Building Privacy

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10, NKJV.

The 85 to 90 high school students that live at the Baptist Student Hostel in one rural Last Frontier town would not be able to afford the fees to live at the one government high school. Without the ministry of the student hostel, many would lose the opportunity to advance their education beyond elementary school. The main expenses of the hostel are sponsored by a local Baptist church.

Facilities at the hostel are rustic, and until recently the students had to sponge bathe, brush their teeth, and wash their hair and clothes with little privacy. That has changed with the help of a team of Southern Baptist volunteers from Tennessee. Laboring in the hot, tropical sun for ten days, the Tennessee men built bath houses for the girls and boys.

Each bath house has a large open water tank which will make getting water much easier for the students. They also repaired all the toilets. The dignity that these acts of service afford the students spoke volumes about the love of Christ that they have heard about at the hostel.

While the volunteer men were building bath houses, the Tennessee women taught Vacation Bible School lessons and crafts to the students who were not at school. Both the students and the volunteers enjoyed sampling foods from both cultures. The favorite American dish that the youth liked was french toast and homemade maple syrup!

Both Last Frontier workers and local believers find great encouragement from Southern Baptist volunteer teams like the one from Tennessee. When volunteers make the sacrifice to come and serve, even for just a short period of time, it can make an eternal difference.

Pray that:

God will bless the ministry of the Baptist Student Hostel, and that many students will come to faith and will grow in their knowledge of Christ.

More servant hearted volunteer teams, like the group from Tennessee, will come to Last Frontier areas in the Pacific Rim and discover the blessing of short-term, international trips.

As students come to know the LORD, they will be able to return to their families and villages with the Gospel.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.