Expat Elite or MK Training?

This has been the question that has been on my mind since we arrived here. ABCCA is mostly made up of expatriate children or well of Malawians. It is the cheapest high quality school in Lilongwe, (and probably the nation), and is the only Christian private school that I know of. Yet, right across the campus wall is a span of village-like housing made up of squatters and corrugated steel shacks. This is the same juxtaposition that you see everywhere; the beggar and his blind father next to the brand new Unicef Land Cruiser, the nice South African grocery store right next to the local market, the extremely poor secondary school and the ABC academy.

Guilt is often the first reaction to seeing these things. Yet, the Lord is the one who gave us the homes and families he did; for better or worse, we did not choose our upbringing. In light of the Lord's sovereignty, then, aren't we responsible to sacrifice in compassion for the sake of the gospel aren't we? Yes. So what does that look like? And this is where it gets sticky for me, and as I am finding out slowly, for all missionaries.

I was standing in the line at the ATM the other day, and noticed the guy's T-shirt in front of me. It had the end of Romans 8 quoted, 'we are more than conquerors....' In an unprecedented and completely non-seattlite way of friendliness, I told him that I liked his shirt. So we started chatting and it turns out that he was an ABC graduate. Not only was he a graduate, but he graduated from the very first class of ABC Malawi. Now he is working for an organization that ministers to the people of Malawi by promoting Bible reading and so on. As well, he works with the youth in the Nkhoma Synod CCAP, (Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, one of the last Bible believing and decent churches in Malawi.) I started thinking to myself, 'man this guy is really active. I wish I was doing nitty gritty ministry like that.' So we parted ways, both having our large wads of the equivalent of 3$ bills. And as I got in the car I realized that I shouldn't envy him, but rejoice with him since he is doing the very thing that he ought to be. He is a Malawian and so is that much more fit to minister to his people. ABC was established to do this very thing; produce Malawians for the sake of the Malawian church!

After having this realization, I began to think again about why in the world my wife and I are here. I came to this; it is the work of the Church to minister to her sister churches in whatever way they need so that they might be established for the further proclamation of the gospel and expansion of the Kingdom of God. Yet, it is clear how ABC fits into this; they train pastors and lay leaders. What about ABCCA? What does 7th grade science have to do with the health of the Church in Malawi?

What I have come to is this: training the next generation of missionaries to carry the torch, loving God's name and spreading it throughout the globe, (not to mention drawing in those who would otherwise be uninterested in carrying on the work of their parents). ABCCA exists not guarantee good Christian education to well-to-do kids, but to disciple the up and coming generation of missionaries.

This can take many forms I have realized. In particular, I am working on teaching my 9th grade geography/history class about the condition of the church in various countries. Using information from Voice of the Martyrs the students will look at whether persecution exists in the country, and in what ways missionaries are needed. As well, I am looking into getting information from International Justice Mission on what sort of work they are doing in various countries. My hope is to begin to show these kids all the areas into which they could fit, serving the Lord and making good use of their many gifts.

So, the juxtaposition continues. Yet, more and more I feel like I am being useful in discipling these kids.