Children of Hope School

Another instance of God-directed word of mouth promotion led to the construction of our school in 1997. We had been concerned about the quality of education being provided to our children in the various public and private schools they were attending around Cebu City. Getting all our kids to school and back home again was a logistical nightmare, and many of our kids were slipping through the cracks of an educational system not at all geared to their needs and challenges. We really saw the need for our own school.

In time, and through the support of friends in the States and Hong Kong, we were able to purchase a lot near the Shelter. We were strategizing on how we might raise the funds that we thought we would need for a school building. Our estimate was $250,000.  I can remember that I was putting together a fund raising brochure which outlined a three phase fundraising scheme to come up with the needed funds. The plan would take a few years and would seek gifts of various sizes from our supporters. I remember making one of those pyramids and had the lower gifts on the bottom, working up size to one large gift at the top. Each “layer” was a different color. It was a cool looking brochure, if I do say so myself!

A friend of ours from St. Paul, Minnesota, Dave Jahnke, was in Cebu for a visit about this time. He was a missionary in Japan at the time, and was in Cebu for a conference. He stayed with us for a couple days and we shared with him our dreams and prayers for a school.

A few days later while I was finishing up the brochure I got a call from the secretary of a friend of mine that I had known at Bethel College (now Bethel University).  He was working as a missionary in Manila. He is an entrepreneur and a technologist, who worked with people and churches to develop businesses towards a goal of becoming self-supporting. He had been working on a big power project in Luzon. I don’t understand all the details or implications, but he had been paid a certain fee for his role in the project. His secretary said that my friend and his wife would like to make a donation for our new school. I can remember thinking that we already had one gift for the bottom section of the pyramid, imagining that my friend would probably be able to donate a couple hundred dollars at best. The secretary asked if we would like the money sent to Cebu in dollars or pesos. I was working on the brochure even as I talked with her and I remember telling her that it didn’t really matter. “Either way,” I responded, thinking more about the color scheme for the brochure than the gift being pledged. She said that she thought it might be an important decision. She wondered if my friend had already told me about the donation, and I told her that he had not. “Really?” she responded. “Well, this gift is $250,000.” My hands came up from the keyboard. She had my attention!

I remember that Mitch was working at his desk across from mine, and I held up a piece of paper on which I had written “250,000.”  Mitch gasped and turned white. He mouthed the question that had also come to my mind earlier. “Peso?”  At the time the exchange rate was 42 pesos to the dollar, so you can see the huge difference. I mouthed back “dollars,” and now it was his turn to fall off his chair!

We learned that Dave Jahnke had spent the night with my friends in Manila on his way out of the country and had shared our dreams for a school. It was at just the time they were receiving money for the power project. They had decided that they wanted to use that money for the Lord’s work and Dave’s being there at that moment made them think about donating for our school. In God’s amazing timing and plan for his children, the amount they were prepared to donate was almost the exact amount that we were estimating our school building would cost.

Suddenly, in a matter of a few minutes, my brochure was useless. Not worthless, because I don’t think God was mocking my efforts by letting me finish the brochure before providing the funds through another source. I think He expects us to work hard and use our minds and talents in striving towards a goal. But in the end, He was reminding me, and everyone at CSC, that the ministry is his. And He would ultimately provide the funds. Knowing that, it was a pleasure to delete that brochure from my computer! God had shown us a better way.  His way.