The 2019-20 school year has been a year like no other. It has been a beautiful mix of joy and challenge, frustration and triumph. In Haiti, our school year has been marked by political turmoil that is outside of our control, new instances of student ownership, and a new level of staff leadership. In Cambodia, we have experienced the joy of new relationships, the excitement of new impact, and the challenge of new responsibility.
At the beginning of the school year, we identified three key areas of impact that we’re asking God to provide exponential results in. I’d like to take a moment to share how God is on the move in these areas.
Indigenous Leadership
Our staff in Haiti is owning our mission like never before. Operating a school in a developing country is challenging on a good day. Add political turmoil, increased scarcity of resources, and literal roadblocks to the equation and the task at hand becomes more grueling than a marathon race through the desert. Despite the added pressure, our staff team is pressing on and pressing through. Thanks to our rural location and our staff team’s persevering attitude, we have only closed school two times this school year when most schools have been shut down all year. We are so thankful our classrooms have been filled with students’ laughter and learning this year.
Though in a different context, our partner in Cambodia is showing the same kind of resilience and hunger for impact. In September, we presented the team with the awesome challenge of implementing our first series of Bible Curriculum. This material and the level of intentionality around sharing God’s word is completely new for their program, but the New Hope team is extremely disciplined and thorough in their work. After one week of training and one month of preparation, they launched the curriculum and are now sharing the Gospel in their classrooms every day!
Life Transformation
Our classrooms are full in Haiti and student leaders are front and center. New to our 1st through 5th grade classes this year is student government. Five officers were elected by their peers to each classroom. The governing body has been charged with serving their peers by helping to develop goals and class-wide activities for their peers to engage in. We love seeing students step into leadership and learn the values of responsibility and service.
In Cambodia, God is using our Bible Curriculum to touch students' lives and hearts. Four students accepted Christ as their personal Savior in November! In a culture that is only 3% Christian that is incredible “only God” progress in a very short amount of time. Beyond that, the staff at New Hope has seen behavior change among their students and noted the virtue of the month as a root cause. We can’t wait to see how the Gospel continues to touch hearts.
Engagement Opportunities
On the stateside, we have felt like a teenager going through a growth spurt: we’re a little achy from sudden and rapid growth, but our enthusiasm for the new heights we’re reaching makes up for the growing pains we’re experiencing. Rest assured, we’re not ignoring the pain, but rather pressing into and using it to help us identify strategies for growth and sustainability. One key initiative we’re pursuing is building our core leadership team. We are actively recruiting 3-4 new board members and we’re hiring a full-time Director of Operations. We can’t wait to see God continue to provide the right people at the right time to board our leadership bus and guide our organization into the future.
Beyond the development of our team, we humbly watched many of you engage in year-end giving with our organization. During the month of December, God provided 31%, or $155,000, of our annual fundraising goal for school fiscal year 2019-20. Your generosity is inspiring and we’re humbled by the way you see value in providing hope through education to students in Haiti and Cambodia. Thank you!
As we look to the near future, we’re excited to press deeper into empowering our indigenous leaders through intentional training experiences that we’ll provide online and in person. We’re also excited to watch God continue to use our school teams to impact students' hearts and minds.
Finally, we’re excited to see God continue to use you, our faithful donors, volunteers, and partners, as you continue to invest in hope through education through your time, talent, and treasure. In parting, I ask that you join us in praying that our staff and students grasp “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18) for them in the midst of challenging work environments where culture stands at odds with the work we’re doing.