| And so the school day begins...
On every side of the quadrant that defines the campus of Sielmat Christian School, children in crisp, blue uniforms and ties line up for morning pledges, songs and recitation of Scripture. On the right are elementary grades. Left are the middle school kids. In front are rows of Christian Higher Secondary students, who tower over the tiniest children in the quad, who gather in front of the building to the rear.
The chaos of just moments ago is transformed into orderly morning exercises, the start of another school day for nearly 3,000 children at this flagship Christian school in northeast India. It was the first and is the largest of 42 schools planted across the region and dedicated to transforming lives through Christian education.
In stark contrast to the scene at Sielmat is the tiny school in a heavily Hindu area west of New Delhi, in northwest India. Chingrawali Christian Academy is home to fewer than 80 students, children of the few Christian families dotted throughout this remote and dusty agricultural area. Though only 16 years old, the one-story schoolhouse is plagued with extreme weather conditions that give it the appearance of a much older building with weathered and crumbling cement, peeling paint and sparsely furnished classrooms.
What do these schools have in common? Both are populated by students who can attend only because of generous “Partner Parents” who sponsor their education. And both are run by dedicated Christian teachers and staff who are determined to provide the very best Christ-centered education possible. Finally, these are just two of the Christian schools planted and operated by Bibles For The World, headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO. Forty additional village schools are clustered mostly in the remote regions of Manipur state in northeastern India, a beautiful, forested region in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains to the north. This region is home of the Hmars, once known as the most fierce headhunting tribe in India, and the ancestral home of BFTW president and CEO, John L. Pudaite.
“My grandfather was one of the earliest converts to Christianity when the Gospel first came to that region,” Pudaite recalls. “My father was charged with the task of translating the Bible into the Hmar language, but he also recognized the desperate need for schools to teach the 3 Rs – reading, writing and arithmetic – and, of course, the Bible to our people.” |
