Each year during the holiday season, Boise Valley Adventist School (BVAS) families support an outreach in the community. Past outreach ministries have included adopting needy families, collecting items for Toys for Tots, contributing to the area food bank and giving to the local rescue mission. This year, after receiving information regarding needs at a sister school in Africa, the staff at BVAS decided to adopt the school as their outreach project.
Research about the school revealed that the Munguluni Mission School in Mozambique is a place where Adventist education is training the teachers, pastors and leaders of tomorrow. The families in Mozambique survive on 40 cents a day, which makes it extremely difficult for parents to provide school supplies, let alone clothes, books and even lunches for their children.
BVAS participated in Project: Shoe Box to provide necessary hygiene and school supplies to students in Africa. Students were simply asked to retrieve a plastic shoebox from the school, pack it with items from a specified list and return it to be shipped to the Munguluni School. Families had the option to donate funds to help with shipping costs rather than fill a box.
Several school board and local church members also supported the outreach project, and through combined efforts 31 shoeboxes were filled. Many parents said that this was an easy and inexpensive way for the students to get involved and noticed the students had fun finding items to fill the boxes.
Through this opportunity, students and their families were able to provide much-needed supplies African families simply cannot afford. In addition to the North Pacific Union Conference mission to change lives through education and demonstrate God's love to all, the BVAS mission was to give students an opportunity to experience a project where they could help students just like themselves. And, as an added incentive, the African students will be filmed as they receive and open their shoeboxes so BVAS students will be able to see the direct results of their efforts.
Several noted that it was a great feeling to model the joy of serving and giving to others less fortunate. The project brought to life the words, "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy" (Deut. 15:11).
Boise Valley Adventist School students and families help fill 31 shoeboxes with much-needed supplies for a sister school in Mozambique.
