A Shameless Plug

Here in Paraguay, there are plenty of signs that summertime is at hand. The mango trees seem to be weeping under the heavy loads of their Christmas-colored fruit, and the students at Collegio Privado Adonai, too, appear burdened down in the late-springtime heat with all their books and final exams and end-of-the-year stresses. Behind the scenes of the school, however, preparations are already being made for next year. Ben’s wife, Vivi, has been appointed next year’s directora, or principal, for the primary grades. I’ve received my own marching orders for teaching English, too – all six classes of 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders will be my responsbility, along with an hour of conversation each week with the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. The foundations for the new addition to accommodate next year’s inaugural 11th grade have also been laid, waiting like a tilled concrete garden with iron beam sprouts for work teams and additional donations to be completed this summer (while God has blessed the school with a plethora of the workers from the North, we’re still waiting on and intensely praying for God to provide the funds).

Along with all these preparations for next year’s academics and ministries also comes another responsibility for Ben and I: facilitating and distributing the scholarships for needy students in the community. We have the privilege and duty of visiting families to decide whose children are most in need of tuition funds and, perhaps by extension, to also decide who will or will not be able to attend the Christian school. For most of the kids who receive the becas, the funding is perhaps the only chance they have to receive a decent education. Standards in public schools here can be abysmally low, so the Collegio Privado Adonai fulfills a very-real need for the children who attend, all within the safety and care of a Christ-centered, church-supported environment.

The scholarships given to children from the community also open doors of opportunity for their families to get involved in the school and church. There are countless parents and relatives of children from the school who are now attending the church as well, revealing the ultimate purpose of Collegio Privado Adonai and the church here – to reach out in service to a lost and dying world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This school has a real spiritual impact on lives.
So, how can you get involved in this God-grown ministry? I’d offer to you the Adopt-A-Student program, which gives North American friends the opportunity to sponsor a specific child here by donating the money necessary for tuition their costs. It costs $500 a year to send a Paraguayan child to Colegio Privado Adonai, but this investment in the lives of students and their families undoubtedly yields eternally significant and spiritually weighty dividends. Adopting-A-Student is an awesome chance to have a practical impact in the Kingdom of Heaven through blessing the life of a student and their family.

If you’re interested in helping out, send me an email at jbroredman@gmail.com. I’m more than happy to answer any questions you might have and help facilitate your participation in what God’s doing in Paraguay.