During March, Lancaster Mennonite (LM) School held World Changer Week, when students of all levels participated in acts of service for the community. Serving others is one of the ways LM expresses its core values of seeking Jesus wholeheartedly and living compassionately. It seeks to teach students a Christ-centered, holistic way to serve others like Jesus did.

Among the activities was packaging school kits for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). First- and second-graders were paired up with a high school buddy in 11th grade and worked together to make the kits while third- and fifth-graders packed them individually. More than 450 school kits were assembled, and students prayed together for the children who would receive them.

Seventh- and ninth-graders went off campus to the MCC East Coast Material Resources Center in Ephrata. Students packed school kits and dignity kits, broke down books for recycling, and received tours to learn more about the work of MCC.

Each school kit includes a cloth drawstring bag sewn by volunteers in the U.S. or Canada, paper notebooks, pencils, a pencil sharpener, pens, a ruler, an eraser, and colored pencils. Recipients commonly reuse the drawstring bag as a backpack.

As students were preparing kits, LM high school teacher Sheri Wenger received a message from her friend Rebecca Burkholder, MCC U.S. director of international program, who was in Chad at the time. The purpose of Burkholder's trip was to visit MCC's projects and to support and encourage MCC's staff members and partners. During the trip, Burkholder visited schools in the North Kanem area near the Sahara Desert. She noted that one school room she visited had a blackboard and chalk, but there was a lack of other basic supplies. Without the kits from MCC, parents in Chad may not otherwise be able to purchase the items, as educational supplies are hard to find and very expensive to buy locally.

When Burkholder was in Chad, she heard that MCC's shipment of kits was on its way. It was scheduled to arrive on April 8. The shipment contained 1,000 dignity kits and 1,320 school kits, all of which were donated by volunteers.

Wenger spoke to LM students who volunteered with MCC at the Material Resources Center and relayed what Burkholder had told them her about the lives of students living in Chad and the positive impact the school kits would have on the children.

MCC is seeking volunteers to donate complete school kits or school kit contents. For a full list of MCC school kit contents, visit http://www.mcc.org/kits/school.