Three Hundred Dollars

The Ankeny First United Methodist Church partners with a small church and school in Malawi. We were fortunate enough to raise enough money to fly Atusaye, leader of the church and founder of the school, to the states for a week so he could meet members of our church. Mark and I are in a small group with our associate pastor so he invited Atusaye to one of our Bible studies. Our group decided to get him a gift, a combination of money and items he could bring back for his family. Mark and I talked for 10 seconds, literally 10 seconds, about what we should contribute. I asked Mark about 30 minutes before we had to leave, "Are you ok with giving him $100?" Mark's reply was, "Yup, that sounds good." I wrote the check out for $100 on our way to Bible study, oblivious to how much this would mean to Atusaye. One hundred dollars was enough, but not too much that we would miss it.

We arrived at Bible study and Atusaye was gracious enough to give his story....for probably the 20th time that week. He explained what he does and how schools and churches are organized in Malawi. His school is not yet funded by the government and it's at risk for being shut down. In order for a school to get government funding they have to meet a number of requirements including a certain number of teachers, desks (30 for Atusaye's school), running water, and electricity. If he didn't meet these requirement in the next few months his school would not only miss out on government funding, it would be completely shut down.

At the end of the night we presented Atusaye with our gift, a couple books and clothes for his 10 month old, some clothes for his wife, and a camera for his family. We also gave him a check for $300, enough to buy 6 desks. Atusaye took a few seconds to process everything and tried not to show emotion. He sat in front of eight Americans, whose biggest worry at that time was what we were going to fix for dinner that night, and broke down. He was so thankful. Unbelievably thankful. Three hundred dollars is a couple of grocery trips for most of us. But to Atusaye, it meant one giant leap towards keeping his school open!

Thanks to Abby for sending Atusaye back to Malawi with a big enough suitcase to carry everything!