In the midst of crazy global events, the good work of loving your neighbor well continues all over the world. Jesus’ core desire for us is that we love one another. In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ command to love one another is connected to the experience of joy. John writes of being “filled with joy”; “abundant joy”; “joy overflowing”; “sadness turned to joy”. These days, I have watched this happen to both Tanzanians and Americans involved. And my heart is filled with joy.
Let me give you some context. Several years ago, we at Loom helped start a school in Nguseru, the children behind the mountain, where people had to walk twelve to twenty kilometres each day to fetch water. The school was a 20km walk for little children, so they often could not make it. So a school was started in the village, through a collaboration of a Korean businessman, American friends, Tanzanian Masai village elders, and local followers of Jesus. One couple gave the fence (elephants still wander in the area), another the water tanks for rainwater collection, and more to help build the classrooms. The Tanzanians led the project, staff the school, and fully own the future of their children.
The first three classrooms were enough for a couple of years, then two more were added. But then the older children needed to be taught under the trees, as there was no more space. So the villagers prayed for a primary school. Since their place is super rocky, they were using pickaxes to dig a foundation. The women collected buckets of stones daily, with each bucket carefully listed so that everyone did their part. When we visited last week, fully expecting to see some progress on the walls, maybe built up halfway, to our shock and delight, the school was built! The windows did not yet have glass in them, and more desks are needed, but the persistence of these mothers and fathers has led them to see God’s faithfulness to them. They came to meet with us and were so proud of what they had achieved. This week, the students in grades five, six, and seven will move into new classrooms!
Our next goal is to build three more classrooms and two rooms for teachers to live in. Our target is $50,000. In a public-private partnership, once the village and its partnering organizations complete the buildings to window level, the government will roof them. Once the school has six classrooms and two rooms for teachers to live in, it is registered, and at that point, the government takes on the teachers’ salaries and school maintenance. This ensures sustainability and a new future for the children and youth of Nguseru.
I am struck by what it means when we love one another. The Masai people give according to their means. They do the hard physical work. They negotiate with their local village leaders and plan their future. As their brothers and sisters in Christ, we get to stand with them, lift up their arms. They get a school, a future for their children, and the dignity of owning their community. For me, there is a delight in partnering, in seeing hope and good results amid so much global roil. I learn from their faithfulness and persistence, their refusal to give up, and their refusal to be swayed by local corruption or a lack of government engagement. I learn to lift up one rock at a time, and together, in twenty-seven months, we can build a school.
