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By Scott Hafemann, President,
Mission:Chad
This past summer The London Telegraph gave the results of their yearly study of the 20 most expensive cities in the world for expats (see the link below). N'djamena ranked 3rd, right after Tokyo and just ahead of Moscow! Though consistently one of the ten poorest countries in the world (currently ranked 7th by the UN's 2010 Human Development Report), Chad's main city is one of the most expensive for expats, due no doubt to the extremely high cost of everything beyond subsistence level. This is one of things visitors to Chad always find so troubling: given the low demand, the poorest people are surrounded by goods and services they can never afford, reminding them daily of the terrible ironies of this world. In the midst of the dirt roads all around it, the slogan of the five-star Kempinsky hotel in N'djamena declares, "Experience the extraordinary."
It is in this context that the Shalom Evangelical School of Theology (called ESTES for short) seeks to train the next generation of leaders for the churches of Chad, while at the same time offering serious courses in the Bible and theology to the lay leadership of the city. In the face of the daily experience, not of "the extraordinary," but of such suffering and inequity, how does one teach the message of the Scriptures? Where is God in the midst of it all?
For Christians, such realities remind us that our world is not as it should be; they remind us that it is not as it will be; they call us to confront the world as it is in love. The reality of being number 3 (in cost) and number 7 (in poverty) also declares that the hope of the cross and resurrection of Christ is the only hope that can sustain true human development in a fallen world. So the summons to love can only be sustained by the hope created by Christ, which calls for faith in the rule of God in the midst of a world in rebellion against its Lord (see 1 Cor 13:13). This is the truly "extraordinary."
This is why ESTES is so vital. It is the top Christian school in the country. It trains the leaders and teachers for all the other schools and leadership positions of Chad. It brings a serious study of the Scriptures into a most serious situation. But can it be sustained, when the costs of operating a school in "number 3" keep going up, while the people you serve live in "number 7"?
The students in these programs make incredible sacrifices to study, often even going without enough food to eat in order that they might feed their minds and hearts for the sake of life of faith of their churches. But as in the west, ESTES cannot sustain itself from its student fees nor charge more, especially from churches and students who have suffered from recently famines and floods. I have taught in the best Christian colleges and seminaries in the West, and now at a major research university in Scotland. Fundraising is a constant, even for the richest of schools (check out Harvard's constant fundraising campaigns!). Most of us have received the alumni appeal letters, even after we paid a lot to go to college in the first place! ESTES has no such "donor-base."
So Mission: Chad has become the most regular and significant contributor to the hardest budget line of any school for which to raise money: the intangible costs of salaries, utilities (a generator for electricity), and infra-structure (scooters, day-care, books, emergency help for students). Thank you. Please keep giving. There is no other way Chad will have the leaders it needs to face the challenges of being number 3 and 7.
London Telegraph Referenced article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatpicturegalleries/8632690/Top-20-most-expensive-cities-for-expatriates.html?image=2
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