What would you say to the idea that you have an opportunity to impact an entire nation? You actually do.
It’s not something I say lightly – in fact, the very idea of it makes me nervous! But it also stuns me how God has put PathLight in a position to impact the entire nation of Belize.
You are part of that impact. Actually, you drive the change through your time, talent and treasure. This month we have a matching gift opportunity to launch PathLight into its seventh year, so I wanted to share how significant your impact could be on an entire nation.
To understand, we have to start with a focus on hearts, minds, and souls.
PathLight focuses on the personal, academic, and spiritual development (heart, mind, soul) of each child, teacher and volunteer that we work with. That’s where our focus is – everything else is programming and logistics.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, it is. And it works. In fact, I’m stunned by how effective this simple model is working.
Those three simple points of reference make all the difference. A whole child, family, teacher, or volunteer is developed: they aren’t merely good students, or good people, or strong believers. Instead, they operate within a PathLight program that provides a foundation in all three.
I call the balance of personal, academic, and spiritual development within the mix of students, teachers and volunteers a “Christ centered exchange of hope.” When it all comes together and people focus on the key factors … well, the sky is the limit.
And that’s the point. The sky really is the limit. More and more we’re sensing God is doing something BIG here. We are fast approaching the tipping point when we can impact the entire nation.
Think about that for a moment. We have the chance to impact an entire nation!
For instance, a school district in Belize asked us to include all of their teachers in the next Teacher Training Conference. That’s over 330 teachers (we normally only have about 130 at our conference). It’s reasonable to say that each teacher has about 30 pupils. So we can provide a training conference for teachers who influence 10,000 kids. This is in a country where there are only about 84,000 students in the entire K-12 school system. There are only about 4200 teachers in the entire country!
In this program we’re going to be sharing good teaching techniques, of course. But we are also going to be sharing the love of Christ and how that fits into an educational system. We’re going to be influencing the entire education system, which through time touches every part of society: business, law, health, government, media, sports, church, family, communities, and of course each individual.
See what I mean about nearing a tipping point when we can influence an entire country? See what I mean about a Christ centered exchange of hope? This is a gigantic leveraging of the opportunities God has created.
It’s a bit numbing when I think about it. This isn’t the ride we expected when we signed up for this crazy adventure back in 2006! But it’s the one God has in store for us, so we’re willing to give it a shot.
Are you? Can you make this happen? We need your help in the matching gift campaign so we can hit that tipping point. Thanks for considering it!
