We agree with those who advocate education as one of the most viable tool to properly disciple a nation. We also see it very strongly as a tool to consolidate our many years of discipleship labours too. It’s very true that you can do through the classroom what may be difficult through the church. In Church, you probably have 2 hours with the people twice a week, in school you have 8 hours with them 5 times a week. That’s about 20 times more time. People may stop their children from going to church, but everyone drives their children to school. When properly done, education may produce more lasting disciples for Jesus than we are growing in 4-walled churches.
After more than 30 years of ministry among the Fali people of Adamawa State in Nigeria, we are stepping into a phase, as part of transitioning and consolidating our work, to catalyze long lasting structures that will keep producing discipled generations and one of such tools we are adopting is education.
At Christ’s Disciples’ Missionary Foundation, we look forward to in 2016 establish a standard Christian private primary school in Muchalla, run by selected and trained locals but standard enough to produce children who can compete globally. The difficulty with most of our schools have always been getting the community to own them. They began as missionary projects, mostly free in the early stages because we were trying to even introduce the concept of education then. Now most of communities find it difficult to pay a token tuition fee which is aimed at making the schools sustainable.
Our hope for this new venture is to empower a team of selected persons to run the school as a ‘for profit’ venture, report to a board to ensure that standards and quality control is in check, but run the school with the sole intent of raising disciples that outlive just the next generation. Churches may close as people move, but the education they get will last for a lifetime. We will also work in close collaboration with partners (existing schools elsewhere in the country, churches and individuals) to ensure that whatever needs to be in place is there before the proposed take-off in September 2016.
Other Opportunities
- The school will create additional opportunities for short-term workers and volunteers to make short and meaningful contributions to missions and the community.
- Help empower some of our educated disciples (especially the early sets who have passed through our mission schools in the community, many of them are just coming out of higher institutions)
Why Muchalla?
Muchalla is probably the largest of all the Fali villages. It’s easily accessible to town (nearest to Mubi). Houses the only complete secondary school among the Fali people, and we started a youth centre here some years ago focused on the students who come to the secondary school. This primary school will add to our influence and help us disciple them from an earlier age. The only primary school in the community is a poorly run government school, so parents who want quality education for their children are presently forced to take them to Mubi to get schools.
As we plan, pray and prepare for this venture, we welcome partnerships, advice and contributions both in ideas, resources and educational materials. We will be sharing the vision in more details in the near future and we will be inviting you to invest in and partner with this project. It’s our prayers that God’s Kingdom will be expanded through our efforts.