California kindergarten class raise $500 for AHI hospital

Spencer Dunbar, age 7, and his younger brother, Grayson, age 5, pose for a picture during their mission fair. In the background is the wooden church they covered with quarters for Béré Adventist Hospital.

Hearing the story of James and Sarah Appel and their work at the remote Béré Adventist Hospital in Béré, Tchad, Africa, was all it took to motivate the kindergarten class of Palo Cedro Seventh-day Adventist Church in Palo Cedro, California.

"I told them the story of James and Sarah in Africa, and suddenly they all wanted to help," says Donette Jones, leader of the kindergarten class.

James Appel, MD, was a recent graduate of Loma Linda University School of Medicine when he was asked to go to Tchad, Africa, and run Béré Adventist Hospital. The hospital was extremely remote and had been without a full-time physician for almost 10 years.

Once there, Dr. Appel was the only physician for a community of 140,000 people. With leaky roofs, no toilets, and electricity only for a few hours at night, things initially looked grim at the hospital.

Sarah Anderson, a registered nurse from Denmark, had arrived in Tchad a few months earlier. The two eventually married. Paul Kim, a videographer from the United States, managed to capture their story in his documentary "Unto the Ends." It was this story that captured the imagination of the children at Palo Cedro Seventh-day Adventist Church.

After hearing the story, the children started bringing in quarters each week for Béré Adventist Hospital. Class leaders soon came up with a creative way to keep the quarters and show the children what they were giving towards."We built a small church out of wood and each week as the children brought quarters to class, we glued them to the church," says Ms. Jones.

Palo Cedro Seventh-day Adventist Church hosted a mission fair, and the kindergarten class set up a display asking for quarters for their project. During a six-month period, $500 worth of quarters was collected and glued to the small wooden church that represented Béré Adventist Hospital. "The children were excited to be part of a mission project where they felt they knew the missionaries," says Ms. Jones. "We hope to find another worthy project next year, too."