The Gift of Education for Only $13

School is starting all around us and everywhere we look in stores we see school supplies. If you have a Kindergartner, like I do, you might have gotten away with purchasing supplies on your own. Opting for quality over the commercialized choices. If you have a returning elementary student or high schooler, your school supply experience might have been an annual ritual that included new fun items, as well as the basic supplies. Your school supplies could have been covered in a lump fee to the school, which they used to buy standardized supplies in bulk. However your child’s supplies for school were acquired, we all knew the expense was coming and accepted it as part of the experience of education.

For some of us, the cost of school supplies was no more of a worry or thought than going out to eat on a regular basis. For others, the cost was a struggle and a sacrifice to ensure that our children had the things they needed as they began a new year of education. I speak mainly of supplies outside of clothes and shoes, but let’s consider those as well. If your child attends a school with uniforms, those school “supplies” can add up quickly. School supplies, of all varieties, can cost us anywhere from a moderate sum to a large chunk of money.

Some families are at hard places in their lives where what little money is available is spent on clothes and shoes for growing bodies, and nothing is left over for the paper, pencils, crayons and such that our school supply lists consist of. Our teachers keep a small stash of surplus supplies from year to year or purchase them from their own pockets, to ensure that all children, but these especially, have what is needed throughout the day of school. We would never expect children to be denied entrance to their assigned classrooms because they arrived without supplies in hand.

In Romania, however, that is exactly how things work. Children who do not have the needed supplies for school are not allowed to attend school. Think about that for a moment. Say, for instance, my family (or yours, to help you gain perspective) fell on hard times, and money for food was all that was available. My elementary student got to escape daily to the world of learning and friends; continuing to be an innocent child. But wait, I couldn’t afford to purchase her crayons, pencils, scissors, glue and the like. So she was denied entrance to her classroom and sent home. That whole scenario breaks my heart.

Many Romanian families struggle with poverty. That is one of the reasons Bread of Life ministers through the home for the children and the many feeding centers throughout the country. They provide clothes were needed and available, warm meals where food is scarce, and school supplies that ensure children may partake in the gift of education. Of course, lacing all these actions with the love and grace of God.

Our plea for you this month is that you consider giving to further the gift of education. Bread of Life has been blessed to partner with an office supply company in Romania that has agreed to provide a book bag, filled with the needed school supplies, for $13. $13?! Personally, I spent more than that on crayons, paper, and glue for a Kindergartner. Imagine how many children could go to school for what you spend on school supplies for one. I am not asking you to duplicate that expense in the form of giving to Bread of Life unless the Lord leads you to do just that. What I am asking is that you consider making this school year mean a little more to your little people. Let them participate in giving, as a family, towards the gift of education for another child across the ocean that desperately wants to experience the joy of learning as they do.

Pamela