Tuesday, February 10, 2009

This whole week I have struggled with what I should speak to our students about in chapel today, and even last night I remained unsure of the message that I should bring to them, as my mind and my heart wandered from theme to theme. It wasn't until little more than an hour before I was to speak that it came to me. Of all things what finally caused me to run in the direction I ended up taking was the continual pounding of the hammers of the men nailing metal roofing to the new classrooms! All that pounding was making it hard for me to think and I suspected hard for the teachers to teach and probably was going to disrupt my sermon as well. The fifteenth interruption of the morning while I was trying to get my sermon done was Mahenge coming up with the news that the men expected to complete the roof by one o'clock, and they were wondering if I would be willing to drive them to Sawala -- because they had heard that in Sawala they had finished the walls of two new classrooms, that Emmanueli had delivered all of the metal roofing yesterday and they wanted to get busy working with the students to get that roof on quickly for the new classrooms at that school too. I liked their spirit, and it was then that it suddenly became clear what it was that I needed to share with my students.

I decided to take my students on a journey with me, half way across Tanzania to the region of Mbeya, to the little village of Idiwili, to a village where they had never been, but where I got to go and visit this past weekend. I told them about how there were huge incredible quantities of food that had been prepared, how all of the buildings were wonderfully decorated, how everyone who was anyone was present, and how the crowds were in a tremendously festive mood – because of course how could they not be? This was the celebration of all celebrations for those people as they rejoiced over the registration and accreditation of their school, Idigima Secondary School. I described for them all of the government officials who were assembled, the crowds of parents, the students, and I told them about how I got to be the mgeni rasmi whose job it was when all the singing was done and all the nice things were said, to stand up and give the big speech. I told them how when it was time for me to speak, I made a sweep of the crowd and let them see me looking everywhere, and then announced to them that it was indeed a wonderful festivity, that it seemed that everyone had come, but that I perceived that there were three people absent. They were of course puzzled at how I could, as a guest in their village, have picked out of the crowd three people who were absent.

Well I told them, Godfrey is not here, and yet he had every right to be here, because he is the one who worked for months to register this school, and he should be sitting here at the high table, his plate should be piled high with food, everyone should be shaking his hand, congratulating him, thanking him. And yet he is not here. Why? Because he is driving a carload of teachers, including one who just arrived from America, to the village of Bumilayinga where on Monday we will be opening our 14th school. And so today, he is not with us and I do not know what it is that he will be eating wherever he is, but I know that he will not be eating meat like we are all going to eat today!

And Emmanueli too is not here, and yet he certainly should have every right to be here, because he is the one you all remember who came with our big truck Mwanaume on many trips to bring the metal roofing and the cement and to work with all of you to haul sand and stones. Surely he also should be sitting here at the high table, his plate also should be piled high with food, everyone should be shaking his hand, congratulating him, thanking him, singing his praises for all that he did. And yet, he too is not here. Why? Because the huge tractor-trailer trucks just delivered nearly 4000 sheets of roofing and over 1000 sacks of cement to Mafinga and Emmanueli and Mwanaume have been working already for a week and have probably two more weeks of hard work ahead of them to get it all delivered to our schools – and Emmanueli said that he simply could not leave that work unfinished. And so he is driving Mwanaume this week and while I do not know at all what he is eating today, I know that his plate wherever he is will not be piled high as it would be if he were here.

And Hadji also is not here, and yet he is the man who built this school with you, who worked day, and oftentimes late into the night, who put up with frustrations and hardships but never wavered from the goal of getting the classrooms built so that the school could open and so it could be registered and accredited. He not only should be sitting here at the high table, his plate piled high with food, but I am certain that had he been here he would have been carried on the shoulders of these students and treated as if he were a king. And yet he is not here, even though he has worked harder than all of us. Why? Because there is this village called Kazovu far to the west that cannot be reached by road, that you can only get to by boat. When we went there we saw in the many stones and bricks already assembled at the building site the great desire of those people for a school for their children. And so when we decided that it would be wrong to refuse them, we asked ourselves who should we send for us, and we knew we had to choose the best of all of our people to send to that place because it would be so difficult, and so we looked at all of our schools and we knew that it would be Hadji. Now, we of course told him to wait until after this Saturday, to stay and enjoy the celebration, and to leave early next week. But on Thursday he sent us a message to tell us he that he was already on the road heading to the region of Rukwa, that he was going to meet up with Anyisile, that they had an appointment with the District Commissioner to get the documents for the school signed, that our new driver Moses was all ready to haul 120 sacks of cement with Chapakazi as far as Kirando and that the boats were ready to ferry the cement to the village – that the race was on to get the school built this year – and that he dared not wait another day. And that is why the one man who we should be greatly honoring today for the great work that he did here in this village, is not here to receive great honor. Instead, he is out today again doing the work of making sure that one day the people of Kazovu have a school for their children.

And then we opened the Gospels and I shared with them the wonders of what Jesus taught about us bringing the offerings of our labor and our money and our lives to God without seeking the attention and the praise of men. We talked about the poor widow who gave all that she had and whose reward before God was great, we talked about the man who had trumpets blaring as he brought his offering, how he received the lavish praise of men and absolutely nothing from God -- and we talked about the reality of life where if anyone does anything at all, they want to be recognized for it, they want to be given a seat of honor, they want people to acknowledge what they have done and how essential their contribution was. They want praise and honor and recognition no matter how small the part they played! And it is indeed good politics to give them what they are seeking or else we all know they won't help with anything again. That brought a lot of laughter.

But it the midst of all of the laughter and fun I wanted them to take a good look at their futures, to think of what they are going to be doing with their lives – would they be like the one who did almost nothing with his life but still wanted the praise of men for the little that he did, or would they be like the one who worked as hard as they could seeking nothing other than whatever reward God has prepared for those who serve Him? Sure I wanted them to look at the big picture of life and to aim for doing something good with their lives, but even more than that I wanted them to look at the right now of life, and to see among the sick and old and the needy who could they help, what could they give out of the little that they have, what service could they perform for those around them in need, what good could they do in service to God that they would seek nothing but His praise and His praise alone?

It was only when we were finished and I sat down that I could hear again the pounding of the nails into the metal roofing. And then the singing drowned out the sounds of the pounding of the nails. And I walked out of chapel to go get the car keys because I had decided that I would indeed drive those guys to Sawala. I'd talk to them about my sermon in the car.

There are many things, big and small, that Susan and I have enjoyed tremendously about these past four years – one of them is that we haven't talked much about money – other than to marvel at people's generosity and to thank them for wanting to be a part of this work with us. In the very beginning back in November 2004 we did send out a letter to all of our friends and family to let them know that we were not going to be returning to Congo, but that instead we were going to be launching a new ministry called Village Schools International, and we let them know that anyone who wanted to could participate with us by sending donations to the mission agency Equip. Back then we didn't figure that we were going to need a lot of money, so we were quite astounded when people responded with really what seemed then like a tidal wave of money. We didn't know we were going to need it all because, quite frankly, we only had a glimpse of what God wanted us to do and so we figured we'd be building a couple of schools these last four years and enrolling a couple hundred kids – instead we have 14 schools open now and well over three thousand kids enrolled. Now it's clear why God orchestrated it for all of those people to be so generous, and to continue to be so generous. He knew what He was planning to do and so He knew how much money it all was going to take -- even if we didn't have a clue! It's been fun really over these past years to watch things unfold like this. Oh I imagine that it hasn't taken people being rocket scientists to figure out that all of this was going to need money, but it's been truly fun -- exhilarating even -- for us to not have to write every month and make some new appeal for funds and try to convince somehow people to give money.

As we think back on it, there have been a couple of times that we've written to everyone to tell them about needs, or about new things that we were just starting out with and inviting them to help out. I can think of writing to tell people about the work that Susan and her students were doing to help those who were sick with AIDS, I remember we wrote once to explain about our scholarship program for girls and I can remember sharing with people about the opportunities to invest in desks and in textbooks – but other than that we've pretty much just sat back and watched with a real sense of awe and amazement as people have given with great generosity. We've truly enjoyed just watching people give as they have purposed in their own hearts, so much so, that we just want to keep on doing it this way.

So we don't want to change anything, but we do want to let you know that something big has happened – some of you have heard this by mail already – some of you have heard by word of mouth – but we want to officially let all of you know that VSI is now on its own, we are incorporated as an independent mission agency, we got our tax-exempt status approved, we have a board that is able to fully concentrate on this ministry – and we are moving forward in 2009 and beyond to fulfill the call that God has given to us. So if you feel that you'd like to participate in this ministry, we want you to at least know how to do it. You can send a check to VSI at Box 1929 Tomball, Texas 77377 (and you can print out the little VSI donation slip we’ve attached to send with your check if you want to) or you can give on-line by going to our website (www.villageschools.org). You'll have to hunt up in the right hand corner for a little tiny link that says "donate". It's not that we want to make it hard to donate, not that at all, but we just really don't want to be pushy. We figure that those who want to give will do so.

One thing I do want to tell you is that because we have a wonderful group of volunteers all working out of their homes linked together by the internet, we don't have any paid staff, we're never want to hire a professional fund-raiser or a professional recruiter, and so we're not taking any percentage at all out of anyone's donations for "administration" or "home office overhead". That's the commitment and the pledge to you all from the fourteen people in America who are volunteering to handle everything that needs to be done on that side of the ocean – 100% of anything that anyone gives will go for exactly what they want it to go for, and not a penny of it will be used to do anything in America. (If something does need to be done in America we figure God will know it needs to be done and will encourage someone to give for that purpose!) We're so blessed to have our former missionary teachers and their friends and families giving of their time and energy and creativity so that we can do this!

Susan and I feel that we are doing what God wants us to do by investing our lives here. If you choose to give to foster the ministry of VSI, we want you to give because you've prayerfully asked God if He really wants you to spend the money He's entrusted to you on this – and if He does, what would He want you to designate the money for – to help build more classrooms, to help make sure there are scholarships for poor kids, to buy textbooks or desks, or to help those who are sick or orphaned or widowed. Paul wrote something wonderful in the last chapter of Philippians when he was trying to explain to them about the beauty of giving. Not all of it can we actually say applies to us because Paul begins his teaching by saying that he’s learned to live in plenty and in need -- something that quite frankly Susan and I can't say – we've never really lacked for anything – but nonetheless we certainly can agree with what Paul is saying when he says, “Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. These gifts are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” I think Susan and I can say with total truthfulness that we do believe that when someone gives money to help a little girl here in Tanzania go to school, that God is indeed pleased, and when someone gives money to help a poor sick woman here with AIDS that God indeed considers it an acceptable sacrifice, and when someone gives so that kids have a classroom to study in, that for God it is indeed a fragrant offering.

Thanks for partnering with us! In 2009 we're going to try to build another 68 classrooms in anticipation of enrolling perhaps has many as two thousand five hundred more kids!

In His service,

Steve & Susan