All Nations Academy Celebrates 17 Years of Education; All Nations Church Celebrates E. Africa Water Projects
In June, Bishop Drew visited All Nations Church as well as the graduation ceremony for students of All Nations Christian Academy, both led by the Rev. Geoff and Blanca Little in New Haven, CT.
Rev. Geoff reflected on the school celebrating 17 years, saying,
Blanca and I, and the leadership of All Nations Church, are grateful for our Lord's strength and provision to have been able to complete our seventeenth year of All Nations Christian Academy (a K-4 Christian elementary school) in New Haven, Connecticut. There were difficult times when it looked like we would have to close the school, especially when we left the Episcopal Church to join ADNE in 2010, and when Covid shut our doors in the spring of 2020. But God has sustained the ministry, and we find ourselves stronger now than ever to move forward in the coming years. We are grateful for the support of Bishop Andrew who has attended most of our graduation events since he started with the diocese, and for the prayers and financial assistance from churches and individuals in the diocese.
Bishop Drew reflected on his visit, saying,
“Geoff and Blanca’s ministry is stunning. To understand their calling is to recognize that the church is both the school (All Nations Christian Academy) and the All Nations church community. The Academy is thriving. At the graduation I met parents and students whose lives and futures have been transformed by Jesus. Many of the parents have had all their children pass through The Academy. The school has been a community of God’s love, faith and learning that has deeply impacted them as an entire family. The students are full of joy and faith - their singing and worship was a beautiful testimony to the life of Jesus within them. The All Nations church community is another deep well that has been set into this urban community. The liturgy and worship seamlessly passes between Spanish and English - so fluently that you forget which language you are speaking. At one point I heard a passionate extemporaneous prayer in Spanish rising up behind me. My Spanish is almost non existent but I found, to my amazement, that I understood every word!”
“I arrived at All Nations pretty much straight from Missional Planning where I had spoken on the theme of evangelism. I had been struck with Jesus’ encouragement to search for “the one” (Luke 15). That each day we might ask the Lord, “Today Lord, show me the one.” After the graduation I got into conversation with a parent. He told me he worked for a large employer locally. I asked him how that was going. He said that his work often gave him the opportunity to share Jesus. I asked him how he went about that. He told me, “I ask the Lord each day to show me the one.”
At around 7:00 a.m. on the Sunday that Bishop Drew visited All Nations, he received a message from Audrey Patra in Uganda. The next phase of the water harvesting project had been completed in the community in Muhabura Diocese, West Uganda! This new phase was made possible by All Nations Church whose financial support provided fresh water to the local elementary school and church in this region. Bishop Drew said, “The timing could not have been more perfect! It was such a joy to share this news and the photos of the irrigation scheme with the All Nations Congregation on Sunday morning. Seriously, that photo of the sink basin and faucet is a miracle. There was no running water in this community. Not a drop. It all had to be brought in by road and this is a very remote and poor region.”
All Nations hopes to establish a partnership with the Ugandan school moving forward. Rev. Geoff will be part of the team traveling to Uganda and visiting this community in August of this year.