Called to Transform Generations

Called to Transform Generations

Called to Transform Generations

Burkina Faso is a small, land-locked country in French-speaking West Africa. It is known as ‘the land of honourable people,’ and over 60% of its population identifies as Muslim. Spread across all regions of the country is a group of people that want their country to become known – even well-known – for something else too: generations upon generations of children that love God, love their neighbours, and love their country.

That group of people is known as the Alliance of Evangelical Christian Schools and Universities in Burkina Faso (AESEB). Since beginning its partnership with EduDeo in 2018, AESEB has focussed on providing its teachers and leaders with workshops on the foundations of Christ-centred education so they can impact the children in their classrooms – some who come from Muslim homes. This education isn’t one that stays with children themselves, but reaches out into the community to transform an entire country.

It’s a bold vision for such a small country, but the organization is an alliance of 290 schools and over 3,200 teachers – reaching over 85,000 children and their communities. AESEB believes they can make a difference – will you come alongside them and show your support?

Mariam and Eugène are just two of 200 teachers and leaders who will attend workshops in 2020-2021 on the foundations of Christ-centred education. These workshops will equip them with concrete tools and strategies for introducing the Gospel into students’ heads, hearts, and hands. They’ll learn that Christ-centred education doesn’t just stop at a Bible reading, but integrates the Gospel into every part of education so children can transform their communities after graduation.

For Mariam, the workshop was eye-opening: it inspired her to change the way her school offers education and equipped her with the tools to do so. “This training equipped me with elements of Christ-centred education such as: teach with love, recognize the child’s talents, and help him or her develop them. This training opened my eyes: it allowed me to know that by going through the disciplines that we teach at school, we can teach the word of God. We can transform children and make these children men [and women] of tomorrow who can impact the future of our country. This encouraged me a lot. I pray that God will give me the strength to be able to put into practice what I have learned here.”

When Eugène started his school, he wanted to be able to share the Gospel with his students. But the Christian schools that he attended as a child didn’t give him the full understanding of the kind of Christ-centred education he was looking for. Then he attended an AESEB workshop and everything changed.

“Since I have followed this training, it is deepening my understanding of Christian education as a ministry and not a simple activity as I saw it. I give thanks to God for our predecessors, those who had the idea of setting up AESEB, and those who are currently leading it, as well as the partners who accompany these trainings.

This great work that they are doing is not only for us Christians, because the children who are in our schools are not all Christians. I believe that there are some who will one day remember that it is the teachings they received in the Christian schools that made them men [and women] of integrity for our country.

My prayer is that God will allow us to give this back in our schools to our staff so that together we can see how we are going to supervise the children… We are going to give them their place so that the children know that they too have their place in society. They are important for this country tomorrow. I would like to thank the trainers who spent two weeks coaching us and guiding us on how to run our schools. May God continue to empower AESEB and their partners so that such training can continue, multiply and reach all regions of the country and all schools.”

Will you help answer Eugène’s prayer by giving a gift today?

Your gift will go towards workshops in Burkina Faso just like the ones Mariam and Eugène attended. Your gift will mean more teachers and leaders will be equipped with the tools and empowered with the Gospel to effect positive change in their classrooms and communities.

Your gift today can help make this happen. Give today at: edudeo.com/donate