Graves July 2026

“Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright” (Proverbs 20:11).

Three- to five-year old neighborhood children in the Rafiki Classical Christian School Uganda Early Childhood (EC) Program join first “baby class,” then “middle class,” and finally “top class.” Now is the time of year when students from the Rafiki Teachers College are observing and practice-teaching children in the classroom. In their first year, student-teachers work in an early childhood class, the second year in a lower primary class, and the third year in upper primary (grades four through seven).

For this newsletter we asked student teachers for stories from the classroom. Read what the Lord is doing here to bless both children and novice teachers.

Gracious’ Story: “Lisping Prayers”

One remarkable thing I observed a preschool student do was leading the prayer. It all happened during the snack time when Jason, one of the stubborn students, told his fellow students to fold their hands, bow their heads, and close their eyes so that they can talk to God. What amazed me the most was that he did so without the teacher’s instruction. He only realized that they had to thank God for the snack and so he prayed. His prayer was so rich—he thanked God for the snack, and prayed that they can get energy to do what pleases God. It left me speechless that all I could say was, “Wow!” because it was my first time to see an EC1 child praying even better than some adults. What made this moment remarkable was Jason’s sense of responsibility and confidence at such a young age.

Teacher Gracious clapped out a chant with the children

Christine’s Story: “Babies Who Teach”

As I was observing baby class, I was surprised when Teacher Brenda instructed her students that they are to teach their friends colors. Each student was given an opportunity to teach his or her friends. I saw the young children acting as teachers as follows. Before teaching, the child first greeted her friend saying, “Good morning, friends. How are you today?” After the friend responded, the “teacher” put her thumbs up with a smiling face which showed the love they had to teach their friends colors and shapes. It was such an amazing thing seeing little children acting as teachers kindly addressing their students. It reminded me of when I was still in my primary school, since in later years teachers did not teach this way. These Rafiki three-year-olds were able to teach the colors correctly and learn from each other, even the ones who had challenges.

Children showed Teacher Christine what they can see with their eyes

Brenda’s Story: “Classical Composers Go to Kindergarten”

In the last two weeks that I have been observing the EC3 class, I saw something that surprised me. While they were in their music class, the whole class knew about all the composers of the Pre-classic, Classical, and Romantic eras. They were able to name them even by just looking at their images and also talk about their history. Do you know what surprised me—that during my music course in Rafiki Teachers College I struggled to learn those composers with their short histories or profiles. And what made me more surprised was how the teacher mixed the images of composers and artists, and still the children were able to tell that these are composers and those are artists. So I really enjoyed the lessons and was encouraged by how the children knew everything that was hard for me.

Teacher Gabriella presented the Bible story

Children listened to Teacher Phoebe reading aloud

The ChildCare team who serve as parents to our orphans in Uganda

Erica Robertson, Director of Africa Operations, addressing the students at morning assembly during the last Home Office visit

Caregivers Martha and Edith inspected the residence halls

Do you find these stories as lovely and remarkable as we do? Thank you for supporting this ministry and helping it grow.

Thanksgiving

• The number of new Ebola cases in Uganda is nearing zero. We are thankful that the health authorities in Uganda have so far handled the situation well. We continue to pray that the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is brought under control and that the Ugandan authorities are successful in preventing cross-border spread.
• Our accreditation application for the teachers’ institute is moving forward again.
• The financial and staffing needs of our Village have been met.

Prayer Requests

• Physical and spiritual protection for our staff and students while on campus and off.
• The salvation and faithfulness of our Rafiki children.
• Job-offers and biblical churches for our seven recent university graduates.
• Twenty new long-term missionaries to go and serve with Rafiki.

Learn more about Rafiki’s expanding opportunities.

Visit our newly designed website RafikiFoundation.org to learn how to:

• Purchase the Rafiki Bible Study for small groups for your church or neighborhood
• Serve as a missionary with Rafiki
• Sponsor a child with the Rafiki Foundation to bring God’s Word and the best education in the world to some of the neediest children in the world in Africa.

Explore the Rafiki Foundation YouTube channel.

Visit (youtube.com/@RafikiFoundation) for videos from Rafiki children, teaching at our annual Enrichment conferences, and the teaching at our African classical Christian conferences.

Listen to our podcast for current discussions on Rafiki’s work in Africa.

truenorth.fm/show/the-rafiki-foundation-podcast/

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