LAST LESSONS #238 — DECORATING

“The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” (Psalm 16:6)

If you have been to Rafiki’s Home Office, you have no doubt noticed the way everything is appropriately decorated. That is because as we were planning the buildings, I enlisted my oldest daughter, Annie, to help us. She is very artistic and at present designs houses in Saint Augustine, FL. (If you live in the Saint Augustine area, I can tell you how to get in touch with her.) As we were building the Home Office she suggested that we save money and give the buildings an African look, by making all the floors stained concrete. Her husband, who has a construction business, designed and built the gazebo that stands in the middle of the complex. Annie put up all the pictures and curtains in all the buildings. To me, the most impressive thing she did was to furnish and decorate the Exchange building. She put in my old table, put a hole in it, and put up a grass umbrella over it resembling a hut in Africa. She single-handedly installed tin wainscoting, wallpaper, and even painted signs in Swahili on the walls. It was fun watching her high up on the ladder painting the walls and the signs. It was, and is still, perfect!

Annie has a daughter named Jenna Alexander. After Jenna finished college, she spent a year in Tanzania as a Rafiki missionary. She loved it and the children adored her. While there, she began painting some of the children—just for fun. When she returned to the United States, she came to work for Rafiki at the Home Office where she helped with Rafiki’s website for two years. Then she married and moved to Saint Augustine, FL. She now has an art studio and thriving business. Check her out at www.jenna-alexander.com

The next building that Rafiki will construct on its property is the Rafiki Classical Academy. It is where children in K-8 will be educated. I hope that as Rafiki builds this Rafiki Classical Academy that Annie will help with the design of the interior and that many of Jenna’s paintings will hang on the walls. That would make “mom and grandmama” very happy. 

LAST LESSONS #237 — COUNSELING

“My son (or daughter), do not lose sight of these—keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” (Proverbs 3:21-24)

A few days ago, one of Rafiki’s church partners in Liberia asked Rafiki if there was anyone who could come to Liberia and help with children who have experienced trauma. Some of these children are day-students in our Village school. Rafiki CEO Karen Elliott called my daughter Tova Kreps to ask her if she could take a trip to Liberia to train a few lay counselors to help with the situation. Tova is planning to go as soon as she can.

Just to catch you up, Tova is founder and president of a non-profit that does professional counseling based on Biblical principles. The name of her organization is Wellspring Counseling (www.wellspringmiami.org). She has over 20 counselors who work with her, and her specialty is trauma—or helping people get over bad things that happen to them. Tova has personally visited several Rafiki Villages to offer trauma counseling and is Rafiki’s primary referral for anyone in this country needing counseling support.

As I have been reading of so many women and children in this country who are taken into sex trafficking, I am praying that God will use not only our government, but Christians to help identify and help these women and children who are caught in this terrible situation. I personally do not know of specific women or children who need help, but if you do, please notify the authorities (888-373-7888).

On the other hand, if you or someone you know has experienced abuse of some kind and needs help from a counselor, Tova and her team can direct you to find help. Tova’s email is Tova@WellspringMiami.org and her work phone is (786) 567-3084.

LAST LESSONS #236 — FAITHFULNESS

Deuteronomy 2:7 has meant a great deal to me a big part of my life. It reads: “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows you're going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”

I love this verse, not because of my faithfulness, but of God’s faithfulness to be with me in a forty years’ span. Forty years of life, forty years of marriage, forty years of teaching the Bible, and lately when Rafiki had its fortieth anniversary. In every case, God was faithful to me. He has been with me all the way.

Can you think of forty-year spans (or maybe 20-year or 10-year spans) in your life where God has been with you and shown you his faithfulness? I hope you are grateful that God was with you, even if some of those years were “wilderness.”

The fortieth-year anniversary of Rafiki speaks of God’s faithfulness, in that Rafiki “lacked nothing” in the “wilderness” times. Sometimes we lacked the land for our Villages, but then God provided land. Sometimes we lacked missionaries, but then God provided them. Sometimes we lacked buildings, but God provided each one of them. Sometimes we lacked national staff, but God provided them. Many times we lacked funds, but God always provided enough.

The amazing part is that Rafiki has never had to “raise funds.” We trusted God to provide what we needed. We prayed continuously, but we never begged people for money. We just made our needs known and God has been faithful to see that we “lacked nothing.”

As Rafiki continues in its ministry under the direction of Karen Elliott, I am convinced that God will be faithful for the next forty years. Why wouldn’t he? He always has!

LAST LESSONS #235 — ART & MUSIC

Usually, I am thrilled over all that is happening in Africa through Rafiki. Karen Elliott and her team are doing an amazing job in our Christian Classical Schools located in each of our Rafiki Villages, and also in the schools operated by our Partner Denominations. They use the curriculum that Rafiki has developed that teaches every subject from a Christian worldview as well as teaching the Rafiki Bible Study every day. I am thrilled over the schools that we have. HOWEVER, we need teachers who can teach in these Christian Classical Schools. That is why years ago we started the Rafiki Institute for Classical Education (RICE). It is a teachers’ training college taking high-school graduates and giving them three years training or taking trained teachers and giving them one year of training in how to teach classically. The program is going well EXCEPT for one part—actually, two parts. We do not have the missionaries in the RICE Program to teach art or music.

Furthermore, when we built the RICE buildings, there was a separate building for art and one for music. These buildings are built, but they are empty! They are not used because we do not have missionaries to fill them.

If you, or someone you know, is willing to go to one of our countries and teach classical music or art as a missionary or even for a year, PLEASE pray about doing this and call Rafiki (352-483-9131).

Classical education is not complete without art and music. So that is why we need to find a way to teach these subjects. If you are not qualified to go, please pray that God will show you someone who is. And help them go!

As an interim way to help with this situation, my daughter Kathy Cook (an artist who does classical realism paintings and you got her website a couple of weeks ago katherinecookart.com) is planning to go to Tanzania for a short time (a week or two) to give a workshop in art. My prayer is that others who are willing to do the same in art or music can fill this void in Rafiki’s program. 

LAST LESSONS #234 — JEWS

I’m writing this week about Jews, not because I have a Jewish son-in-law named Israel, but because the Jews are very much in the news these days and I want to recommend a book about Jews. The book is ISRAEL AND CIVILIZATION: The fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West by Josh Hamm. Josh Hamm is a Jew. He is thoroughly familiar with the Bible and quotes it (primarily the Old Testament) throughout the book. It is one of the most fascinating books that I have read in a long time.

We Christians often forget that God gave us Abraham as our father. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky and we Christians are a part of that promise. But throughout history there have been those who want to wipe out all Jews. Why has God not allowed that? And what is the future of the Jews and the land that God promised Abraham? This book helped me understand some of these things. I hope it will help you too. It is available from Amazon so I sent it to my Jewish son-in-law! Definitely worth reading.

LAST LESSONS #233 — RAFIKI JEWELRY

Have you ever bought any of Rafiki’s ceramic jewelry – either from the Exchange at the Home Office or online? A year or so ago, I wrote about the beginning of the Widows’ Program and the beginning of Rafiki’s ceramic jewelry, but this week I want to tell you how it all got started.

First, I had learned to make ceramics as a part of my training to be an occupational therapist in the Army. Years later when my three daughters needed to make a little money, I taught them how to make ceramic beads. I bought them each a small kiln and we worked out how to take a small piece of clay and roll it between our palms until it was a perfectly round bead. Then we put a hole in it to fit a rod which we got from NASA (yes, really!) because it needed to withstand temperatures of around 2,000 degrees. We then fired the beads at a lower degree producing bisque. The next step was to paint glaze on them and re-fire them at the higher temperature. It was a long process, but my daughters were pleased, able to get findings (clasps and spacers to string between the beads), and design necklaces. Their products were lovely, and we started a little business called JAKATO JEWELRY where we even sold them at SAKS!

When the bishop of the Lutheran Church in Tanzania asked Rafiki to help the poor disabled widows in his country, I suggested that we could teach the widows to make ceramic jewelry to sell in Tanzania’s game parks.

My artist daughter Kathy Cook (website https://www.katherinecookart.com) who at that time lived near me in San Antonio, Texas, agreed to teach two missionary couples (Wayne and Leslie Emery and Ed and Jerri Prenzlow) to make this ceramic jewelry. I laugh when I remember that Kathy turned her living-room into an art studio and spent weeks teaching these two couples to make beads, string them (on dental floss because it doesn’t break) and design necklaces. When the two couples arrived in Tanzania they asked (artist) Kathy to produce the designs for them. And so she did. She drew the necklace design on paper, suggested the colors, and what spacers they could use. Sometimes she suggested pendants. Then she emailed the designs to them. It worked well.

However, one of the problems they faced in Tanzania was getting the right kind of clay, glazes, and findings. But God had gone ahead of us and given us friends (Dr. Michael Wood who started the Flying Doctor Service) and his wife Susan who had lived on a farm up on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania before moving to Kenya where Susan worked with widows making ceramics. Susan helped us get the clay in Nairobi and sent it to Usa River, Tanzania, where our widows worked. She also helped me go to Nairobi to the market where I could get findings and pendants made in Ethiopia. One of the very first necklaces our widows made was one designed by Kathy and produced by our widows using the findings and a pendant from Ethiopia. See it here:

I love this piece and still wear it today. As for the widows in Tanzania, they are still making jewelry using Kathy’s designs to this day and selling it. Now Rafiki helps widows in other countries not only make jewelry but sell it for them in our Exchange. I hope you will take a look at it on Rafiki’s website.

LAST LESSONS #232 — RCA STORY

I thought you'd like this story from Kelly Fore who is the Headmaster of our Rafiki Classical Academy (located on the Rafiki property).

I walked out of Rafiki Classical Academy today to a playground bustling with activity. It’s that time of the year where the camaraderie is deep and the play is more organized and some serious fun. A basketball game to my right, a kickball game to my left, and this little one chugging along right in the middle of it all. She walked all around, tugging her train with one hand and grasping onto her Bible with the other. Have you ever seen a child with a stuffed animal they will not let go of no matter what they do? That was her with her Bible on the playground.

She greeted me at the door earlier in the day. I bent down to her level. “Good morning, Ms. Fore. I have A BIBLE in my backpack.” She took it out, and we marveled at the precious treasure together.

On Monday I stepped out onto the same playground. Just like today, basketballs and kickballs were flying. “Watch out, Ms Fore!” I made my way through flying balls, toward the picnic tables. There sat three girls huddled at a table, Bibles open. They were reading the Book of Esther. They had brought their Bibles out to recess because they wanted to read it together and discuss.

“Holy Bible, book divine; precious treasure, thou art mine.”

I love how God is developing a deep love for His Word in our students. So deep, they can’t let go of it even for the joys of recess.

Several of them recently told their teachers how grateful they are to go to a school where God’s Word is studied everyday, the first class of the day. It changes everything! And what a gift that is to witness.

“I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.” ~ Psalm 138:2