Lighting a Candle

A letter from Jan Heckler serving in Madagascar

November-December 2016

Along with my parents, I sit in the bus as it crawls through the city. The cars around us are barely moving. It is so hot. The sun is almost directly overhead. I look through the window and the girl walking next to us has no shadow!

Of course where we live (Mahabo) there are almost no cars so we don’t have traffic problems there. Usually we worry about having enough rice or that the rats have gotten into something again.

I see a picture of Antananarivo’s mayor as we creep along. Tana has a woman as mayor for the first time ever. I close my eyes and smell the fumes and hear the buzzing of the motorbikes. I think about what I will become when I grow up.

Lalao Ravalomanana, mayor of Antananarivo

A mayor? What does a mayor even do?

“I may be just 10, but being a mayor must take a lot of schooling,” I think to myself. I’m going to school, an FJKM one, too, but it’s hard. The teachers just write stuff up on the board for us to copy. They hardly talk to us about it before class is over. Then, the next day, we just do the same thing again only with a new “lesson.” Plus, the teachers mostly copy stuff in French! And we’re just learning French, so we’re not even sure what the words mean. I don’t get why we do this, but the teacher just says, “Saholy! Get back to work!” if I say something.

I know people in my church who say it is important to go to school, but I don’t think many of them did. My uncle says education is a candle needing to be kept lit if we’re to realize all of God’s gifts. But staying in school for me isn’t very likely since nearly half of my 5th grade class who began with me have already quit. The kids just fall behind and don’t understand anymore. They get frustrated. Then they quit.

Writing French on the blackboard

Our language classes (French and Malagasy) and math always use stuff we were taught before. But if kids didn’t learn it last time (or last year), it gets to be too hard and then they’re confused. Everyone’s afraid of being called on ’cause the teacher yells and bangs her ruler and everyone is watching. I hate it. It’s easier to quit and do something at home that’s fun.

My older brother, Liva, fell behind in his classes, so he quit. Since leaving, he works with my dad growing rice, which we eat every day. I guess that’s what he’ll do when he grows up. Grow rice.

Until this year school wasn’t so hard—after all, you need only 50 percent to pass; sometimes only 45. I used to think about becoming a teacher or a mayor. I mean, a woman’s the mayor of Antananarivo now, so who knows? But since I’m not passing like I used to, I don’t think I’ll get through it. It doesn’t seem possible.

My teacher said she heard about a new way of teaching though called E – B – M – I. It’s a lot of things that work in teaching put together as one way. She said everybody learns real well with EBMI . At first I got excited, but then she said her turn to learn EBMI won’t come for a while because of money not being enough.

I hear this a lot. I need a new blouse, but no money. We get hungry sometimes, but no money.

Rice field

I guess I’ll quit school, too. I’ll help my dad in the fields and help Mom with cooking and cleaning and helping with baby Lala. One day I’ll get married and have lots of children like Mom and Dad! Probably I will marry one of the boys who live close by. Most of them already left school and are working in the fields, so once I quit it will be easy to meet them. That’s my plan!

I see my aunt’s stop finally coming up. As I step down, I wonder again, “What would it be like to be a mayor?”

Before the Lord radically changed my heart, I once lacked much interest in education as a strategic objective in the majority world. Because of the Lord, I’ve grown to appreciate that Saholy’s uncle makes a really good point. If Saholy and the 180,000 other children in FJKM schools are to reap the benefits of all God’s great gifts to them, a decent education is essential. And if their country is to develop to its potential, its children will need to do this without fail.

In Madagascar, three of every five children (62 percent) leave school before the end of primary school. This is the 6th highest rate in the world. The tragedy-ruined lives by school leaving can be stopped. We know what to do. We have the will.

Your prayers and financial support make our work of sharing exceptionally effective methods of teaching possible. The greater the support, we hope the faster will we get to Saholy’s school in Mahabo.

I thank you deeply for your past giving. But more is needed. By last year’s end I received just 53 percent of what it costs to keep me in Madagascar. This year I am committed to reaching 100 percent, but I need your help!

Green candle

Would you prayerfully consider an additional gift this year? Would you consider increasing it in 2017?

I thank you for whatever gift you are able to offer, and I appreciate your prayers beyond words. Thanks be to God for the privilege of serving, and many thanks to you who accompany me in helping to light many learners’ candles of learning and enlightenment, transforming the hope God has kindled today into meaningful realities tomorrow.

Jan Heckler
Callout:

Education . . .
the most important subject in which
we as a people may be engaged.
—Abraham Lincoln

Please read below for an important note from Hunter Farrell:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. (Isaiah 43:1b-2, NRSV)

Dear Friend of World Mission:

Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support of Jan Heckler this year, and any previous year. I know from my 15 years as a Presbyterian mission co-worker that your prayerful financial support has meant the world to her.

Even as I thank you, I want to let you know that this is a critical time for churches and individuals to commit themselves to support Jan. Our global church partners greatly value her service and you well know how important this ministry is in building connections between the body of Christ in the U.S. and Madagascar.

We have historically relied on endowment interest and the general offering from churches to sustain the vital work of all of our mission workers. Those sources of funding have greatly diminished, and it is only through the over-and-above gifts of individuals and congregations that we are able to keep Jan doing the life-giving work God called her to do. A year ago, in May of 2015, for the first time in recent history, we had to recall some mission workers due to a lack of funding. We communicated the challenge to you and you responded decisively and generously. Through your response, we heard the Spirit remind us, “Fear not!”.

Today, I’m asking you to consider an additional gift for this year, and to increase the gift you may consider for 2017. Sending and support costs include not only salary but also health insurance and retirement contributions, orientation, language training, housing, travel to the country of service, children’s education, emergency evacuation costs, and visa/passport costs.

My heartfelt thanks for your prayers and support of our Presbyterian mission co-workers. In the coming season, we will celebrate God’s sending of the Christ child, the source of the good news we share. May you experience anew the hope, peace, joy, and love that are ours because “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Thank you for saying “yes” to love.

With you in Christ,
Hunter Farrell
Director, World Mission, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)