Teacher Appreciation Day

Recently ACTION held an appreciation day for the teachers that we work with. It included some time of singing and praising God, a tour of the ministry center, a powerpoint presentation of the year (the teachers loved seeing their pictures on the "big screen") and lunch. Mariko Walters, a teacher from the States, was finishing her year commitment and heading home so the teachers gave her gifts and shared how much she meant to them.

The ministry to church-based schools in the poorest areas of the city is one of my favorite things that ACTION does. We are finding illiteracy a major barrier to evangelism and discipleship with adults. In fact, many of our Zambian friends are functionally illiterate. They can not read their own Bible and are dependent on a pastor or friends for their understanding of God.

The government schools have steadily declined and teaching reading without phonics has led to children beginning to read in fourth to sixth grades, if at all. To make matters worse, in the slums, where most of the population of Lusaka lives, many children can not even attend the government schools because they do not have money for uniforms or for books.

Mari trained teachers in four church-based community schools to teach phonics-based reading and Christian education. Children in first grade through fifth grade who, at the beginning of the year, were not reading, now are reading words, simple sentences, books, and even the Bible!

The work continues with the Stein family, arriving this fall.