Pederson November 2021

“I will bless the LORD at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:1-3).

Happy Thanksgiving from Kenya!

Reading the Gospel of Matthew here at the Village with the Rafiki Bible Study, we get to see our Savior in action: preaching, healing, surprising, challenging, serving, preparing, warning, calling, and loving. We give thanks for the privilege of serving in His footsteps.

Rafiki Kenya administrative team

Due to government requirements we are in the process of renewing our school registration. We are thankful for our Village Administrative Assistant, Sospeter, for doing much of the groundwork. Many tasks like this one are continually undertaken by others in administrative roles. We are thankful for our strong administrative team including school assistants, head teachers, orphan care, and business.

Rafiki Christian Classical School

Despite the chaos of the last 1½ years, we are grateful that the Rafiki residents and day students continued learning despite school being officially closed for most of 2020. They are back on track now and bit by bit we are resuming “normal” activities including scouts. We hope to have an end of year recitation in December.

Rafiki Institute of Classical Education

We are thankful for our partnership with the Presbyterian University of East Africa (PUEA). They recently approved both our two-year diplomas in Early Childhood and Primary Education courses.

David with PUEA Vice Chancellor Dr. Gatara

PUEA has a student-led Bible study with 50-plus students. David met with the group recently and walked them through the first introduction lesson of the Rafiki Bible Study (RBS). It states the purpose of the RBS is to help one “Think right thoughts about God” (Psalm 34:1-3 paraphrased). Most of them admitted to never being in a study that involves daily personal study. Pray the Executive committee will agree to pilot the study of Genesis and it will bear much fruit.

Maybe you would like to start a Bible study using the RBS materials. Or teach Sunday school in your church with the RBS Sunday school material. It’s now available in the U.S.A. too! You can visit https://www.rafikibiblestudy.org for more information.

We are currently working with six schools using the Rafiki preschool and Early Childhood curriculum. Two of them are looking for new buildings because of increasing enrollments as they need more space! Our teachers help with training and support for teachers who like our material but find it challenging to implement. Praise God for this progress!

We anticipate more new schools to start in 2022 and they will need classically trained teachers. Please ask God to bring thirty-six diligent students to register for the January RICE intake.

There are over thirty homeschool families using the Rafiki school curriculum. Soon to join them are Charles and his wife who are farmers in a city 100km north of Nairobi. They have five-year-old twin boys. Charles came to inspect our materials and left a deposit. He promises to pay in full as the Lord provides.

We thank God for the growing interest in the school curriculum and the increased capacity at the Home Office to ship more containers to Africa.

Four years ago, we sent our first high school graduates off to college. The first group is now finishing various programs. Josiah finished his degree in Computer Science at Daystar University with a focus on Cybersecurity. He loves what he does and has represented his school in competitions.

Lorine found a passion for organic farming and is finishing her diploma. For her internship, she developed a farm for a small hospital to use the produce for good food for the patients. She also worked with about fifty pigs and other animals. She has the opportunity to continue managing this farm and wants to save money toward a degree and buying her own land. She frequently thanks God for how far she has come. Hillary is finishing a vocational program in plumbing and is eager to get into a work environment. This is just a sampling of their programs. We pray that they will be eager to serve the Lord wherever He leads.

Rafiki is expanding its sponsorship program. Beneficiaries now include needy day students. Please check out the following link to find out how you can sponsor a day student, https://rafikifoundation.org/child-pages/child-summary and choose day student from the orphan/day student drop down menu. Kenya will soon add thirteen more names to the list!

Rafiki is partnering with Ligonier Ministries to ship 100,000 ESV study Bibles to Africa. Listen to this interview with Rafiki Founder Rosemary Jensen for more information. Copy and paste this into your browser to access the recording, https://renewingyourmind.org/2021/11/01/study-bibles-for-africa?mkt_=MTg5LUpMQS0yMTYAAAGAeiogrOfSjpX8ymlY0jDntubyVqU4I5P3TmgbSmxbxYH6xXXf5DNYj4I0laTvD1AIU4zHUsLN4PpTCmEDDTCh1Se15_n1knHbtu7leUcADh0b, this is the link for Renewing Your Mind | Study Bibles for Africa | Nov 1, 2021.

It is just the two of us now. Olivia is at Seattle Pacific University studying hard, learning to live in the U.S. and rowing on the crew team! Amelie is working in Seattle in housing security, and Anica moved to Rafiki Tanzania in October. Lauren just started working for Brown & Brown Insurance and her husband, Taylor, continues at Cor Deo School in Tacoma.

Please pray for

• A full cohort of 40 students to attend RICE in January
• Many new child and day student sponsors
• All 250 Rafiki Day Students to have sponsors and be fully funded soon.
• Effective teaching of God’s Word
• God’s saving grace in the lives of all the children
• For generous giving to the Africa Expansion Campaign. Rafiki is entering a season of exponential growth. We anticipate the thousands that Rafiki is currently ministering to across our 10 countries will turn to tens of thousands. To meet these new opportunities, we are asking God for a 25% increase over Rafiki’s current annual budget which could increase Rafiki’s impact 10-fold.

Note : Rafiki is now able to accept non-cash gifts such as real estate or estate bequests. Contact Rafiki@RafikiFoundation.org for more information.

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