Anica Pederson October 2024

Greetings from beautiful Liberia wherein I am going into my fourth month! As soon as I arrived, the RICE Teacher Training College was shepherded into my care. Having never run a fully-fledged RICE Program, there were a lot of notes to keep track of. I am so grateful for my fellow missionary, Christie, who ran the program before I got here and who was very gracious in her handover. A day at RICE usually looks like this:

7:20 a.m. Get to the RICE building in time to greet my students, some of whom walk over forty-five minutes to get here each morning.Please pray that I will lead with wisdom, patience, and zeal for the Lord.

One of our new RICE students, a graduate from the Rafiki School!

8:00 a.m. Lead Bible study. We are currently in 2 Chronicles, studying about the resplendence of the Lord and its manifestation in the temple that Solomon built. It is amazing to watch the Holy Spirit inspire great questions and discussions as we wrestle with biblical truth each morning.

9:00 a.m. Studies begin! Each of our four cohorts split into their own classrooms. We have three godly, wise lecturers, along with my assistant who is a RICE graduate himself, who assist me in explaining the courses and developing discussion time. This term, one of my courses is a look at Rafiki’s Early Childhood P.E. courses. I have discovered that galloping is not a skill taught to young children here, so my students are getting a lot of galloping practice done in our gym! Please pray for our new cohort. The workload is rigorous and requires dedication.

My hardworking assistant, Abraham

1:00 p.m. The students return back from lunch, and we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe together. One of RICE’s goals is to expose students to excellent literature, and part of that is reading books that drive great questions. Would you forgive Mr. Tumnus after he had almost betrayed you to the White Witch? Some of the students were of a forgiving bent. Others, not so much. Please pray that our students will focus on the joys of learning more than the grades they will receive.

Ready to learn

4:00 p.m. Studies are finished for the day, and the students spend thirty minutes cleaning the RICE building. Their tuition is free, so this way, they get to give back towards their learning.

5:00 p.m. On Fridays, we have a time of scholé. Scholé is a time set aside to educate yourself in a relaxed, contemplative manner. We welcome our students to stay for “tea and talking” as we have time to leisurely explore topics like “What does it mean when it says [Jesus died] for the whole world?,” “Will there be animals in Heaven?”

At the end of September, we had the National Commission for Higher Education come out and do a preliminary inspection of our program in order to approve it for a Bachelor’s Degree. There is still some work to be done, but please pray with us that we can be approved by the end of the year! We trust in the Lord’s good and perfect timing.

As always, I am so thankful for those who support me financially, and those of you who lift me up in prayer. God’s blessings richly be upon you all!

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