November 16, 2022
Lower School Offering Makes International Impact
By: Leila Todd (PACS junior)
In recent years, Prince Avenue Christian School lower school chapel began a special tradition. At a designated time during their weekly service, students hurry down the worship center aisles to make an offering donation at the altar. Two students stand in front holding bowls that have been crafted by dividing a globe in two, and their classmates enthusiastically place their donations inside. While the beloved offering tradition is a time for students to apply their Biblical worldview, it is additionally an opportunity to provide funds for Tanzanian children across the globe.
Each summer, Prince Fine Arts Director LaMurl Morris takes a team of missionaries to Morogoro, Tanzania to fund the digging of water wells for the local citizens and to share the love of Christ with them. Within the town is Village of Hope, an orphanage for the children of Morogoro and the recipient of Prince students’ offering donations.
Village of Hope’s children range from four years old to high school age, so most of them are active students. While public education tuition in Tanzania is currently free, the students still need funding for food, supplies, and medical care, and Prince lower school students help fill in those gaps with their weekly donation money.
In addition to donating, kindergarten through 5th-grade students pray each week after their offering over the Morogoro children. Mrs. Morris explains that the Prince donations and prayers are having a ripple effect on the Morogoro community. “Because of the help they are receiving, the people of Morogoro are now starting to gather in the local church for shelter, and this is having a spiritual and emotional impact on the community.”
Although Prince students live halfway across the globe from their fellow Tanzanian friends, Mrs. Morris recently gave them the opportunity to connect with the Village of Hope children in more ways than donation and prayer. During a chapel service, Mrs. Morris taught students a song in Tanzania’s native language, Swahili. She recorded them singing and sent the video directly to Village of Hope in the hopes that Prince students and the Tanzanian children can better see and relate to each other.
During the 2021-2022 school year, Prince lower school students alone raised $2,000 for Village of Hope. According to Mrs. Morris, $2,000 for Americans is worth double for citizens of Tanzania, meaning Prince students have an even more significant impact on the Tanzanian children than initially expected.
