A Plea for Education!

Imagine a place where less than 1% will ever attend any college, and where the majority will not attain a 5th grade education. These places exist in some parts of the world, and Malawi is one of those places. According to the US Department of Labor:

"In 1995, 62 percent of students entering primary school reached grade two, and 34 percent reached grade five. The dropout rate is higher among girls than boys."

Jesika and I have the opportunity to take the gift of education to the people of Malawi this fall. One of the ways Nazarene Theological College of Central Africa is able to keep the education cost down to an affordable level is due to volunteer educators who can teach the courses. However, to bring this education we need your help!

If you had the opportunity to finish high school, you did something that most Malawian children could only dream of.  We are looking for 100 friends to sign up for just $10/month from now through December to raise a total of $5000 that will provide funding for 3 much needed college courses. Would you consider this a scholarship? If you graduated high school, would you consider making a gift of just $10/month as a scholarship for our Malawian students? 

To pledge for a students' education, sign up at http://web.nazarene.org/goto/moore.malawi. The site allows donations to be made via credit/debit cards and bank transfer for the recurring donations. When you sign up, you can leave us a message on that page. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Finally, please pray for us, for the school, and for the students. It is only by the grace of God that we are able to do this.

"Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (2 Chronicles 1:10)

“… And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…” (Hebrews 12:1c)

We sit just 21 days away from the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic games in London as I look today back on the events of the past year in our lives, I came across an article on the Olympic torch relay.

“After a short relay around Greece, the Flame is handed over to the new Host City at another ceremony in the Panathenaiko stadium in Athens. 

The Flame is then delivered to the Host Country, where it is transferred from one Torchbearer to another, spreading the message of peace, unity and friendship. It ends its journey as the last Torchbearer lights the cauldron at the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in the Olympic Stadium, marking the official start of the Games.” (http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/history/)

What Jesika and I are doing is participating in a relay race. Our relay race started with the birth of Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago in ancient Jewish times. Many greats have stood before us, such as Paul and the Appostles, Martin Luther when he started the protestant revolution. John Wesley with the start of the Holiness movement, and Phineas F Bresee with the start of the Church of the Nazarene.  It also includes the work of Dr David Livingstone, the first missionary in Malawi, and includes Jon and Margaret Scott, retired missionaries to NTCCA in Malawi and the couple that paved our way towards heading to Malawi with their presentation at the NMI convention 2011.

As we bring the torch forward into the lives of our students at NTCCA, who knows where they will go. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us as we take the torch back to Africa… A race that we cannot run without you. For Jesika and I to be successful in the race, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses as we read about in Hebrews 11 and 12 as well as you, the reader of this blog. We need your support in prayer and fasting during our time there and as we lead up to this. We also need your support financially… Bringing education to the people of Africa is not free and is sincerely deserved. Jesika and I have our education that is enabling us to go, but in order for us to teach there, we still have to travel, have insurance, and meet everyday expenses that we will incurr on the field. So far we have been blessed with amazing partners who come up beside us, challenge us, some whom even have gone there before us. We feel all of this as we plan our trip and work with the leadership to grow our goals, expectations, and preparatory skills. 

We are looking for our Olympic champions to run the race with us. Would you be able to join us, champions? Maybe you could be a “bronze” champion and support us at just $10/month? Maybe you could be a “silver” champion, and support us at $20/month? Maybe you could be a “gold” champion, and support us at $30 (or more) a month? Our goal is to now collect support in the form of monthly pledges that could meet the necessary cost of our insurance and needs while on the field. We have raised enough to support the plane tickets for Leyana and Jesika, but ultimately there is a greater need...that need is the need of prayer support. The goal we set was for a prayer partner for each of us, for each day, for each month. That may seem like a high number but it is only 120 people. We currently have 25 people. That is a huge goal to achieve (like setting a world record at the Olympics when the stakes are high and you are competing against the toughest competitors). Please seek to search your heart, as God to grow your mission in order to grow the mission. If you feel so lead to compete with us in the race, send an email our way anthony@love-coffee.com or jesika@love-coffee.com for prayer support. For financial support you can sign up directly with the missions organization at: http://web.nazarene.org/goto/moore.malawi

On the same note, a huge blessing today came via a plane ticket change for Jesika and Leyana (as you know they will travel apart from me due to our different schedules). Originally they had five landings on the flight to Malawi and five on the way home. Both flights had four layovers and crossed a few days and hours. Due to the airlines final confirmation of ticketed passengers the flights have been changed to reflect two stops each way and only two layovers. What an amazing God we serve!!!

Thank you for your prayers, they are working to bring all things to good for us, those who are called to this place and in His service.
We love you!
God's blessings and joy!
Anthony and Jesika

UNEAK: UNIQUE; the world view from Normal to Malawi

Well, what a productive morning I had today! I got up early and Leyana and I had our travel clinic appointment. What is that you say? Well we go and meet with a government certified travel medicine doctor who looks at the countries we will be traveling through and places we will stay and identifies any immunizations and/or medications we require. Praises because neither of us needed immunizations today (only because they have to special order them) and we got 120 days of anti-malarial medications. We will go back at the end of the week and receive our first Rabies immunization and then two more subsequent immunizations.  Jeffery was so sweet during our process he just chatted away!
Then, off to get the notarized copy of Leyana's camp registration that Anthony had fixed up for us at his work. A quick stop at the company store to get Leyana a flashlight and batteries. We then drove 120 miles to drop her at camp. This was SUCH a bright spot in my day. How I realize that five or fifteen minutes with women of God who have such divine purpose as encourages in my life was just what I needed. It was super to see Reya, Sherry, Trisha W, Trisha D, Renee, Retha, Cheryl, and the list is exhaustive. The touch through a hug and a hello is so poignant in our life. Little did they know that I needed that girlfriend minute more than anything today.
I won't say I am afraid, but definitely contemplating life outside of my own little world (to steal a lyric). I live in a town called Normal. Yes, seriously, I am going from Normal to Malawi in less than seven weeks. Now that is a HUGE move! In my own little world, I live less than one mile from Meijer, WalMart, Target, Kroger, a mexican/chinese/thai/fastfood/chain/starbucks/coldstone/subway/mcd/wendy, then I contemplate that I drive everywhere, there are roads everywhere, there are phones, constant power, constant internet, convenient television, girlfriends which are just a minute away, a church home which is 2.8 miles away, schools which all have air/con, comfort of a work which requires no personal preparation except show up on time, the pool, the putt-putt course at State Farm, LOTS of parks to walk and play in, and still we prepare for Malawi. I just now came to realize things will be different there and now I am beginning the spiritual preparation to take my heart outside of this little world and go. Oh, I know, I have been on a bazillion mission trips and what is different? Well, what is different is a round-trip ticket separated by 3 months time and really I know not one person there intimately. I will have God, he is our steadfast soulmate. He will go with Leyana and I, he and I are intimate, and I expect to come home with an even greater sense of intimacy with Him.
Please don't misunderstand the post here, we remain thrilled with the calling of Christ to go and make Christlike disciples in the nation of Malawi. We are thankful the Church of the Nazarene has invested in our lives so we may invest in many others. I would ask if you think of us, pray for presence. Pray for God to begin to separate us slightly to prepare us greatly.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. The next seven weeks I will work to prepare my classes and get the syllabi/tests/plans/powerpoints in order. I will finish the reading of several pertinent textbooks and at one point I may even cut off some Facebook and WWF's and fast this for our mission. God is moving, I am listening and it is sweet, the lingering of his spirit in my heart.
Thank you for your support, your love, and your patience as we grow to be what God has called us to be.
Love and peace,
Jesika