Pederson February 2024

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season” (Psalm 1:3).

Happy New Year to you all!

As many of you are aware, Rafiki has focused on five programs for many years. Orphan Care, Education, Widows, Teacher Training, and with the foundation of Bible study as the first. For many years now, we have been using the Rafiki Bible Study (RBS), written by solid theologians and then adapted for six different age levels. It covers every book of the Bible through a comprehensive daily study. God has led Rafiki to start a sixth program called Outreach. The Outreach Program is enabling Rafiki to share both the school curriculum and the RBS on a much broader scale. Here is a peek into what is happening in all of our programs.

Orphan Care

From the day of having 100 children in the care of Rafiki Kenya, we now have twenty-four residents. We are still “caring” for the ones who are no longer here through financial assistance for colleges, temporary work at the Rafiki Village as teacher’s assistants and working on the grounds while they look for long-term employment, encouragement, and always prayer. The ones who live here are enjoying their education and some fun as well. The boys residence hall made a special lunch of chicken and chips in our outdoor cooking area. Their caregivers are working hard to instill in them the habit of daily Bible study and prayer and continue to pour into their lives through daily family devotions and caring relationships. Teacher Onesmus, the father in the boys residence hall, recently shared how he has become aware of how important the relationship between men and boys is, even as he has his own three year old son.

Education

We now have over 400 students at the school from preschool through grade 12. The Lord has provided new teachers where there were gaps and the teachers continue to grow in their teaching craft. They see it as a privilege to teach the Bible daily in a most excellent way and to infuse all of their subjects with a Christian worldview. The school hosted a parent tea for each level; a bit of an open house. Parents are always happy to learn more about classical Christian education and to hear how Rafiki is striving to lead their children into lifelong learning (and prepare them for the inevitable national exams). In this first grade math lesson (see photo below), the children were being encouraged to not just blindly accept something as fact, but to test and see that it was true.

Widows

The widows’ groups had large orders in 2023 in anticipation of sending a whole container of products from Kenya to the Home Office in Florida. With the help of Rafiki Uganda, we had plenty of product to send. We were especially grateful to be able to ship carved soapstone items (heavy and fragile), large decorative gourds (bulky and fragile), and baskets (bulky). The container arrived in the U.S. in January and despite the discovery of a stowaway beetle, it was released. Thank the Lord for this market for the widows to access. Visit the store online at https://Store.RafikiFoundation.org/ and see what we sent!

We will be stateside in April with daughter Anica to share more of how God is helping the people of Africa to know God. We will have widows’ products from Ghana and Kenya at the following locations:

• April 6 and 7, Evangelical Reformed Church, Tacoma
• April 14, Orcas Island Community Church, Eastsound
• April 21, Epic Life Church, North Seattle (Anica)

Send us an email at either [email protected] or [email protected] if you would like more information or would like to host a time of sharing in your home or church between April 1-20 in Washington state.

RICE (Teacher Training Program)

“Aslan is on the move!” David loves to quote from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe , which he has read aloud to new cohorts since RICE Kenya opened in 2016. We have twelve new students in our 2024 two-year diploma course who are adapting quickly to a rigorous program of study. In five weeks, we have read The Epic of Gilgamesh and are currently working our way through Beowolf, Pilgrims Progress and learning to analyze a piece of communication using Aristotle’s Rhetorical Situation. Another group of seven certified teachers have joined us for a one-year course spending mornings observing in the classroom and afternoons studying classical methods. They have accepted the challenge to read good books and meet new friends such as Peter Rabbit, Frog and Toad, Martin the Warrior, Olivia, and others.

All of us start each morning in the Rafiki Bible Study. This term we are in Book One of the Psalms. After lunch we sit for read aloud time with Mr. Pederson, Aslan, the Pevensie children, the White Witch and Mr. Tumnus! Next term we will sit with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Outreach

Why are we training classical Christian teachers?

• Schools are adopting the Rafiki school curriculum and they need well trained teachers who are articulate, read, write, and compute well and love truth, goodness, and beauty.
• Eric and Serah oversee seventeen schools with enrollments from 50-1,000 students preschool to grade eight.
• One school in Western Kenya reported growth from forty at the end of 2023 to eighty in 2024! Eric and Serah will travel to Kisumu February 28-29 to provide teacher training for existing schools, introduce Sunday school materials to pastors, and talk to potential new schools.
• Continue to pray for the church to embrace the rich resources Rafiki provides.
• Rafiki Kenya is privileged to help distribute 40,000 ESV Bibles as part of the Crossway’s 1 million Bible Initiative. We get to do this because of our relationship with our partner denominations.
• One district of seven churches decided to adopt the Rafiki Sunday School Study of Matthew and received 400 kids Bibles for the children in their Sunday school classes and sixty Concise Study Bibles for pastors and teaching elders.

Children receiving Bibles at a partner school

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya pilot school

David with head teacher

This is just the beginning!

Prayer Requests

• Wisdom in distributing Bibles
• Children to become godly contributors because of their love for Jesus
• Skill in equipping other schools to use the curriculum and that it will bear much fruit

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