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If I’m honest, the main reason I attend church consistently is to serve. You won’t catch me sitting in the pews very often. Instead, you’ll find me teaching Sunday School and pouring into the next generation, downstairs.
This is my 8th year as a Sunday School teacher in Lagos, Nigeria, and the experience has opened my eyes in ways I never expected.
For example, there’s a quiet juxtaposition in my class: children who casually talk about European summer holidays and attend top Lagos schools sitting next to a nine-year-old whose family lives in an uncompleted building nearby. A life shaped by entirely different circumstances.
Week after week, this nine-year-old struggled to read her Bible aloud or articulate herself in lessons, not due to lack of intelligence, but because she had clearly been failed by every system meant to support her.
One day, I walked her home after church to understand more. That’s when I discovered her family living in the unfinished building, essentially homeless.
She walks over 40 minutes to school every morning with her four-year-old brother, who also struggles to read. The inequality is so stark it feels almost surreal.
Yet I hold nothing against her parents. In fact, I admire them deeply for faithfully bringing their children to a “Big Man’s Church,” pushing them to learn and interact with peers from privileged backgrounds.
Sunday School is one of the few places in Lagos where genuine cross-class interaction takes place, which is why I strongly encourage my peers to bring their children. Many kids who have passed through my class - friends’ and cousins’ children - have grown into humble, empathetic young people because of it. It’s truly beautiful to see.
All this combined inspiring me to start the Saturday Reading Circle at my church - a small effort to help underprivileged children with reading, confidence, and articulation, so they can begin closing the gap with their more privileged peers. We gather, read, engage, and tackle phonics and comprehension exercises. ✍️
If you have old storybooks, literary classics, or reading/comprehension textbooks in good condition, please consider donating them. Kindly DM me. 💛
“Readers are Leaders”
English
