ConneXions School Transforms Their Community
Our leaders in East Asia are “proclaiming God's favor” in their communities.
Recently, a church network in a country in Asia initiated a ConneXions school in a small mountain village as part of a church-planting effort. During the first year of the school, many things happened in the village that were transformational events in the lives of both individuals and the community around them. These wonderful stories clearly witness to the powerful demonstration of God’s favor in the lives and ministries of the local church, the community, the students, and the school leaders. Our staff described this transformation as “the bright beaming of the morning star, proclaiming God’s favor and the dawn of a brighter day.”
THE BLESSING OF THE GENEROUS NEIGHBOR
The ConneXions school was located in a believer’s house in the village. The owner’s family had moved away, and was happy to allow the school to use the property at no cost. However, the water and power supply had been turned off before the school moved there. A Christian family who lived next door very generously allowed the school to use their water and power. The school leader, Sister X, tried many times to pay them, but they would always say, “How dare we charge God’s people? He gives us many more blessings than what we give you.”
God honored both the school and the generous neighbor. Many wonderful things began happening in these two houses as they reached out to help each other:
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- The neighbor family experienced the most stable power supply in the village.
- The village was blessed with the largest mushroom harvest in that village during mushroom collecting season.
- One of the family’s sows had 13 babies (this had never happened before in that village). People were astonished and envied them greatly, recognizing it as a sign of God’s blessing.
- The family’s three-year- old son has epilepsy and usually experienced seizures about twice a week. The ConneXions school teacher and students prayed for him. In the eight months following, he had only a single episode!
- This same little boy once had a bad fever. When Sister X laid her hand on his forehead and prayed for him, she could feel the temperature going down as she prayed.
- The wife had an egg-sized lump growing in her right jaw. It was becoming worse and worse, to the extent that she couldn’t drink, swallow or even speak. Sister X prayed for her. She laid her hand on the lump, and amazingly, felt the lump shrinking right then. At the end of her prayer, the size of the lump was considerably reduced, and the next day, the lady came to the school with a big smile – her lump had completely disappeared!
Such stories travel quickly and widely. The villagers recognized God’s favor over the school, and, as a result, many of them wanted to bless the school in some way. One day, the local church leader told the school not to pay for vegetables from the villagers. He had asked the villagers to take turns supplying vegetables at no cost to the school.
THE MOTOR DRIVER
A leader from the network visited the students at the beginning of the new school year and ministered powerfully during a meeting. A local man, a “motor driver,” was the first to be filled by the Holy Spirit in that meeting. This experience of the Holy Spirit finally freed him from a life of bondage to smoking. Out of gratitude, he made himself and his personal vehicle available to carry people and materials for the school. This was a great blessing, since the school was quite a distance from the main road.
The local people love pork. However, they don’t rear their pigs in pens, but take them to the forests, leave them there, and return to check on them from time to time. These pigs live on wild fruits, mushrooms, and other natural foods, so they are very healthy. When the food available in the woods runs low, they bring them back to the village.
The motor driver owned a herd of more than 30 pigs. He had taken them to the mountains and left them there for over three months. One day, his wife reminded him that he should probably bring the pigs home since there wasn’t much food available at that season in the mountains. The driver said he was too tired and would go retrieve the herd the following morning. However, the next day, the man and his wife could not believe their eyes. Their pigs came back all by themselves, one after another – every one of them! They couldn’t help giving thanks to God for His incredible care for such little details in their lives.
THE ELDER FROM ANOTHER VILLAGE
One student in the ConneXions school was from a neighboring village, but one of the elders in his home church was not behind his decision to be in the school. However, after this young man left for the school, strange things began to happen in his home. Previously, the pigs in his family had never grown fat and big, but now they were growing quite large – well over 300 pounds each. Also, the family’s sheep and goats started to come home on their own at the end of the day, as if led by some unseen shepherd.
These stories soon reached the ears of the unhappy elder. He began to realize that these events were in some way related to the school. He not only stopped complaining about the young man’s decision to be in the school, but he even started sending rice to the school.
ELIJAH’S RAVEN
The students once left the school for a 20-day time of ministry practice in nearby villages. Sister X was asked to stay behind to look after the school. She spent a lot of time seeking God on her own. One day, she heard very noisy clucks in the yard. She went out and saw a hen which had laid an egg at the school. Sister X was puzzled. She asked God, “I’m not in any need. Why did you send this hen over to lay an egg here?”
The same thing happened again the next day. The sister was sensitive to the Spirit and prayed, “Lord, if you are asking some villagers to send eggs to the school, and they are not responding to your prompting, then please be patient with them. Please don’t send this poor hen to lay more eggs here.”
On the third day, the same hen came and laid another egg. Sister X kept praying.
The fourth day, one villager came with five eggs, saying that the Lord had asked her to give them to the school. Sister X received her gift with appreciation. After that, the hen didn’t show up again.
However, a few weeks later, another hen came to the school and laid an egg there. Sister X thanked God, wondering who was going to need the egg. The next day, a student caught a cold. Sister X believed she should give the egg to her. Soon she found another student not doing well either. Just as she was praying for another egg and wondering what she should do, the sound of clucks began to echo in the school yard. She went out to discover one more egg. God had provided just enough!
BLESSINGS ON THE ECONOMY OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
The village that hosts the ConneXions school had been planting and producing a certain type of bean for years. Last year, the bean sold for about 40 cents a gram. This year, even with many more people planting it, the price of the bean increased to nearly 60 cents per gram. This one product increased the villager’s income significantly.
The previous year, the production of corn for the entire village was very poor but during the year of the school, the corn harvest was amazingly abundant. The testimony of the family that hosts the ConneXions school is even more amazing. They dedicated a part of their farm to plant vegetables for the school, and even with a smaller area on which to farm, they reaped a much bigger harvest.
Last year, there was only one motorcycle in the whole village. This year, the figure has increased to seventeen. Even the local government is amazed and wonders what is going on with this village. The villagers themselves concluded that the Lord has blessed their land because of this ConneXions school!
