Amy For Africa makes no decision without first committing it to prayer. For the past two years, AFA co-founder Amy Compston has been praying about adding a secondary school to give the 40 students finishing P7 the opportunity to continue their Christian education.

Those prayers were answered when the AFA Secondary Christian School miraculously opened its doors in February.

“We believe God wanted them to continue with the ministry,” Compston said. “It was urgent to keep them in the ministry.”

Once she had a clear message from God that AFA was to enlarge the ministry for these young students, things began to fall into place. They began looking for land and God revealed 10.65 acres in Mayuge, a Muslim village about an hour from the AFA Christian School.

“We started praying and in the first week, God provided $32,000 to buy the land,” Compston said. “That was the confirmation that it was God’s will for us.”

AFA closed on the land in May and in June an AFA mission team prayed over the property and spoke in front of village leaders about the organization’s dreams and goals.

“At that point the fence was going up around the property, but we had no money to build anything,” she said. But Compston understood the assignment and that God was with her in making it happen in time for the 40 students who needed a school and a place to live.

“At the beginning of August, I verbalized to the team (in Uganda) the vision that God had given me to start the school on that property. I asked them how much do we need so those 40 kids can start in February.”

They shared that construction could begin for around $10,000 a month to have enough structures built by February. She told them: “Let’s pray.”

That was in August with zero funds to build the structures, but God … “That very day, God gave us $20,500 for construction and we hadn’t told a soul what we needed. Again, confirmation of God’s will.”

The next step was for the plans to be approved by the government and often those wheels turn slowly in Uganda. But by October, the plans were given the OK and ground was broken on Oct. 16.

“People told us it was impossible to have a school like that opened in four months,” she said. “God kept reminding me He is the God of the impossible. He created the world in six days so surely, He could build a school in four months. We believed for it.”

Compston said they were hoping to have the funds come in at one time but that was not how God did it. “Every month, he gave us what we needed up until the school opened.”

There is still work to be done at the school, she reminded, but enough buildings were constructed so that classes could start in February, which they did. She said rooms still need plastered and doors and windows added.

“Two weeks before we opened God provided enough to do what we needed for the school to open,” she said. “God did what was needed. He promises to provide for our needs.”

The inspector who came to approve the school lived in the village and happened to be a Christian, Compston said. “He asked if this is going to be a Christian school? We told him yes and he said this has to be opened. He gave clearance for that Christian school to be opened in an all-Muslim village.”

The school opened on Feb. 22 with 40 children living on site, boys in one dorm and girls in another dorm. There are 25 staff members, including 10 teachers who teach no more than two subjects. Next year, AFA will add another 40 students from the AFA Christian School.

“God has provided us excellent teachers at both schools,” Compston said. “Most have 10 to 13 years of experience.”

And working for AFA has become a valued job. She said there were 600 applicants for the teaching openings at the secondary school.

It is in P7 when students begin to take national exams, and they do not advance to secondary school unless they pass the test. It was the first time AFA students took the national tests, and they had a 100 percent pass rate.

“We got a lot of naysayers saying the school focus so much on the spiritual side that they were going to suffer (on national exams). We said, ‘Let’s do it and see what the Lord does.’ God gave us 100 percent.”

The secondary teachers that were hired said they had never worked for an organization like AFA and that it was too much time with spiritual side and prayer. “We said, ‘This is the way it’s going to be. Trust us.’ We used those (P7) kids as a testimony that if you follow God what He will do.”

Compston said the AFA Secondary Christian School is a product and promise of what prayer can do. “We are excited about it. The community saw what the Lord has done, how rapidly it went up. They are wanting what we have. They are seeing the light.”

All because somebody prayed.

Mark Maynard is co-founder of the Amy For Africa mission, and also serves as its president. Reach him at (606) 571-1031 or mark@amyforafrica.com.