A few days ago, we received a very special delivery all the way from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Emily Allen, a grade 3 student from Saskatoon Christian School, sent us a copy of her handmade book, The Big Ark Alphabet Book, along with the $40 of proceeds for schools in Kenya.
Emily was inspired to write her book while helping to teach the Beginner Class at her church in Saskatoon. She read a Noah’s Ark illustrated alphabet book and thought she could make a much better one—so she did! In addition to creating and producing the book, she decided to do something very special by donating the proceeds to students in Africa. When asked about her choice, Emily said, “I chose to give money to missions because in my agenda I saw that you could help families in Africa who don’t know how to read or write by paying $20.” She wanted to help other people go to school just like she can here.
Emily learned about A Better World through her mom Maralee who was instructed by Mr. Keith Leavitt while attending Burman University. At a “camp meeting” one summer, Emily met Mr. Leavitt and learned a little bit about what he has done with A Better World. When he asked her if she would ever want to go on a mission trip, she said “no way!” because it sounds too scary—but she does want to be a teacher when she grows up. She’s most excited about finding fun ways to teach kids, and she wants to discipline and run her own classroom.
The K-Grade 1 class at her school was lucky enough to have a reading of the book by Emily, and she also gave them all copies to remember and learn their ABC’s. Emily plans to write another book called The Bible Mice. We can’t wait to read it!
