Thanks to
the wonder of Facebook, I have been able to interact with people I
haven’t seen for decades. Some of them were important to me when I was
growing up. Through the meanderings of social media, I have renewed
contact with a former classmate named Greg Brady. Among other
things, what I remember most about Greg is that he was better at hockey
than I was. What stands out now is that he is a Christ follower; quite
likely a better Christ follower than I am .
Allow me to
share part of story posted on the CTV website, which is a summary of a
newscast. It is about a tiny private school in Haiti that gives tuition
free schooling to its students. At the centre of the story is Greg. At
the centre of his story is Jesus. If you read the story, you will get
the point. It is simple, powerful and eloquent.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -
A place with a ripped-tarp roof, fallen wall and crumbling staircase is
actually a rare gem amid the quake-battered ruins of its Haitian
neighbourhood.
The Port-au-Prince
building is unique because it houses a new, tuition-free school in a
country where education tends to be private and prohibitively expensive.
With the help of a
Canadian man, the school opened its doors in September to some of the
area's poorest kids -- many lost their homes and parents in last year's
quake.
L'Ecole de l'Espoir (or School of Hope)
is a modest symbol of progress in a country grappling with a 53 per
cent literacy rate. Even before the devastating quake of Jan. 12, 2010,
which flattened many of the nation's classrooms, only half of Haitian
children attended schools.
Many of the kids at L'Ecole de l'Espoir live in dirty and dangerous tent camps and few have enough to eat each day.
"The majority of (the
children) lost their mothers or their fathers . . . we're working in a
very difficult situation," says the institution's co-founder, Thony Jean-Baptiste.
"Their lives have been very difficult since the earthquake."
The 7.0-magnitude
quake damaged or flattened 80 per cent of the schools in Port-au-Prince
and 60 per cent in the country's southwest region, according to the
Haitian government.
The disaster, which
killed more than 200,000 people, spurred the school's founders into
action. They were joined by a Yellowknife resident named Greg Brady.
Brady was deeply impacted by the devastation -- especially as he narrowly missed the quake.
An hour after his
flight home to Canada lifted off from Port-au-Prince, the temblor
hammered the country he had just left behind.
Brady had been on his first-ever trip to Haiti with a Canadian charity called Active Christians With A Mission.
Jean-Baptiste and
local teacher Elisee Augustin had pitched the idea to Brady of building a
school for the poor only a few days before the earthquake.
Brady, who found out
about the quake after he landed in Canada, has spent $5,500 over the
last year to pay for things like blackboards, benches and the salaries
of four teachers.
The Territorial
government employee had just finished paying off his truck, which left
him with an extra $600 a month in his bank account.
"I thought, for that kind of money, I can operate a school," Brady said.
"I have money for once in my life and I've learned a lot -- I've learned that giving really is receiving."
*********************
This story speaks to me in a whole number of ways. How about you…?
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