A school opens with one student and closes with three. In between these two important moments of the school year, prayers were answered again and again. The Adventist community of Molokai was not prepared for the amazing things that would happen.
After a determined and lonesome student decided to start fundraising to help her school to stay open, a community rallied to support her dream. Personal donations came from committee members of the executive committee of the Hawaii Conference and church members from the other islands — and then they started coming from the people of the Pacific Union.
Letters and donations started pouring into a small box at the Kaunakakai Post Office on the small island of Molokai. In response to the story about Kimmy Ragonton’s fund in the January 2005 Recorder, donations came from Arizona, California and Oregon. Some contained checks, some contained prayers, and all contained expressions of faith for the small mission school.
Ragonton, the student who originally initiated the fundraising project, says she felt “happy and thankful” when her teacher, Alisha Jensen, read the letters and shared the checks that arrived from people who saw her story. “God told people to donate and keep praying for us,” she explained.
A few months after the school’s pizza fundraiser, Ragonton’s family decided to start a “Cookie Corner” fundraiser, and it was a hit. Kenneth Nip, head elder at the only Adventist church on Molokai, sat outside an Adventist-owned store in town after lunch and sold the cookies to hungry shoppers. Ragonton would also sit outside after school to sell cookies, often while doing her homework.
“Every time an order was sold, people would call about the cookies,” explains Carol Kanemitsu, Ragonton’s grandmother. “They would ask us for them at the post office and everywhere we went. I never took any orders because I had faith that the cookies would sell to help keep our school open.”
This fundraiser provided more than $2,000 to help meet the school’s financial needs. When combined with the donations received from Recorder readers and friends, the school achieved its goal of $10,000 in order to keep the school open for the 2004-2005 school year. They are also confident that God will provide the means for the school to continue to grow. Already, the school has received a number of inquiries from very interested parents for next year.
In addition, the community has also shown more interest in the school. Recently, the local newspaper, The Dispatch, featured the school on its front cover. Edie Anderson, the editorial correspondent, also praised the school for its contribution to the community in an e-mail to the teacher. “We have always enjoyed visiting the school. Seeing motivated students and fine teachers doing their best in small class environments has been gratifying, as has been seeing how mixed-grade level classes work to the benefit of learners. The school's attractive and welcoming facility is a bonus. Moloka'i desperately needs alternatives so parents have choices. Finally, it has been rewarding to watch what happens to your graduates, most of whom move on to do well after they leave your school.”
Molokai church members are amazed at what God has done for their school for this year. To this small community on a largely unknown island, a popular Bible text takes on a whole new meaning: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV).
