James 4:14

"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." James 4:14

Friday, October 8, 2010

School Situation

So I think there is a lot of confusion about the school situation here. Most of you know that the school has been a huge part of the ministry here and were very sad when you heard about it's closing. After speaking with Daniel tonight, I have a much better view of the whole situation and I hope to clarify some things for you.
First, I need to give a quick look at the ministry for those who aren't familiar with it and also because everything is tied together in this ministry. Everything is on the same grounds here, the school building, the orphanage, Daniel's house, and the church building. Right now there are about twenty children in the orphanage. Previously, there were about seventy children in the school, the twenty from the orphanage plus fifty from the neighborhood. The fifty neighborhood children came from Hindu families.
The trouble for the school came this last year when a Hindu temple was erected literally right next door to the premises. This temple has loudspeakers on top of it and it broadcasts their ceremonies throughout the neighborhood. Although they only do it less now, it used to be every day for several hours. Pastor Daniel tried to talk with them to get them to shut it off, but they became angry with him. The conflict comes because Daniel broadcasts the church service on Sundays through our speakers. So the Hindu temple guys are obviously not to happy about hearing Daniel preach about the Only God every Sunday. So, because of this conflict, the Hindu parents took their children out of Daniel's school. So Daniel had to close the school because he only had the twenty orphans left.
The orphans now go to a public school a short distance away. This is not a good school and doesn't care much about the kid's education but is more of a waste of time. The first question then, is, “Why don't we just hire one teacher for the twenty orphans?” The government requires that the children attend a government certified school for a certain number of days out of the school year in order to take the government exams. This means it is not possible to homeschool the orphans and then just send them in for the exams. The predicament that we are in is this. The government requires that in order to be a certified school, you must have at least fifty children. This is why we cannot hire one teacher for the twenty orphans we already have. The government would not certify it as a school and the Department of Education would not approve any of the children or give them certificates.
Right now, we are helping the orphans understand what they have been taught in the school and helping them understand it, as well as giving them a Bible story or Bible reading and prayer at the end of their study time. These kids also go to Sunday school to learn about God. The kids have not been abandoned as far as their education goes, but it's still not the Christian education they were getting.
So, the vision is to get fifty orphans in the orphanage. This way, we will have the minimum requirement to stay open even if there are no other kids, although they would certainly be welcome to come. In order for this to happen, we need sponsors for the thirty additional orphans ($40/month/child). I forgot to ask Daniel about it, but I'm sure we would also need to hire at least two teachers (apprx $150/month/teacher). So this is the vision and we are trusting in God to provide. Please pray for all of this. It is sometimes easy to look at the external things and forget that it is a spiritual battle and prayer is our most effective weapon. We would love to have the school back up and running and training these little ones to grow up and be ambassadors for Jesus in this country that is so spiritually darkened. Daniel shared with me tonight the story of one of the orphans he had a long time ago who is now the pastor of a house church. This is what we are praying for. Please pray for the kids and for us as we train them as best we can with the time we have with them. I hope this clears things up a little bit.
If God has placed it on your heart to sponsor a child, you may email myself (jesusfreak41488@yahoo.com) or Pastor Daniel (ncm_daniel3@yahoo.co.in) with your mailing address and we will send you the profile of the child which will have a number on it. You can then send a check to either Restoration Fellowship or Crossroads with Daniel Motakala and the child's number on the memo line.

Mailing Address:
Restoration Fellowship
264 Village Dr.
Pagosa Springs, Co, 81147

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