Rafiki Foundation | God's Word at Work
Lam Oct 2018
I would like to introduce to you Calvin Ebu and Sharon Alwedo. Calvin and Sharon come from Apac, Northern Uganda. Apac has a population of 530,000 with over 80 percent of the people earning their livelihood from subsistence agriculture. Their traditional cash crops are cotton and sunflower. Seventy-five percent of the work is done by women.
Sharon was blessed to start her education in 2002 in primary one. When she completed secondary school, she went on to train as a teacher for two years. She completed a Grade III certificate from a primary teachers college. In Uganda, a Grade III certificate enables the holder to teach classes from primary one to five. Sharon taught in a privately-owned school for three years. She was not satisfied with the training she had received and was constantly asking God for another way, a different way to be an excellent teacher in order to make a difference for her people and God. Her family did not have the financial resources to support her request for more teacher training.
Calvin was blessed to attend school up to GCE “A” levels in 2014. He wanted very much to continue with higher education but his pastor-father and family did not have the financial resources to support his desire. So he went on to teach without any teacher training or certificate. He taught agriculture and biology to GL 12 and GL 13 students in a private secondary school from 2015 to February 2018. He was constantly wondering how in the world he was going to get teacher training to do a better job for his students.
Calvin married Sharon on 2 February 2018. A family friend at their wedding told them about the Rafiki Institute of Classical Education (RICE) that God has planted in Ssala, Wakiso to offer teacher training from a biblical worldview. This young couple is convinced that RICE is God’s wedding gift to them! They traveled 230 kilometers to Ssala to look for Rafiki and began training on 13 April. Calvin said he realized he does not have a strong educational background even though he has had thirteen years of schooling. He has immersed himself in the daily Rafiki Bible Study (RBS) and growing in the knowledge of God. He said the RBS has clarified many aspects of his faith and journey with Jesus Christ. He was serving as a youth pastor in his father’s church and he wished he had the RBS then to enable him to minister to the youths entrusted to him. He had felt many times like the two disciples in Luke 24:32 on the road to Emmaus who had felt their hearts burn while Jesus talked to them, while Jesus opened to them the Scriptures. “Here in Rafiki, my heart burns all the time because I am hungry and thirsty for God’s Word.”
Calvin and Sharon shared that something struck them deeply in their first week of training here. They were raised in a school environment where they were punished for wrongdoing and poor academic performance—by being caned severely and subject to traumatic punishment. When they became teachers, they did the same to their students. At RICE, they were told and taught a different way—discipline the students in love, use the Scriptures to persuade and convict wrongdoing, refrain from beating the students, pray with and for them. They could not believe their ears. It took them a while to understand that it is a better way and it works!
Calvin and Sharon are hard workers. They are soaking up everything from the RICE curriculum. They are learning art and music. They have the opportunity for teaching practicum in Rafiki Schools. They believe it is their responsibility to tell others about RICE so that more people will be classically and bibically trained to teach. They see God bless them graciously. Calvin and Sharon have already been offered teaching positions at a Christian school in another district when they complete their three years of teacher training at RICE.
The latest figure for the number of primary school teachers needed in Uganda is 22,000. The minister of state for primary education laments this huge need due to inadequate funding and poorly equipped teacher training colleges. Uganda has forty-four million people of which seventy-eight percent are youths who need a strong education. Rafiki’s partner church schools have great opportunities to fill the gaps. RICE is the vehicle that God has given us at this time to help train teachers for the partner church schools.
Please pray with us in the following ways:
Sharon was blessed to start her education in 2002 in primary one. When she completed secondary school, she went on to train as a teacher for two years. She completed a Grade III certificate from a primary teachers college. In Uganda, a Grade III certificate enables the holder to teach classes from primary one to five. Sharon taught in a privately-owned school for three years. She was not satisfied with the training she had received and was constantly asking God for another way, a different way to be an excellent teacher in order to make a difference for her people and God. Her family did not have the financial resources to support her request for more teacher training.
Calvin was blessed to attend school up to GCE “A” levels in 2014. He wanted very much to continue with higher education but his pastor-father and family did not have the financial resources to support his desire. So he went on to teach without any teacher training or certificate. He taught agriculture and biology to GL 12 and GL 13 students in a private secondary school from 2015 to February 2018. He was constantly wondering how in the world he was going to get teacher training to do a better job for his students.
Calvin married Sharon on 2 February 2018. A family friend at their wedding told them about the Rafiki Institute of Classical Education (RICE) that God has planted in Ssala, Wakiso to offer teacher training from a biblical worldview. This young couple is convinced that RICE is God’s wedding gift to them! They traveled 230 kilometers to Ssala to look for Rafiki and began training on 13 April. Calvin said he realized he does not have a strong educational background even though he has had thirteen years of schooling. He has immersed himself in the daily Rafiki Bible Study (RBS) and growing in the knowledge of God. He said the RBS has clarified many aspects of his faith and journey with Jesus Christ. He was serving as a youth pastor in his father’s church and he wished he had the RBS then to enable him to minister to the youths entrusted to him. He had felt many times like the two disciples in Luke 24:32 on the road to Emmaus who had felt their hearts burn while Jesus talked to them, while Jesus opened to them the Scriptures. “Here in Rafiki, my heart burns all the time because I am hungry and thirsty for God’s Word.”
Calvin and Sharon shared that something struck them deeply in their first week of training here. They were raised in a school environment where they were punished for wrongdoing and poor academic performance—by being caned severely and subject to traumatic punishment. When they became teachers, they did the same to their students. At RICE, they were told and taught a different way—discipline the students in love, use the Scriptures to persuade and convict wrongdoing, refrain from beating the students, pray with and for them. They could not believe their ears. It took them a while to understand that it is a better way and it works!
Calvin and Sharon are hard workers. They are soaking up everything from the RICE curriculum. They are learning art and music. They have the opportunity for teaching practicum in Rafiki Schools. They believe it is their responsibility to tell others about RICE so that more people will be classically and bibically trained to teach. They see God bless them graciously. Calvin and Sharon have already been offered teaching positions at a Christian school in another district when they complete their three years of teacher training at RICE.
The latest figure for the number of primary school teachers needed in Uganda is 22,000. The minister of state for primary education laments this huge need due to inadequate funding and poorly equipped teacher training colleges. Uganda has forty-four million people of which seventy-eight percent are youths who need a strong education. Rafiki’s partner church schools have great opportunities to fill the gaps. RICE is the vehicle that God has given us at this time to help train teachers for the partner church schools.
Please pray with us in the following ways:
- Accreditation of the RICE Program by the National Council for Higher Education before the end of 2018.
- More Ugandans to enroll in RICE—we have the capacity for 108 students.
- Rafiki partner church denominations to catch the vision and pro-actively lead the way for change to a Christian classical curriculum for church schools.
- Acting RICE Dean Patti Lafage to remain strong and healthy in her job as we wait for David and Lynn Kumpe to arrive by January 2019 to serve in RICE.
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