“If you build it, they will come…” familiar words from the movie, “Field of Dreams.” Pastor Fred in Fizi, DR Congo had a dream of a quality Christian school for the children at the orphanage he established, as well as in the surrounding area. “Complexe Scolaire Bustani” or Garden School as we call it in English, has been in operation since September 2014. Pastor Fred and the other leaders and parents did not let the lack of funding and a building discourage them. With faith and hard work, they used what they had available to make the dream a reality. For five years they have been meeting in classrooms made of straw and bamboo. As you may recall, the parents labored to make 31,000 bricks to build a permanent building for the school.
Last year, Global Outreach answered the call to help further this dream. During 2018, your donations have enabled us to provide $32,000 for the new building. It has been exciting to watch the progress of the brick and mortar classrooms take shape over the past several months. The latest update indicated they were installing the doors and windows. We were hoping to hear they would be ready to open the new school when the next term begins again after the Christmas break. However, when we asked Pastor Fred for a progress report, we were surprised to learn they are already using the building for daily classes! As you will see in the pictures, the building is not complete, but they are using it anyway. Over 340 primary school students use it for classes in the morning and 168 high school students use it in the afternoon/evening.
Even though we were expecting to need additional funds to provide desks and other necessary items to furnish the classrooms, we did not expect to need additional funds for more bricks and other materials to complete the building. God, however, was not surprised. The day after we learned of the additional requirements, we received a very generous donation from one of our partners. Thank God! We have already sent these funds to purchase additional building materials. If the completion of this project is something you would like to contribute to, you still have a chance. There remains the need for finishing touches on the building as well as for furniture and equipment. We are honored to be able to help this God-size dream come true!
