FEATURE
FOUNDATIONAL
MISSIONS FOR EDUDEO, SHORT TERM PROJECTS BUILD LONG-TERM SUCCESS
BY CRAIG MACARTNEY
I
n Western culture, Christian schools usually fill a niche, providing Christ-centred education for children from Christian families. Around the world, however, they fulfil a much larger purpose in advancing the gospel. It is this opportunity that Hamilton-based EduDeo Ministries has leapt into as a way of fulfilling the Great Commission. “The Church is spreading very quickly in a lot of other countries,” states Hank de Jong, EduDeo’s executive director. “In my experience, soon to follow the growth of the Church are these Christian schools that are springing up all over the world. In some cases Christian schools are the only options for kids in these areas and only 20 or 30 percent of the students are Christians. What an incredible platform to share the love of Christ with students who otherwise would never hear it.” EduDeo’s name comes from combining “Edu” for education and “Deo”, the Latin word for God. De Jong explains they wanted their name to reflect their vision of seeing every community transformed by the gospel. They do this by providing infrastructure improvement (building and expanding school facilities), teacher training, and financial support to indigenous partner ministries in the developing world. “One of the criticisms of mission teams is that unemployment rates are really high in these countries, so why are we sending people to go build a school? We take that very seriously. There are lots of short-term mission trips that are done poorly. Our perspective is that if they are done well, there is a place for them.” In EduDeo’s case, de Jong says short-term mission trips actually
22 SEVEN MARCH / APRIL 2017
