Knowledge and joy through books

When Logos Hope’s crew heard that the Grace International, a primary and secondary school, has been praying for a library for many years, crewmembers took on the challenge to set one up within four days. They also donated more than 300 books from a range of educational and children’s literature, to develop the pupils' literacy.

Florence Nussbaumer (France) and shipmates built shelves out of wood to fill an empty room, assisted by a school worker. While measuring and putting the shelves together, some students stood at the door to observe what was going on. Florence says, “I hope that when they use the library, the children will enjoy it and know that we worked on it with love.”

Another team assembled bookshelves alongside two teachers. James van den Broek (United Kingdom) says, “We were able to show some of the children the tools we used, which they had never seen working before! But most importantly, the children are now able to access good literature: books for furthering their education and allowing them blissful escape into lands of many different stories, in a safe and comfortable environment for learning!”

When the room in which the library has been set up was painted and the cataloguing and labelling of the books complete, some crewmembers were invited to attend the official opening.

Delighted that the students now have a place to read and learn, Logos Hope’s partnership director Edward David (East Asia Pacific) told the gathering, “When I was a child, I walked into a library for the first time in my school and my jaw just dropped as I looked around at all those books I wanted to read. There wasn't time enough to read everything I wanted.”

Frances Win (Australia) cut the ribbon to declare the library open. She says, “My highlight was after the opening ceremony. When the guests started to leave and only a few people were left in the library, a little boy and two older kids walked past. The little boy then came in to see the books. We invited him in and when a crewmember showed him a picture story book, his face lit up and his smile was huge. The joy on his face was exactly what the project was all about.”