In our country, and in our town, it’s easy to be able to take things for granted. With our amazing, over-achieving education systems, where shiny busses deliver our kids each day to a school filled with qualified teachers who dedicate themselves to the advancement of our children, and while there, they are nourished not only mentally but physically with healthy meals with their peers—it’s simple to lose sight of the struggles that many across the globe face just to receive a basic education.
Shaun and Stephanie Rathgeber of Paducah were integral parts of our local education system. As public-school teachers for McCracken County Schools, they saw the highs and lows of our education systems and the students they produce.
And yet, something was tugging at the Rathgebers—a nagging feeling that they needed to serve God’s children in a much bigger way.
“We felt very strongly that we were called on to the mission field full time, but we didn’t have any formal seminary training. We didn’t feel equipped,” Stephanie recalls of those initial feelings.
But the Rathgebers were forgetting a major tenet taught to many Christians– God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
So, Stephanie believes that God began the process of qualifying the couple and their family to fulfill His plan.
He introduced them to the Luwizhis, a missionary family of six very similar to the Rathgebers based in Lusaka, Zambia. Even more, the Luwizhi family was working specifically with the area’s community schools.
In the Kabanana and Ng’Ombe areas of Lusaka, Zambia, dense populations of Zambians live in shanty compounds. Several grassroots community schools serve as education centers for children, but they receive no funding or support from the government. In an area where families struggle daily to meet only their basic needs, school tuition, supplies, and uniforms often fall to the bottom of the list.
So, four years ago, the Rathgeber family went to see the Lusaka community school crisis for themselves.
“As soon as we began working within the schools, we knew that God could use what we were already trained to do in order to make a difference,” Stephanie recalls.
When they returned to Paducah from Zambia, they did so with plans in mind to return–this time completely.
“We planned our move for almost three years before stepping onto the field full time,” she says.
God’s work in qualifying the Rathgebers only intensified during that period.
“During that three years, God opened our eyes and prepared our hearts in ways that I can’t even begin to explain.”
Year One
When the first year of your mission is also the first year of a major global pandemic, things can get quite frustrating for a family of six.
Stephanie admits that their biggest challenge has been homesickness, and with global travel nearly nonexistent, their family and friends can’t even bring home to Zambia for the Rathgebers.
“We have had a number of important people in our lives pass away since we moved here, and that was devastating, especially since we couldn’t just hop on a flight and quickly be with grieving friends and family,” she says.
“My children haven’t seen their grandparents or their best friends in almost a year, and while Facetime is amazing, sometimes you just need a hug.”
The family has also struggled to adjust to one significant difference in the Zambian culture.
“Life in Zambia is beautiful, but it can be frustrating at the same time,” she says.
“Everything moves slower–taking the kids out to eat takes hours, and every time we need to go to a government office, we have to schedule out an entire day.”
“It has taught us patience whether we have wanted to learn it or not, but when things get frustrating, it’s so easy to remember what it would be like if we were at home or how simple things could be.”
Everyday tasks may take longer to accomplish in Lusaka, according to Stephanie, but that hasn’t let Stephanie and Shaun slow their work.
In only their first year, they have been able to institute two libraries in community schools within Lusaka. They have helped four young men begin vocational training school through a new microloan program they are testing. They have sent three Lusaka children to boarding school and have connected more than 75 students with educational sponsors.
They have partnered with a community school in the Linda compound of Lusaka to begin infrastructure projects that will make their school safer for students.
Even though they haven’t been able to see their friends and family from Paducah, they have been receiving their support for the mission.
“With help from our friends at home, we were able to put in a new water tank at the school and begin work on a preschool room for our youngest friends at Divine Community School.”
Don’t forget, as you are reading the overwhelming list of their first-year accomplishments, that Stephanie and Shaun are still homeschooling and helping to transition their own four children to missionary life.
“In some ways, our days are just as busy as they were when we lived in Paducah, and in other ways, they are much simpler,” Stephanie says.
“Our mornings include homeschooling and our afternoons involve direct work with the ministry. Sometimes that is sorting books and labeling them for a new library, and other days that means we are at the school meeting and working with kids.”
“In the midst of all of that, our kids try new activities like classes in acro and ballet for our girls, guitar lessons for our oldest son, Emmett, and piano lessons for Norah. All of the kids have been involved in swimming and tennis this year. While we want our kids to completely embrace life in Southern Africa, we also want to give them as much ‘normal’ as possible in order to ease their transition into a new culture. Homeschool was new for us and a bit of an adjustment but letting them be involved in activities has been a great way for them to make friends.”
At night after the day’s homeschooling, ministry, and kids activities are accomplished, Stephanie does administrative work to aid in organization for the community schools, including creating files for students, connecting students with sponsors, organizing vision or hearing clinics, and creating social media pages to build an online community for the schools.
Certainly, it’s exhausting work, but Stephanie says that one major thing has made it all worth it for them.
“I think the best thing that has happened while in Zambia has been seeing our students and our own children thrive,” she says.
“We have been sponsoring two young people in Zambia for almost three years. We have walked with Bright and Mercy through some challenging things, and we always felt like it was hard to keep tabs on their progress when we were in the states. Since we arrived in Zambia, they have become a bigger part of our lives, and we have been able to partner with their families to help them get out of unstable living situations and placed in a Christian-based boarding school that has opened their minds in so many ways. The kids recently came home for their first big school break, and the difference in their eyes said it all. There was less worry and more confidence. They had so much hope! Their families seemed lighter and more joyful as well. Bright wants to be a pastor when he finishes school, and he is now preaching on Sundays to his peers. Mercy is leading the worship service. It feels as if the walls they had put up are starting to crumble, and they are learning how to dream for their futures again. We are so excited to see what God has in store for their lives.”
“We have also watched our own children grow in ways that we didn’t imagine. They are becoming more compassionate young people, and they have such a great grasp on the bigger picture of what it means to follow Jesus. They have honestly adapted to the mission field faster and better than we ever could as parents. They settled into life in Zambia so well, and we have just been in awe of how God has built a home for them here.”
Year Two
As the Rathgebers finish up the first year of their new lives, they remain focused on what will come in the future, both for them personally, for the organization they have established called For God So Loved, and for the Lusaka community schools and students that they support.
“For God So Loved is still at the beginning stages,” Stephanie says.
“We would love to see it grow both in Zambia and throughout the world. We see ourselves as the first missionaries sent out through FGSL, and we would love to help other missionaries find their footing wherever they feel that God has called them.”
They are working toward their biggest project yet for the Lusaka communities—their very first community center.
“We have a goal of raising $50,000 by July 1st in order to get the first stages of the project started before the rain season begins in November,” Stephanie says.
It may seem like a huge task for the Rathgebers, but for Stephanie, Shaun, and their kids, their mission is actually pretty simple.
“We just want to partner with hard-working people and let them know that God sees them and has a plan for their lives,” she says.
“We want to walk alongside them and give them hope.”
For God So Loved…
The people of Zambia are some of the most friendly and hospitable people that you will ever meet. We have been so blessed with how they have welcomed us into both their schools and their communities. More than anything, I admire how they take care of each other. Their community is family, and they go out of their way to ensure that the children are taken care of. All of the children we work with are considered “orphaned or vulnerable children,” and the schools we help are labeled OVC schools by the government. Time and time again, we see children who have lost their parents but are being raised by neighbors or extended family members. With an over 80% unemployment rate in Lusaka, money is scarce, and most families live on less than $2 a day, but they continue to take in the children of their communities and provide for them as best they can. –Stephanie Rathgeber
Shaun and Stephanie can send a Zambian child to school with a uniform, shoes, backpack, supplies, and school fees for around $10 a month USD.
“That is such a small amount to us but an astronomical amount to families in Zambia,” Stephanie says.
If you are interested in helping For God So Loved sponsor a child’s education, please learn more at www.ForGodSoLoved.org and follow the Rathgebers on Facebook at Forgodsoloved.org.
If you’d like to connect directly with Shaun or Stephanie regarding their mission or one of your own, please email Forgodsolovedzambia@gmail.com.
