Danny had a dream. He saw Indonesian people starting new businesses, growing food crops in sustainable ways, helping their children with their homework, taking leadership roles in their communities, providing health care for one another, and living in peace and with security. And behind the first vision, he saw it starting in a classroom of pre-schoolers, where through play the children were given kind but firm teaching on getting along with one another, respecting each other and each other's property, expanding their minds with great stories from around the world and especially from the Bible, learning numerical concepts like telling the time and counting and adding and subtracting. And along with others in the room, trained teachers and parent volunteers, Danny saw himself and Nita, his wife, moving from table to table, encouraging the children and other teachers, and by example creating in the children a passion for learning and serving.
Danny and Nita, Indonesians who work with Mustard Seed in Western Indonesia, believed they were being called to start a preschool and kindergarten for children whose parents could never afford to send them to a regular school. With the support and encouragement of godly people, Danny moved ahead training teachers and buying supplies and promoting his dream school. But the first year no one came.
Danny started doubting and thought about giving up his dream. But key people spoke into his heart and his vision and wouldn't let his dream die. The next year, Danny put out the word again that the school would open, and seven children were brought by their parents, who were flabbergasted by the teachers' love, the quality of the facilities, and eventually by the enthusiasm of their children, who were being transformed before their eyes every day. They couldn't deny that the school was making a difference.
Forty-one students showed up for the third year; Danny's dream had taken root.
Today, the initial seven have graduated and moved on to elementary grades; all of them are at the top of their classes.
Danny has learned from Abraham's story in Genesis 16 that the timing is God's. Instead of rushing ahead on his own or becoming discouraged, he waited for circumstances to align with his vision, which, he believed, was based on Jesus' and Paul's examples. With support from righteous friends and the inner conviction that life in Indonesia could be better for everyone, he stayed his course and bided his time and was answered by God's faithfulness.
You see, it was God who had given Danny the dream. It's been said God created time so that everything wouldn't happen at once. But nevertheless it often does take gobs of faith and the support of fellow believers to keep us from either running ahead or running away from our understanding of God's will. Danny and Nita and the Mustard Seed team in Indonesia-and the children and their parents-thank you as one of those faithful supporters for helping them see the vision move to a reality.
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