Mission Outreach

St. Andrews Mission Secondary School is where I have been teaching for the entire time I have been here. In our last staff meeting we talked about what it means to be a mission school and how we can encourage and empower our students to embrace this role. Over the past few weeks it has been such a blessing to see our school join together to encompass this role and reach out to the community around us. 

 

The first step in our goal to expand our mission opportunity was the same step that most people face when planning mission work - fundraising. What is an effective way to raise money at a school with uniforms? Dress down day! For two weeks we had dress down days where the students could pay a small fee from their pocket money to forgo wearing their uniforms, and instead wear whatever they wanted for the day. Just as I imagine this would be very popular in any school in America with a uniform, it was equally as popular here in Malawi. It gave the students a chance to dress up and have fun a little, while still raising money for a good cause. After a few weeks of dress down days, we had raised about $150! 

The money that was raised then went to purchasing supplies to assemble care packages. These care packages would be filled with candy, a fruit drink, chips, and other snacks and taken to Mulanje District Hospital and handed out to patients. On Sunday, we all gathered with a car full of care packages ready to be handed out. After a student led us all in prayer we began to walk as a school community down the main road to the hospital.

All the students in their uniforms walked along the road. Not only were there just boarding students that stay at the school full time, but some day students took time out of their Sunday to come and participate in this school-wide event. When we arrived at the hospital the magnitude of just how many students and staff were present really showed. We all went into the pediatric ward, and because there were so many of us Lauren and I stood at the back and watched. Our students surrounded all the patients that were admitted to the ward, and we spent time singing and praying together. 

After the prayers and songs it was the students’ chance to give the patients the care packages they had raised funds to purchase. As a teacher I was so proud and touched by what I saw. The students smiled and interacted with the patients receiving the packages. They were so excited to be able to carry out the mission they had worked toward. As we were leaving the ward I witnessed one student talking to this very sick looking little boy; the little boy had not moved much the entire time we had been there. Before the student left, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a lollipop of her own and handed it directly to the little boy. I joined in smiling with both of them after witnessing this beautiful act. 

Being able to participate in our school’s mission outreach alongside my students made me once again so grateful for the experience of living and teaching at this school for a year. In the classroom I teach the students Biology, but they continue to teach me what it means to be a loving, faithful, giving, selfless person. This may have been the first organized mission outreach of the school year, but I speak for both Lauren and myself when I say, this school and the people associated with it have been teaching, changing, and reaching our hearts since the day we first arrived.