being healthy enough to attend school or not. Sometimes, it can be a difference of life and death.

Set Free’s Pete Noor says, “That’s something, I think, in the United States we don’t understand is how many diseases start from bad drinking water. It’s a lot. So, putting these catchment systems up, it does a lot of things. It [saves] time [for] the kids having to get water because lots of times they have to travel well over a mile each way to the nearest water source.”

And often, these water sources are dirty. Some of the children retrieving the water are so thirsty, they don’t wait until they’re home to boil the water before taking a drink.

As we shared previously, teacher JoAnn Smit spends much of the school year teaching her classes about water inequality around the world. Her students end the year well aware of the lack of clean drinking water people face. That’s why the Ugandan Water Project was such a big deal to them.

A birthday sacrifice

When the school first started this project, it struck a chord with sixth-grader Autumn Tyson. She says, “The first time I had heard about this project was in sixth grade, and I thought, that’s really cool that people here are doing that.”

Autumn Tyson (Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

And so when the school began the fundraiser for the second time, she decided to do something big.

Every year, Tyson has a family birthday party, and as is typical, she receives many gifts from family. But she told her grandma that this year, she would rather have them donate to the Ugandan Water Project.

“I think I’ve always kind of wanted to do something like this, but I didn’t really know how to tell my family at first. So, I figured I should do it now since I know what organization I would donate it to,” Tyson says.

This simple sacrifice in her life led to a total of $580 raised for the fundraiser, a huge contribution to their overall goal. This experience has taught Autumn at a very young age that she really can make a difference, and it seems likely that she won’t stop here.

“I just feel really great that I donated something and made that big of a difference. For future times, I’d probably do it again. And it just makes me feel really great that I could do something like this.”

A legacy of clean water

Smit says that through two rounds of fundraising, the school has raised $22,000.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

“We as a school have now put in six water tank systems in schools in Uganda and really have helped over, last I heard, around 1,200 to 1,500 students and their families. So, you know, to a tiny little middle school in Hudsonville, Michigan, kids can do an amazing thing,” she explains.

She continues to say, “If I were to encourage anybody, it doesn’t matter how old you are, how young you are, anybody can make a difference.”

As the Ugandan Water Project partners with Set Free Ministries and their schools in Uganda, the door to education opens. But more importantly, these kids get to learn about Jesus each and every day.

Smit says she hopes that this work will not end here.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

“It is my goal as an instructor here to have this become a legacy. And we talk a lot about that in class, about what that means — leaving something behind.”

This, she says, is a profound lesson for kids who, in the blink of an eye, are through the middle school years.
In Tyson, the project has instilled a valuable lesson on what it means to care deeply for people in need.

Tyson says, “It’s a really important thing to me that they have clean water now because I use water every single day and I honestly can’t begin to think of how it would be, so I was really happy to help them out with that.”

She hopes that her story might inspire some of you.

Smit says, “I just want to say that Autumn is a remarkable young lady and we’re really proud that she’s a student here.”

To support the work of Set Free Ministries, get connected with them here.

(Photo by Ronne Rock)

Orphan Outreach partners with Candlelight, a school that is gaining quite a reputation for its approach to teaching. Director Alice Afwai says the school’s emphasis on educational excellence attracts both Christians and a growing number of Muslims.

“Candlelight is a Christian school where…we teach [our children] how to be leaders, and they go to their community and teach their parents about Christ, talk to their friends about Christ. We’ve seen most Muslim children coming to our school, and also parents being transformed and seeing good life in our community because of our Candlelight Kids, because of how we teach them in school here.”

With humble roots as a church ministry in 2004, the Candlelight School opened its doors when Alice and her husband, Fred, saw the overwhelming the need for quality, Christ-based education. Only three students attended the first day; now there are 400, ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 16.

(Photo by Ronne Rock)

As she stands and listens to the sound of the singing, Afwai says the emphasis on quality education is having eternal impact as well.

“There’s a time when we were singing outside and then a Muslim parent came and say, ‘From today on, I want my children to be coming to your crusades and to your church and sing with them because I’m seeing leadership in my child.’”

Learn about Candlelight School here.

Scott Vanderkooy of Worldwide Christian Schools tells us about Water 4 Wisdom, a program devoted to fighting water-related illness.

Vandercooy explains the system that begins with education: “WWCS inspires Christ-centered schools within the developing world that are very attractive to the non-Christian community.” The goal of these schools is three-fold. They educate children for a better future, teach communities about hygiene and water cleanliness, and introduce non-Christian families to God. There are often two inhibitors of education in these countries: parents needing their children to work, and illness. Each year, 443 million children around the world miss school because of sickness caused by bad water.

Water 4 Wisdom specifically addresses the water issue by teaching communities to install provided water filtration systems in the schools, and how to maintain them. This program is an extra incentive for parents to send their children to school. The children are then able to bring knowledge about nutrition, clean water, and hygiene back to their families. This, in effect, fights illnesses in entire villages.

Since the introduction of Water 4 Wisdom, WWCS has seen a 40% reduction of school absences. WWCS has found that many families who have no interest in God often send their children to their schools because of the advantages found there.

By providing teaching children about water cleanliness, WWCS is helping communities climb out of destitute conditions. “Education is like the stepladder out of poverty,” says Vanderkooy. The UN claims that every dollar invested in clean water increases a community’s wealth seven times. The results of a community having access to clean water are exponential. Increased wealth boosts opportunity for children to go to school and the ability to afford tuition. Better educated communities become healthier communities.

Water 4 Wisdom is putting together teams to begin work in January 2014. These teams will go to other countries in order to instruct nationals how to install water filtration systems and how to maintain them. They will provide information on educating the children. “Our whole philosophy is that we don’t want to do for nationals what they can do for themselves. We concentrate on knowledge transfer,” Vanderkooy explains. This knowledge transfer involves the training individuals in other countries to carry on the work locally. That involves the maintenance of the filtration system as well as the education of the locals.

There are many ways that you can be involved. You can be a part of these teams that travel and train. Water for Wisdom also needs financial support so that the program can continue to expand. For information on how to give or to go, click here.

Also, WWCS needs prayer. There are lots of barriers for the Water for Wisdom program. One of these is habit. Developing villages have a hard time changing practices, and it takes great effort to teach them new ways to purify water. Pray that these communities will be receptive to what they’re being taught, and motivated to change for the better. Pray for the financial support for this program. Pray for volunteers to step up and get involved. Pray that the gospel being taught at these schools will reach open ears and hearts community-wide.

Scott Vander Kooy of Worldwide Christian Schools tells us about Water 4 Wisdom, a program devoted to fighting water-related illness. The system that begins with education: "WWCS inspires Christ-centered schools within the developing world that are very attractive to the non-Christian community."

The goal of these schools is three-fold. They educate children for a better future, teach communities about hygiene and water cleanliness, and introduce non-Christian families to God. There are often two inhibitors of education in these countries: parents needing their children to work, and illness. Each year, 443 million children around the world miss school because of sickness caused by bad water.

Water 4 Wisdom specifically addresses the water issue by teaching communities to install provided water filtration systems in the schools, and how to maintain them. This program is an extra incentive for parents to send their children to school. The children are then able to bring knowledge about nutrition, clean water, and hygiene back to their families. This, in effect, fights illnesses in entire villages.

Since the introduction of Water 4 Wisdom, WWCS has seen a 40% reduction of school absences. WWCS has found that many families who have no interest in God often send their children to their schools because of the advantages found there.

By providing teaching children about water cleanliness, WWCS is helping communities climb out of destitute conditions. "Education is like the stepladder out of poverty," says Vander Kooy. The UN claims that every dollar invested in clean water increases a community's wealth seven times. The results of a community having access to clean water are exponential. Increased wealth boosts opportunity for children to go to school and the ability to afford tuition. Better educated communities become healthier communities.

Water 4 Wisdom is putting together teams to begin work in January 2014. These teams will go to other countries in order to instruct nationals how to install water filtration systems and how to maintain them. They will provide information on educating the children. "Our whole philosophy is that we don't want to do for nationals what they can do for themselves. We concentrate on knowledge transfer," Vander Kooy explains. This knowledge transfer involves training individuals in other countries to carry on the work locally. That involves the maintenance of the filtration system as well as the education of the locals.

There are many ways that you can be involved. You can be a part of these teams that travel and train. Water for Wisdom also needs financial support so that the program can continue to expand. For information on how to give or to go, click here.

Also, WWCS needs prayer. There are lots of barriers for the Water for Wisdom program. One of these is habit. Developing villages have a hard time changing practices, and it takes great effort to teach them new ways to purify water.

Pray that these communities will be receptive to what they're being taught and motivated to change for the better. Pray for the financial support for this program. Pray for volunteers to step up and get involved. Pray that the gospel being taught at these schools will reach open ears and hearts community-wide.