Klauke Dec 2019

“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:3-4).

A big, hearty Jambo to you all! As we hinted in our last two newsletters, after twelve very precious years we have decided to leave the mission field and move back to our home in Florida. We will be leaving the Rafiki Village Kenya on January 20, Lord willing.

Education news

In November, Rafiki co-hosted the first ever African classical Christian education (CCE) conference here in Nairobi. For two days, five very prominent and distinguished leaders in the CCE movement, Dr. Brian Williams, Ravi Jain, Dr. Christopher Perrin, Robyn Burlew, and Dr. David Diener, spoke to around 350 teachers, church leaders, and government officials from around the African continent on the great benefits of adopting a classical Christian approach to education. They explained how focusing on literature which has been time-tested as being true, good, and beautiful can enrich and even transform the lives of students by directing them to the Creator of all that is truly good and truly beautiful. And that is, of course, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. At the end of the first day Pastor Bedan Kamau from the African Inland Church came up to me and said, “I know what you are trying to do here. You are trying to wake a sleeping giant which is Africa.” I smiled and told Pastor Kamau that he had gotten it exactly right!

For years we have been asking the Kenyan government to approve our curricula for use in our church partner schools. It looks like the government officials are on the verge of doing just that! Please pray that they do, and that this great education can reach many more young people in Kenya!

Eleven of our resident students have just graduated from our secondary school, and one resident student from a technical training school in Nairobi. Please pray that they can either continue their education or find good employment. As it is for graduates in any country, it’s a tough world out there.

Our new graduates!

Experiences

As we look back on all of our varied and rich experiences over the past twelve years, God has put gratitude in our hearts for these experiences: the beautiful nature and skies in Africa, the unexplainable friendliness and innocence of the mostly poor-in-material-things but rich-in-relationships African people, the challenging workload and never-completed “to-do” lists, the good feeling of “family” we get from the children, the teachers, our coworkers, and our teammates. God has been faithful!

Little ones demonstrating the food chain

Elin and teachers

Paul and teachers

And He has blessed us with all these rich and varied experiences through…YOU! Thank you so very much for your kind and generous support, prayers, and encouragement over the years! We do not take it for granted, and thank God for each and every one of you! May He bless you with a rich, holy, and peaceful Advent and Christmas season! In the words of J.G. Whittier, “Drop thy still dews of quietness ‘til all our strivings cease; take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace.”

P.S. In order to help us in our transition Rafiki will be paying us our stipend through March. If you have been supporting us financially and still wish to be a part of this great work after March, may we encourage you to transfer that support to other Rafiki missionaries or orphans. If you wish some direction on how to do this please contact either the Rafiki Home Office or us.

Our missionary team at Rafiki Village Kenya

Amboseli sunset

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