Pederson Sep 2019

“And it shall be said, ‘Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.’ For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isaiah 57:14-15).

Dear friends and family,

Preparation seems to be woven into the fabric of life. Some preparation is done under pressure or over long periods of time, but much of our preparation is mundane, such as “preparing for the day” or cooking a meal. We prepare for meetings, visits, lessons to be taught, sermons to give, yard projects, travel and road trips. And of course, believers around the world are engaged in preparing for the Lord Jesus’ imminent return for His church. 

At Rafiki Village Kenya, we find ourselves preparing or helping others prepare for many things. Let us give you a brief overview. 

ChildCare
At the end of each of the three school terms, we send most of our resident children to their “up country home” to stay with family. It takes a week of phone calls to make travel arrangements, complete forms, get the children ready, and days for sending and receiving. At the same time, some of our 15 graduates need to transition from school to visit family and need to pass through the Village. Part of the preparation for this is anticipating their financial needs, setting a budget, challenging them to take on more responsibility, or even encouraging them to find some work to do in their off time. We thank God for preparing us through our own children’s transition to independence to care for our graduates. Twelve more will graduate this December!

School
Recitation comes at the end of every school term. Parents are invited (85% of ours come) to hear selected classes make short presentations of poetry, chants, singing, dialogues, and even a group of violinists. Students are always working towards mastery of information, but especially for this event. This day also recognizes student academic achievement for those who prepared well enough to attain Honor Roll (3.25 GPA) and Dean’s Roll (3.75 GPA). Parents are also treated to a time of training which the staff prepares to give them a better understanding of our teaching methods and curriculum. 

Bible Study
Rafiki recently introduced a Home Discussion Page to the Rafiki Bible Study. This is available to day student families. Over 85% of our families have requested to receive it. The page gives a summary paragraph of the week’s lesson, the hymn of the week, memory verse, catechism, and a question for daily family discussion. We are excited to see how this will help our school families prepare for daily Bible study at home. We see the fruit of this in our resident children as they have had morning and evening devotions, as well as school Bible study, during their long life at Rafiki. 

 
This parent training focused on “Developing a Reading Culture at Home”

RICE
Through our affiliation with the Presbyterian University of East Africa (PUEA) we offer a one-year Certificate and two-year Diploma course in Christian Classical Education for teachers. This required preparation and revision of many pages of technical and theoretical documents. Students in the Diploma course will graduate from PUEA and receive government teacher certification. The first will graduate in 2020.

We recently learned that all certificate level students must take the Kenya National Exam Council (KNEC) exam before they are government certified to teach. This will require students to prepare for additional courses and the cost of taking exams.

Government
Providentially, six years ago David met the current CEO of KNEC, Dr Mercy Korogo, while she was CEO of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). In that role she visited Rafiki Village twice and remains very supportive of Rafiki. She is working directly with David to help us get our RICE graduates certified. “I know the quality of Rafiki and as long as God keeps me in this position, I will do what I can to help Rafiki.” We thank God for Dr. Korogo and her love for God’s Word and work!

A second government requirement is approval of our school curriculum by KICD. This again requires preparation of explanatory documents. Hundreds of pages showing alignment between the Rafiki and Kenyan curriculum are pivotal to persuading the Ministry of Education to approve our Education system for use in thousands of our partner church schools. 

Conference
Preparations are well underway for this very important event in the work of Rafiki. We are working with our partner churches to recruit up to 500 participants. This will also include two national teachers, RICE Dean, and Headmaster from each of our ten Rafiki countries. For more information please visit the conference website at https://www.thenewoldway.org/

We are praying it will prove to be the gateway through which classical education comes formally to Africa! 

Home Office Visit 
We prepare, revise, and hopefully finalize schedules for the arrival of our seven-member team the end of this month. We always look forward to this special time with those who labor tirelessly stateside on our behalf. 

Team
We are excitedly making preparations for a new missionary to join us in October. Amber Jackson will serve as Athletic Director, just in time to make full use of our new track and soccer pitch. 

 
Soccer pitch

Prayer
– Pray for excellence in preparation and teaching for term three and in preparation for grades 8 and 12 national exams in October and November.

– God’s wisdom and eloquence as we prepare for government meetings. 

– Sept 10-11 KICD will approve our curriculum

– Sept 18 KICD will submit our curriculum to the Ministry of Education and it will be approved.

– Amber Jackson’s immigration paperwork to be approved quickly so she can come in October.

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