2006-07-15

Position Available

I have mentioned on here many times our connection with Niger in West Africa but I haven't talked much about what we did there. I thought I would share a little of our journey towards going to Africa and its impact on our lives over the next few posts or so.
Before I do let me say that when we went to Niger, we went as completely unqualified staff. We were teachers at Sahel Academy but we pretty much learnt how to be teachers as we went. Now, to anyone who is a qualified teacher that sounds pretty bad but in many of the MK (missionary kid) schools around the world this is the case because not enough qualified teachers go.

If you are reading this and thinking, 'there is no way I could live in Africa and teach like that' then I would encourage you to keep checking back and read through our experiences in how the Lord sent us to Niger.

Like most missions SIM is desperate for teachers in their schools. These schools are filled with the children of missionaries and without them the missionaries would most likely have to return home.

At present the list for teachers needed in SIM schools (and there are hundreds of MK schools around the world, these are just the ones run or associated with SIM) is way too long for me to post here. It would take you too long to read the whole list so if you are feeling the pull or know a Christian teacher who may be interested you can read the whole list here.

I will however highlight the needs at Sahel Academy in Niger, West Africa where we went for a year in 2000-2001. Here's the list for the coming school year, starting in a month or so:

Sahel Academy, Niger
Staffing needs for 2006/2007
High School English and Social Studies
Technology teacher
Principal
Librarian
Secondary Maths/Science
Computer Instructor
Bi
ble teacher
Dorm Parent assistant
Music teacher
Teacher’s aide
Art teacher
Dean of secondary students
Elementary French teacher
Physical Education teacher
Secretary and bookkeeping

Looking at that list you have to ask yourself, 'what teachers do they actually have and how can they run the school without them?'. The answer is that anyone who is there already teaching will end up wearing many hats, qualified or not and juggling many roles and generally ending up very worn out at the end of each term.

I hope you enjoy our journey into going to Niger as it was a turning point in our long-term plans.

2 Comments:

Blogger Hannatu said...

Thanks for focusing on the needs of Sahel Academy. I'd like to point out something that may encourage people. We live in the bush and our kids are boarding students at Sahel. We are in a very vital and strategic church planting ministry and we consider all the staff at Sahel to be partners in that ministry with us. Without their help in giving our kids a quality education, we would have to leave the field. So anybody going to work at an mk school can think of themselves as church planters though their primary focus will be on working with missionaries' children.

12:50 am  
Blogger Kel said...

I laughed when I saw this photo of you two posing at the sign

my man and I did 2 years in PNG and we have a photo that is remarkably similar

perhaps that is the "missionary position" for photos ;)

11:33 am  

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