Zealous Love by Mike Yankoski

Author:Mike Yankoski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Zondervan

BRIEFING Education is not just about passing exams, getting good grades, or improving comparative national averages. It is about teaching people to think and equipping them with the tools necessary to improve the quality of life globally, nationally, regionally, and personally. Studies have shown that for every year of schooling someone has, there is a corresponding ten percent increase in that person’s wages.1 In East Africa, a person with at least some secondary schooling is significantly less likely to contract HIV than someone with no formal education.2

On the other hand, a lack of quality education keeps people entrenched in poverty. Of the more than 800 million illiterate adults in our world today, approximately 70 percent live in some of the world’s most impoverished areas — namely, sub-Saharan Africa and East and South Asia.3 If you live in America or Western Europe, you are likely to receive five or six more years of formal schooling than the typical person living in sub-Saharan Africa.4 If we want to combat poverty — if we hope to see long-term, sustainable development improving the lives of those in need — then we must note the lack of education in our world. It is undeniably linked to the dismal quality of life endured by so many others.

Danae and I had the chance to connect with some missionary friends in Uganda not long ago. Over a meal one evening, they shared how they connect evangelism and development. “One without the other doesn’t really make sense,” they explained. It’s like trying to clap with one hand.

Vocational training is part of this couple’s ministry, along with Bible training, worship services, and church planting. In other words, they are educating people — empowering them with the knowledge needed to start their own businesses and improve their quality of life. One of the vocational endeavors is a baking school, where men and women learn how to create simple, nutritious bread that can be made without relying on industrial ovens.

One day during a baking class, the flour began to run low. Instead of canceling class, the students were instructed to cut the recipe in half. Unfortunately, none of the students, despite being secondary school graduates (roughly the equivalent of a high school diploma in the U.S.) knew how. Dumbfounded, the missionaries inquired further. While everyone in the class knew that “four divided by two is two,” when it came to putting that knowledge into practice, nobody knew what to do with four cups of flour. A recent UNESCO report describes this kind of situation as a failure to “master a minimum set of cognitive skills.”5 It has everything to do with the environment in which a person is educated. Factors beyond a child’s control — such as nutrition, the teacher’s ability, and the teacher to pupil ratio — largely determine the outcome of the child’s education.

A few days later, we visited some rural schools near Lira Town in northern Uganda. These were mud or brick buildings, with anywhere from 500 to 2,000 students at each.

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