The Educational Mission Field

It was a call out of nowhere.

I was living in Brazil then, part of a missional approach to building connections between the church and communities through education. Having spent the previous twenty years as a high school teacher in London, the last six in school leadership, I had the opportunity to move to central Brazil with my wife and children, then aged five and six, as part of a charity I helped form—Aprender (Portuguese verb ‘To Learn’). With my Brazilian colleagues, we constructed a new model of school improvement, helping school leaders and teachers acquire key skills and practical know-how to sustainably increase the quality of outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The call came in 2014. The Syrian war had begun, and refugees were arriving across the border in Lebanon. Among them were many traumatised children who now had no school and were unlikely to have access to quality education for the foreseeable future. One of our translators from our early days in Brazil was then in Lebanon. Hearing the need expressed among churches to establish informal schools at pace, he suggested they connect with me.

Of course, we wanted to help but how? It was quickly arranged that we would receive a Lebanese brother in Brazil who we would train and support as he sought to set up a new refugee school in the Bekkah valley on the Lebanon-Syria border.

Our model was birthed in traumatised communities in sprawling Brazilian cities, where drugs, crime, and assassination were all too common. Giving teachers value, ensuring they had practical strategies to improve their classrooms without spending money, and empowering them with mindset changes that would sustain improvement were key pillars of our model, based on international research and best practice. The question was—could our model be transplanted into a new culture and work in a very different context? Could we help the local church reach the marginalised in the name of Christ and His love for them?

Fast forward six months, and I was privileged to visit a vibrant refugee school serving 300 Syrian children based at that local church in Bekkah. The church had committed and then resourced an amazing, safe, loving centre for such vulnerable students. We learnt so much along the way. The stories and experiences the children and their parents had lived through, the outstanding resilience, creativity, and determination to remain positive among these communities, were incredible. We were then connected with other informal schools for refugees in Lebanon supported by Christian NGOs. Our work grew, and we began to run training sessions, mainly based in Beirut.

We believe that education is a physical manifestation of Jesus’ work on earth and a positive foundation to address the great issues of our day.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

—Matthew 25:42

Jesus, of course, was a teacher—the best teacher. “He taught as one who had authority,” says Matthew. Mark says the people “were amazed at his teaching”, and later, “He taught them many things by parables” (contextualised learning!). The combination of who the teacher was, what he was teaching, and why he was teaching made all the difference. Jesus taught profound spiritual truths, but he also went to school and learned language, maths, history and geography. And let’s not forget the woodwork lessons!

Education is not THE answer to the world’s woes. We know Jesus is. We don’t see education as something to be worshipped or idolised. Education has been called the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. However, it needs to be a positive, sanctified education. We know from the past, including today’s history, that brutal people use education as a powerful weapon, not for the good of humankind, but for their political agendas with devastating consequences. But we see a place for positive, sanctified education as a means to grow understanding about all manner of things, both spiritual and temporal.

There is a strong historical legacy of denominations being the first organisations to establish schools, understanding that education was a key frontline and pathway to faith. Education can be a significant provider of meeting needs in a community. It feeds with knowledge and understanding, it quenches the thirst for the big and little questions of life, it can grow empathy for those who are not like us, it can bring healing to traumatised children, and it can liberate children and young people from the prison of poverty.

At Aprender, we partner with education providers around the world to enable children and young people’s potential to be realised. This includes those within the faith community, those on a journey of faith, and those not. We use a discipleship model to build capacity, understanding, cultural translation, and sustainability. We help our clients grow character strengths, including reflective thinking and the need to address our competencies first before we seek to teach and train using the principle of:

“You cannot pass on what you do not first possess.”

We affirm:

• That we are called to the ministry of education in a culturally diverse world, we commit to respecting the uniqueness of racial-ethnic backgrounds and support multi- and inter-cultural education so both the uniqueness and unity of life can be taught and experienced.
• The historical role people of faith have played in public education. We commit to strengthening public institutions of learning by actively shaping responses to issues that improve the quality of and ensure fairness in education for all children and support for those who engage in the teaching profession.

We believe in education for:

• Wisdom, knowledge and skills: enabling discipline, confidence and delight in seeking wisdom and knowledge and developing talents in all areas of life.
• Hope and aspiration: enabling healing, repair, and renewal; the wisdom to cope when things go wrong; and the opening of horizons and guiding people towards their fulfilment.
• Community and living well together: a core focus on relationships, community participation, and the qualities that enable people to flourish together.
• Dignity and respect: the basic principle of respect for the value and preciousness of every person, treating each as a unique individual of inherent worth.

Education is the great leveller on the playing field of inequality and can give children hope.

Adapted from BMS 2019

All of the above is true, but even more so in refugee education. Refugee children need adapting education, one that is flexible, one that focuses on key understanding such as literacy and numeracy, but also, and just as important, one that also builds key character strengths such as leadership, organisation, resilience, initiative, and communication. I have found refugee communities to be inspirationally entrepreneurial. They bring a different focus and experience into their host communities, a huge positive that should be shared and celebrated. We incorporated these lessons into our model and now have the honour of serving and equipping churches in eleven developing countries worldwide, including Penang, Malaysia. We have been able to pray, share, and equip one another.

The emergency of war meant that churches had to adapt quickly, respond in new ways, risk much, and cast aside old barriers between denominations to serve, protect, and bring Christ’s love to the least and the lost across the whole community. Education provision has served well, making ideal places to mix and build relationships. At Aprender, we continue to spread what we do, always conscious of our need for God’s grace, mercy, and provision. If you would like to know more, visit our website at www.aprender.co.uk