By: Sandy Echols
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Community Hope School is a primary school for orphans and other vulnerable children in Namibia. It was started in 2005, by John and Suzanne Hunter, missionaries to Namibia. The school exists to fulfill the spiritual, academic, and physical needs of the children. When the school opens in May it will have 90 students. We originally contacted John and Suzanne about helping us obtain our visas for Namibia, little did we know the plan that God had in store for us.
Let me back up for a minute and tell you more about how we decided to go to Namibia int he first place. David and I met in Namibia in 2002. He was out there on a 2 year church planting mission trip and had decided to attend a YWAM missions school, I was fresh out of high school attending the same school. We became best friends and the school, and were married a year after the school ended. From the start of our relationship we knew that we would be involved in ministry in some capacity. We then moved to the States to attend a Christian college, as David had promised his church he would.
At Central Christian College of the Bible we committed our lives to full time church planting missionary work in Africa. It took us several years to decide to return to Namibia specifically. We wanted to be sure that it was Go leading us back to Namibia, and that we were not just picking it because we had been there before. We even spent over 3 months in Tanzania, looking for and praying for a place to serve full time. Our heart kept being drawn back to Namibia, even when we were in Tanzania. David and I spent a whole year (without mentioning it to one another) praying for the decision to move to Namibia, and praying that God would draw the other person’s heart to Namibia. It was kind of funny when we finally spoke to each other about it, we had been praying for the same thing!
So at that point we knew that we wanted to Go to Namibia as missionaries, we wanted to use CHE as a ministry strategy, and we hoped to plant Christian churches there. The problem with Namibia is that it is very difficult to obtain any kind of long term visa, that is where the Hunters come in. We contacted them hoping they could assist us in getting a work visa for Namibia. After some discussion we agreed to partner together for two years. We will be developing and running an after school program for the kids, this is exciting as one of CHE’s methods is to begin by having a “health screening” at a school.
At first it seemed like working at the school would not be exactly what we had had in mind the last six years while preparing for missions work, but I was unprepared for the passion that has grown in my heart since agreeing to this partnership. I find myself daydreaming about the things that we will be doing with the kids, and I have a longing in my heart to reach out and love them. I am growing inpatient, I can’t wait to get there!!
If you have read this far thanks, and forgive my rambling on about this. Remember to pray for us, and pray for CHS. Their website is here, take a moment to check it out!