Honegger September 2026

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

At a Rafiki Classical Christian School, we aim to teach our students to value truth, goodness, and beauty. I would like to share about three students from the Class of 2026 who live out these virtues as they continue to grow up in Christ.

Truth

Yesunesh, this year’s salutatorian, will be remembered for more than her academic achievements. On the second day of the grade twelve national exams, the head teacher of another school called the Rafiki students into his office. He wanted to know why they were not “helping” his students on the exams by sharing answers. Yesunesh replied, “At Rafiki, we do not cheat. We obey Scripture, and sharing answers would mean disobeying God.” May we all stand for biblical truth with such boldness!

Headmaster Marty presents Yesunesh with her diploma.

Goodness

Over the past six years, God has shaped Yeabsira from a teenager wandering astray to a young man with genuine faith and a humble heart. Yeabsira’s career goal is to manage a business or nonprofit organization in a godly way. Reflecting on the various Ethiopian and missionary leaders he observed throughout his time at Rafiki, Yeabsira recently wrote, “the biggest lesson I have learned is that being a leader is hard and it is impossible to make everyone happy about your decisions in every situation, so my main goal is to do what is right and good in the sight of God whether it is pleasing to people or not.” Let’s pray that Yeabsira will continue growing as a leader who directs others to the goodness of God, and may we all live with that conviction!

With Yeabsira at graduation.

Beauty

Meklit is a diligent student and talented artist with an encouraging heart, and she loves to combine her thoughtfulness with her creativity. For every holiday, she would make handwritten cards with beautiful artwork for missionaries, administrative staff members, and her teachers. Whenever a new teacher was hired, she wrote a brief welcome note on the back of a drawing or painting. The evening before she moved out of the Village as a new graduate, she presented an encouraging goodbye note and piece of art to Rafiki mothers, missionaries, and each of the twenty-eight other residents. I am thankful for the quiet ways Meklit showed care for everyone at the Rafiki Village, and we will surely miss the beauty she brought to our eyes and hearts!

With Meklit at graduation.

Some of the artwork Meklit has blessed me with this year.

Prayer Requests

Wisdom to direct our new graduates and provision of the best tertiary education programs for them.
A good start to the new school year and all residents, Rafiki mothers, and missionaries to adjust to the routines.

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.