A local pastor recognized this need for education. He and his wife intentionally located themselves in the community, purchased land, and with the help of family, constructed a two-story house. This was the beginning of the Love Class ministry.
On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, a group of six to 10 children from the local squatter community come to the pastor's house for tutoring in subjects like math and spelling. The lessons are led by six high school students who live at the Happy Shelter, a facility for homeless boys that started 10 years ago in a neighboring community.
Last year the boys were moved to the pastor's home in order to continue their education. The Happy Shelter offers evening tutoring in Bible, math, sciences, music, and more. Several of the boys are participating in providing music for Sunday worship services.
The Happy Shelter boys have also been involved in Vacation Bible School outreaches to other communities in hard-to-reach places.
One of the boys shared the following about his experience at the shelter:
Continued prayer is requested for the Happy Shelter students and house parents.I am T., and this year I am 17 years old. Before, the situation of my family was one of great difficulty. My father went to dig a lake and my mother sold lotto tickets to feed us three kids. My father had a drinking problem and whenever he came back to us, he would get drunk and beat my mother. At that time I was able to come here [Happy Shelter] to stay and be able to go to school because I couldn't stand the beatings of my father any more ... and my mother put all three of us kids out to take care of ourselves.
At that time I didn't know a thing about God. I had never even heard of Him ... here I have been able to have teachers show me the Word of the Lord, I have heard and read the Bible and I go to church. Here, I have the teachers who also show me basic things about culture. After that, I also accepted the Lord Jesus to be my Lord of my own life, and I studied the doctrine so that I could be baptized. The church also supported me to study keyboard and guitar to help with the worship service at the church. I also participate in some church activities like the youth group, and the heavenly looking glass group, and the choir every Sunday morning.
Because I was kind of old to start school with the regular morning classes, I had to study at night school in special classes. In my studies I have been given 'good student' awards.
I sincerely thank you and ask the Lord to bless you a lot.
--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific Region