Back to School

As I walked through Target today I saw "Back to School" and "Decorate your Dorm" signs all over the place. When I was a teacher this was my favorite time of year. I loved getting ready for the students to come to school. Now, when I see those signs and all of the great school supplies (yes, I still buy notebooks and markers, just for me) I am always transported back to the schools I visited in Africa. Where I was in Africa, school was a privilege, not a right. Students yearned for an education, knowing, hoping it would help them have a better life. Of the schools, all 16-20 we visited, a few were concrete rooms with tin roofs but more of them than not were tin buildings held together with mud and straw. The classrooms were overcrowded. Sixty students would sit in a "room" meant for twenty. They had no books or chalk. They had no computers or pencils and paper. Yet, this was the dream. And in that place they learned because there were teachers who wanted them to learn. But primarily, they learned because they craved knowledge. You should have seen their faces. You should have heard the laughter and joy. I wish you could have seen them laugh at our feeble attempts to say something in their language. They soaked in every tiny piece of information they were given. They walked miles alone to get to school because they wanted to learn. Statistically there is very little chance of them getting out of the life they lived but if the could, it would not be without an education. I left some of my heart with those kids, in that country, on that continent.

As you buy new backpacks and paper, as you check things off the list and wait in long lines with children who dread the beginning of the school year, I challenge you to think of two things. First, the right we have to education is a gift, a ticket to the world of adulthood and success. It is everything, second only to a relationship with Christ. Second, think about the schools and students on there other side of the world. There are no supply lists that lead to frustration. But, just as with your child, the education they often fight for is the ticket to life. They do not get to stand in lines while the person in front them runs to get the folder with pockets because they got the one without. They walk miles, sometimes without shoes to have the chance to learn something that one day may help them help others.

The Freedom Center wants to be a part of making a school (hopefully more in the future) where each students has a chair of their own, where each student has paper and pencils, where each student learns something that can better the lives they lead and the community they live in. When you are in line, thank our Father for the privilege of shopping for school supplies. Please pray for those who live in a world where education is not easily obtained and is often abandoned. In that line. try not to get in a hurry or be frustrated, instead pray for those students who sit 4 to a seat and crave everything they can learn. While you wait, pray. While you wait, thank the Father that you live in a nation that has school supply lists that make long lines at Target. Consider thanking the Father for the privilege of having a supply list at all. If your feet hurt from a long day of work, shopping and long lines, pray for the children who walk miles on rocky roads to get to school.

Doesn't the PSA that NBC does end every segment with the statement, "the more you know. . . ." ? Pray they will know more and pray they will know the Teacher of us all.