We’re not paying our teachers their full salaries this month. It’s true! But let me quickly qualify that: they are going to be paid—just not entirely from your donations. For the first time in nine years, the revenue from school fees will cover half their salaries. That means your gifts can now go toward developmental goals instead of simply maintaining the program.
Our three-tiered approach to ministry will sound familiar if you’ve read When Helping Hurts. (If you haven’t, I highly recommend it—though it may give you pause before planning that expensive, time-consuming short-term mission trip next summer.) We follow the progression of relief, restoration, and then development. Until recently, development remained mostly a hope. This month, we’ve actually stepped into it.
Our growing reputation as a Christian school that provides a solid education has begun drawing not only orphans and families in desperate need, but also some who can pay tuition and still choose to send their children to us. Our fees are very low and we are by no means drawing a wealthy clientele, but our campus is the reason electricity and running water are now accessible in that particular village, and development is on the upswing.
This is genuinely good news. Your prayers and your dollars are not only rescuing children from starvation and poverty—which would be reason enough—but are helping build a community of disciples who can one day become self-sustaining and able to help others in their villages, across Malawi, and eventually beyond.
If that sounds far-fetched, go back and watch the simple video I recently posted on our social media pages about how we got started, then look at where we are now. It’s happening, and you get to be part of it.
Thank you for believing in us and in these kids. More importantly, thank you for believing in Jesus Christ and His mission on earth. It’s our prayer that the HUGS program will continue to reach the forgotten children of Malawi’s villages—providing nutrition, health care, and education—so they can grow into the leaders of the next generation and of the church God is establishing among them.
