Mariellyn Hilgeman, MEd, works with kindergartens and preschools throughout Central and South America as an educational consultant serving with ACSI Latin America. She also serves as CEE’s international editor. Purchase Mariellyn's book "Now, tell it to me" at Puposeful Design Publications.
Children, bicycles, skis, and joy—they go together, but in Petrosani, Romania, the bikes and skis supply joy for many children in an unusual way. Tabita Gall, director of the Children’s Joy Kindergarten, explains, “We started The Sports Shop in 2004. We repair and sell secondhand bikes and skis bought in Switzerland, sell new parts, and also repair other bicycles that people bring. In the summer we sell bicycles, and in the winter we sell ski equipment…. Approximately 80 percent of our kindergarten program is covered by our business activities (sports store and a store selling building materials and appliances).”
When The Sport Shop began in 1993, she continues, “We used to have 50 children and to be an elite kindergarten. We still have very good conditions and services for the children, but now we focus on children ages four to seven with social problems.” These problems consist of a wide range of difficulties that prevent their acceptance into regular schools. “The kindergarten, now at 20 children, provides transportation, food, teaching, and clothing together with assistance for the whole family….
The Galls also run a Christian bookstore, an employment program, a soup kitchen, and an orphanage project.
We have a few requirements for parents wanting to enroll/keep their child in our program. We want them to be consistent in sending the child to our school. Then we want the parents to… make sure the child takes at least a once-a-week bath.” I watched her firmly tell an uncooperative mother in a tiny hut that having no running water was not a valid excuse. The mother could melt snow in a pot on the fire to bathe her child. The child was back in school the next day.
The Galls also run a Christian bookstore, an employment program, a soup kitchen, and an orphanage project. This year they are helping start a new kindergarten in a neighboring town and “pray and believe that in the next year another two Christian kindergartens will be open in [the] area. Praise the Lord!”
“Our main goals for our children are to teach them the truth of the Bible, teach them about Jesus’ love, and encourage them to accept Jesus as their Savior.” Pray for these little ones as they leave the shelter of the Children’s Joy Kindergarten; Christian elementary schools are still rare in Romania. But—you guessed it—Tabita and her husband, Cristian, are praying about and promoting the idea of a Christian school in Petrosani. May God fulfill their dream!
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Field Trip: Bicycles, Skis and Joy 9.3