New Trees-for-Education Program Empowers Tribal Communities
CoH envisions the day when the tribal Christians are self-sufficient and able to fund their own educational program. To this end, we have recently established the savings program, Trees-for-Education. The impoverished rural villagers will only begin to fund their own schools when they can earn an income from their one asset ─ degraded land.
These lands barely grow food, but they do grow the Acacia Mangium tree, a wonderful 7-year cash crop tree in a country that has run out of marketable hardwood timber. To date, we have funded the purchase of 60 acres of land for schools, planted 12,000 trees, and now 60,000 seedlings are waiting to be planted in July. Tribal communities are thrilled to be establishing their own tree farms and are embracing the prospect of self-funded education.
Successful Annual Bible Camp Reaches 600 Children for Christ
Despite COVID challenges, we were fortunate to have 9 Bible camps this past December and January – sharing the Gospel with 600 children!
The camps were an exciting time, as children made new friends, ate curry, played games, listened to Bible stories and enthusiastically competed for prizes in the traditional Bible Memorization Contest. The parents view these Bible camps as children’s fairs and derive great pleasure in watching their children enjoy this special time. Some may say these camps are superfluous to an education, but we know that a child who comes to Christ at one of these “fairs” has gained an eternal hope that far outshines what education may offer.