Submitted by Lori Ward St.Vincent, Immanuel Lutheran Church and School, Batavia, Illinois
Each year, sixth graders at Immanuel Lutheran School in Batavia walk in the shoes of Nya, an eleven year old girl from Southern Sudan who is featured in the book, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Parks. Nya walks four hours each morning and four hours each afternoon to collect and bring water for her family. The sixth graders try to see if they could carry a jerry-jug full of water just like Nya. After trying it they always agree that it is a really difficult task and that we in the United States are very blessed.
In 2015, when the sixth grade class at the school read this book, they asked if there wasn’t something they could do to help children like Nya. Since then ILS sixth graders have been holding monthly bake sales, called Sweets for Sudan, selling homemade treats to students and staff for $1 each. The proceeds from these sales are sent to Water to Thrive, an organization based in Austin, Texas, that builds sustainable wells in rural Africa.
In their first Sweets for Sudan bake sale last school year, the students made an incredible $250. Each $500 donation provides clean water for 50 people every day in a South Sudan village. From 2015 to 2017, Sweets for Sudan bake sales have earned more than $2,000, which is now helping more than 200 people in the South Sudan have fresh clean water on a daily basis.
In September, sixth grade students set the lofty goal of earning $2,000 in one school year for Water for South Sudan. Unfortunately, they struggled to meet this goal and in March reluctantly changed their 2018-2019 goal to $1,000.
Immanuel’s fourth and fifth grade Sunday School kids hold a bake sale each April on Blood Drive Sunday and donate the proceeds to ministries outside of Immanuel. Last year the profits were donated to the Lutheran Church Charities Comfort Dog Ministry.
When the Sunday School class learned that the School’s sixth graders were having trouble meeting their Sweets for Sudan goal, and after praying about their decision, they joyfully decided to donate the Sunday School Bake Sale proceeds to the Sweets for Sudan effort.
The Sunday School sale was held Apr. 28, alongside the Church’s Quarterly Blood Drive. The students earned a whopping $562.70! This, in addition to a generous anonymous donation, put the 2018-2019 Sweets for Sudan effort well past the initial goal with more than $2,400 raised during the school year.
The Sunday School class excitedly presented the novelty check they created to the sixth graders to whoops and hollers and shouts of joy.
Immanuel Lutheran Church and School’s tagline, Developing Today’s Disciples, is demonstrated in the partnership these students built to meet the basic needs of scores of people they will never meet. In addition, they have formed the special bond that comes from working together and trusting God’s grace to help us help others.
This is Our Northern Illinois District! #OurNID #FlourishNID