Education is a core program within HEAL’s mission of forming Servant Leaders (Mt. 20:28) among West Africans. Now that the Ministry of Education has certified our school in Akpim village as a center for the Basic Education Certificate Exam (BECE), our teachers must take their already selfless service to an entirely new level in preparing students for this exam.
I have witnessed how HEAL teachers at our schools in Akpim and Umuagwu villages have embraced the mission spirituality of Self-Emptying (Phil 2:6-11). On my 2016 Africa trip, I recall how well a group of students performed in a “show quiz” by school headmaster, Mr. Valentine. These youth were answering math and science questions I could not have answered as a college educated adult!
This memory symbolizes for me the great dedication and educational service our teachers provide for over 300 village children in our care. Another example upheld by Rev. Leo Okonkwo is that of Ms. Nkechi Anaele. “She exemplifies self-emptying servant leadership for our students”, he says, reflecting our vision that a child’s character formation is equally important to his intellectual development.
Rev. Leo transferred Nkechi with Love Ohaka from our less safe school in Umuagwu to our safer and more secluded school in Akpim. Nkechi’s work in the midst of precarious security conditions is further testimony to her Self-Emptying missionary spirit. With such missionaries at our side, HEAL is confident in the accelerated fulfillment of our mission one child at a time!
The more I get to know and experience my fellow missionaries in the HEAL family, the more inspired I am to do and sacrifice more for the least of God’s people (Mt. 25:40). I hope you will catch the Spirit of Mission also and join us in providing a future for our children.