Last November, Brother Philip and I were extremely honored to be invited to share at Lancaster Mennonite School Hershey Campus. We were invited at the initiative of our long-time supporter and friend of Arm of Hope, teacher Mrs. Cindy Kern. Brother Philip was able to share his story of growing up in a village with not much hope for his future and how God lifted him out of those circumstances to become a missionary and social worker able to mentor and disciple young people in his home country of Ghana.
The initial visit led to the Hershey School raising funds to support 10 children in Ghana to go to school for an entire year! I was invited to the school to receive the gift they had for Arm of Hope. It was a delight to see the selfless smiles of joy on the faces of these young children who had given of their own resources and rallied others to give just so they could be a support and blessing to children on the other side of the world whom they had never met.
(This check doesn’t even represent the whole gift. More was given after the pictures was taken!)
It is such a blessing for me to see godly teachers like Mrs. Kern, who are teaching our next generation what the most important things in life look like. Happiness does not come from serving ourselves, but from serving and giving to others. Mrs. Kern is showing her students that real, lasting joy comes from being selfless. She leads by example, as she and her husband financially support several children in Ghana to go to school and have even supported one student to graduate from high school.
A few weeks ago, our church received this little bag of money in our offering box. One of the second graders in Mrs. Kern’s class wanted to give his Easter egg money to the kids in Ghana. He told me he didn’t really need to buy anything, and he thought the kids in Ghana could use it more than he could. Wow! I was thinking of the story of the widow who gave all she had even though it was small. God can multiply those small gifts when given with the faith of a child’s heart!
Last week I had the privilege of being at LMS Hershey Campus for their mission day. It was a lively day of learning what God was doing all over the world with an Olympic theme. Mrs. Kern’s class marched proudly into the auditorium, waving their Ghanaian flags (the country they chose to represent). The teachers taught and shared about what it means to “run the race” from Hebrews 12:1-2. Emphasis was placed on throwing off all of the things that weigh us down, so we can serve Jesus with all of our hearts. Six different missionaries represented 6 different parts of the world in 6 different rooms of the school.
I was honored to represent the work of Arm of Hope in Mrs. Kern’s classroom. As the students rotated from room to room to visit me, I showed them videos of camp in Ghana and told them about how much my Ghana friends of Arm of Hope love coming to camp. Then the students helped me to assemble folders with words to our camp verses and songs. We had 400 folders, and most of them got done by those hard working elementary schools students, excited to be able to touch something that was going all the way to Ghana! They worked willingly, and one boy even told me, “I could help you do this the whole day!” The students are definitely learning the fun there is in serving others!
The best part was hearing those little voices praying from the bottom of their hearts for the children in Ghana. They prayed for food. They prayed for safety. They prayed for camp. They prayed for love. So many of them wanted to pray, I nearly had to cut them off. So beautiful!
I’m so thankful for LMS Hershey, for their gifts to Arm of Hope, and for their partnership. It is a joy to be a part of what God is doing in Ghana…together.
