El Shaddai School Building, Lahore, Pakistan

UPDATE 4/17/2024: We have pledges of nearly the full amount to purchase the school! However, we still have a church willing to match additional funding for another $15,000. So, for the next few weeks any money you donate via gofundme or to the Covenant Missionary Society for Pakistand will be doubled by those matching funds. It's a great time to make a difference in the lives of these Christians in Pakistan!

Why is Covenant Missionary Society seeking to raise funds to help purchase a building for El Shaddai?

There are many reasons that CMS is seeking to assist El Shaddai with the purchase of a building. Below are some of our primary reasons.

We believe that to change families, communities, churches, and nations, the classroom must be kept foremost in our minds. The Bible commands God’s people to be continually teaching our children about Him. While listening to sermons on Sunday’s and attending Sunday school are valuable tools to accomplish this goal, it is far from the calling given to us in Scripture. CMS has been given an incredible opportunity to help the Christian community in Lahore teach their children about God and His Word. Their ability to fund the capital costs required to maintain and grow this work is limited due to the poverty that so many Christians in Pakistan face. We have been blessed with so much in the United States, and we believe God is allowing us to use the gifts He has given to us and return them to Him with our support of their efforts.

The school currently leases their building, and the lease runs out on June 30, 2024. At that time, the current owner plans to sell the building and the school faces the real possibility of losing the use of the facility. While this presents a possible problem, it also presents an opportunity. There is no room in the current building for the school to add more grades or more students. In discussing options with the school board, the landlord, and a banker in Lahore, we have discovered a building just down the street that is currently for sale that would allow the school to add grades 6-8 and expand to ~200 students. The cost for this building including some renovations is $80,000 and that is the amount we are seeking to raise.

By comparison, a facility in the United States to support a similar sized school would be exponentially more expensive, and likely in the millions of dollars. This affords a tremendous return-on-investment.

The average teacher to student ratio in public schools (the only other potential option for these families) is 50 students to 1 teacher. This ratio presents numerous challenges to effective learning.

In public schools, Christian children are often ignored, bullied, or worse. El Shaddai offers these children a place to learn and grow in a safe environment.

Students at El Shaddai are given vaccinations not easily available to these families. Polio is still an active problem in Pakistan and the students who attend the school are given Polio vaccines. This is just one of the often-unconsidered ways that the school makes a big difference in the lives of these children and their families.