Xenia Christian Students' Class Project Aids Nigerian Orphanage
This past semester Xenia Christian students in Ron Surls's ninth-grade Bible class participated in a "Talents" project and raised $1, 151.09 to help some very needy children at Greater Grace Orphanage in Isanlu, Nigeria.
To practice their Bible lesson on Matthew 25 on the responsibility of investing and properly handling money, the students were given a specific amount of money based upon their first quarter Bible grade. They were assigned to model the Biblical parable and invest their allotted money. In less than two weeks, the students' investment earnings, which were all donated to the Nigerian orphanage, totaled over a thousand dollars--a little over one-third of the orphanage's operating costs for one month.
Mr. Surls said, "The students so many times just sit in the classroom and learn, so I wanted to give them this opportunity to put their knowledge into practice. It was so neat to see how excited they were to receive their money and then how amazed they were to see that their money multiplied and was so effectively used to help such a needy organization. This orphanage doesn't really have regular support, so this was a huge blessing to receive this gift from the students."
The class was, also, thrilled to help Greater Grace Orphanage because its founder is the parent of one of their classmates, Debra Obielodan. Joseph Obielodan began the orphanage in 1999 in his home country of Nigeria to rescue orphans by providing their basic spiritual and physical needs and helping them to become self-sustaining, productive adults.
"This experience met one of our main goals at Xenia Christian, which is to teach our students key lessons in Bible class that they can use in a practical way to help the community, their country, and the world," said Principal Joeseph Batchelor.
To learn more about Greater Grace Orphanage, visit www.greatergraceorphanage.org.