Bronke October 2022

“And God said, ‘Well, she’s willing’ ” (Gladys Aylward, missionary to China on her call to the field).

This past term, I had the privilege of teaching grade five and grade six language arts. This was my first time teaching younger students, and it was an adjustment! Their inquisitive nature is evident in the hands that shoot up to answer questions and the many questions I receive, both on-topic and off (Why do people say, “Bless you!” when someone sneezes?), in the classroom.

In grade six, the students read about missionary to China Gladys Aylward. When we read the back of the book in class to learn about her before reading, they all giggled when we read she failed Bible school. Failed! How could God use a failure? As they read they learned that God had a plan for her to be a missionary, and she was willing to lay aside her will and follow God completely. Though she faced many trials in China, she was blessed for her obedience. By the end of the book, many of them wrote that they admired how even though she failed, she never gave up.

I pray each of these students comes to know the God who chooses unlikely people. I pray they learn to run with tenacity after the things of God.

They also had the opportunity to read and write about other famous Christians and marytrs in five-paragraph essays. They then dressed up as their subject and presented to the class. One student showed up in a wig, and I lent out my glasses. Did you know that William Tyndale’s hair looked like this? Well, it did. It’s a fact!

Please pray that the Christian heroes they learn about, the Scripture they memorize, and the hymns they sing will not be mere words on their lips.

Fun, fifth grade, and fairy tales!

We are now preparing for a new school term! God saw us through an entire school year, and we thank Him for using us—failures though we are. Please join me in thanksgiving for the following:

• Thank God for the end-of-term recitation from the ninth-and-eleventh-grade students. You should have seen their hand-crafted high priestly robes!
• Thank God that the lower school is expanding. We converted old cottages into grade one classrooms and welcomed a new grade-one teacher last term.
• We admitted around forty new early childhood students! That’s a lot of little voices singing and little minds learning.

If you would like to continue supporting me for another year, here is how you can:

• Go to www.rafikifoundation.org.
• Select “Support a Missionary” from the dropdown menu in the upper right.
• Find my photo and enter the amount that you would like to give. (You can make a one-time donation or a recurring donation.) Thank you!

To donate by check:

• Send your check to the Rafiki Home Office at PO Box 1988, Eustis, FL 32727 with my name and missionary number (#249) in the memo line.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray as all adjust to the temporary closure of our senior high school and that our eleventh-grade students can finish their secondary education well at outside schools.
• Pray for the ninth-grade students as they prepare to take their junior high exit exams. And thank God for their dedicated teachers, who are giving up part of their school break to come tutor them.
• Please pray for all those with strong wills to bend them to their Master and find the sweet blessing of following Him.

Please also pray that the Lord will provide more Rafiki Missionaries and more day student sponsors so that we can bring Bible study and classical Christian education to more needy children. Perhaps He is calling you to be the answer to one of those prayers? Visit www.RafikiFoundation.org to learn more.

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