Pakistan - Sargodha

Today was the main event of the trip - the dedication of the classroom that Minnesota Valleys Presbytery contributed to build, as well as two other classrooms in the girls school, and the groundbreaking for the new boys school.  We received the full red carpet treatment - our seven trip members, members of the PEB Board, some members of the local parliment, and the principles of all the other PEB schools in Pakistan.  I got a kick out of the kids who were wearing spiderman masks as they threw rose petals at us.  I think they were supposed to throw them at our feet to walk on, but they had more fun throwing them at our faces :)

The school currently has just under 800 students, girls and boys, some in English medium, some in Urdu medium.  The new boys school, when all three phases are complete, will have over 2000 boys.  This area is desperately in need of a boys school.  It is expected that once the boys school is filled (there is already a waiting list), it will provide income for scholarships for needy Christian students.  There was a lot of excitement at the school, and after the program, several parents came up to me and were sharing their thanks for the boys school.  The parents in the area have been asking for one for a while, especially since the government requires girls and boys after grade 5 to be in separate schools, and some of there kids were already older than that.  If there was no school built for the boys, the boys currently in the school would lose the quality education they were getting at the PEB school.  So the need was great and immediate.  The first phase of the school should be finished in about a year.  The other two phases will be completed as funding comes in.

We did have a bit of a bump on the way home - most of our people were in a bus, a few of us were in a van and we had to pull over on the motorway because it was overheating.  After numerous phone calls, we reunited with the bus and another car, and transfered over, and were on our way again, leaving a few faithful PEB staff people to deal with the broken down van.

This was a great end to the trip - and it really highlighted what PEB is about - giving hope to children, and building hope for the future of Pakistan, by educating children and teaching them the values that will help them be good students, good citizens, and good people.  I have been so impressed to see during these two weeks the work the Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan is doing here, and the lives that they are already changing.  If we want peace in the world, it will begin with educating our children, no matter who they are, or where they are.

Tomorrow we worship in the morning and spend a little time at the PEB office in the afternoon.  Then we will take the entire PEB staff out to dinner, then off to the aiport for our long flight home.  It has been a good visit!  If anyone ever wants to see first hand what PEB is doing here, I would recommend you come and visit.  You will be amazed at what they are doing, with so little!

Signing off...

Sue Coller
~Rooted in God
~Open to Grace
~Filled with Joy!