“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
You may wonder why Rafiki Villages started their own schools. There were several good reasons.
1. The local schools were very poor and overcrowded. The local government schools had as many as 100 students in a class with one teacher. They had no books—or very few books that they could share. Students often had no desks and I witnessed children sitting in the pane-less windows or having classes out under trees. There were some private schools and we tried sending our orphans there, but we soon realized that our children were not being taught well and often they were bullied or encouraged to lie or steal. They were certainly not taught Christian values.
2. There were a few Christian schools, but they were boarding and very expensive. Obviously, Rafiki wanted our orphans to be home at Rafiki plus the fact that Rafiki did not have funds for boarding schools.
What should we do? Our orphans needed to go to school and be taught from a Christian worldview. In 2002 God provided our answer through one of our missionaries, Rose Allinder. Rose was, and still is, a remarkable person. She has a doctorate in special education and curriculum development and was teaching teachers in the University of Nebraska when she felt called to the mission field. We sent her to Ghana. It was obvious that she was the person who could start a school and write the curriculum for it. Rose did a wonderful job in starting a school in Ghana, so we sent her to our Rafiki Village in Kenya to head the school there. She was willing to move again, so we sent her to Zambia where she still works as the headmistress of an excellent school.
During the time Rose was working in Africa, I received a call from Susan Gianforte who lived in Montana asking if she and her BSF teaching leader could visit me in Texas. I was intrigued to know why she would come all the way to San Antonio to talk to me. Little did I know that that visit would change the whole way we taught children in Africa. Long story short, Susan and her husband Greg, had started a classical school in Montana and she offered Rafiki the possibility of making our schools not only Christian, but “classical”. I was absolutely delighted! The Gianfortes were willing to fund the development of classical curricula that would include Bible study in every grade from pre-school through twelfth grade. We took the Gianfortes up on their offer and began by hiring a local curriculum developer who had worked in a successful Christian Classical School. Then we found teachers to begin the process of writing the material. Some of the teachers were our missionaries in Africa and some were in the United States. The process has been long and expensive, but it is now done! Rafiki has developed a “school in a box”—literally thousands of pages of classically written material all done from a Christian worldview. We believe it is the best Christian classical school curriculum available from pre-school through twelfth grade. And we give it to ten African English-speaking countries! No one else is doing this in any country in Africa. What an awesome opportunity God has given us to train up children.
I have learned that if you want to “train up a child in the way he should go” that doing so takes more than a village! It takes good curriculum, good teachers, good buildings, and lots of time and money! But it will always be worth it. Our children are our future and educating them in the classical method where every subject is taught from a Christian worldview will raise up a new generation of God-worshipers and people-lovers.
Christian classical education is what Africa needs, and I am convinced that it is what is needed in the USA today. That is why we have made Rafiki’s Christian classical curriculum available to those in the USA who want to purchase it from Rafiki. Check our website www.rafikifoundation.org.
Our children are precious, and we know that how we train them up as children will determine how they will live “when they are old”.
I for one, do not want my great-grandchildren being taught by a secular government where their minds might be wrongfully influenced. Therefore, I will do everything I can to help children in Africa and in my own country to get good Christian (and if possible) classical education. Maybe you can help do the same by:
- Funding a Rafiki schoolchild in Africa
- Sending your child to a Christian school
- Homeschooling your child
- Getting a group together to start a Christian classical school using Rafiki curriculum
- Financially supporting a Christian classical school
Thank you, Rosemary. for giving us this history of the classical schools started in Africa by and for Rafiki. We need this in the US, and I will begin to pray for it now, after reading your blog.
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