“…a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away...” Ecclesiastes 3:6
Yes, there is a time to seek and a time to lose for each or us personally. The Lord made it clear to me that it was time for me to “lose” being the president of the Rafiki board of directors. Therefore, at our board meeting on January 20-21, I retired from being the president to become the president emeritus. I will continue to go to the board meetings for as long as I can, but the time has come for me to step down from some of the work I do for Rafiki.
That does not mean that I do nothing! As God enables me, I remain on the board that over-sees the Rafiki Classical Academy, I will continue to write Sunday School material, and, of course, I remain the president of the Rosemary Jensen Bible Foundation.
But the time has come when I DO less and THINK more. I thank God that he put into my mind to KEEP something Rafiki started more than ten years ago. Around that time, we decided to build a RICE building in each Rafiki Village and we built the first one ten years ago. The RICE building complex consists of three buildings: the main building for classrooms/gymnasium/auditorium, a music building, and an art building. We have been using the main building for training teachers as soon as they were built, but the music and art buildings for the most part have been unused. That is because it is hard to find missionary artists and musicians to teach in them. The plan for these buildings is to teach teachers how to teach art and music to schoolchildren, because classical education is not just math and science, it is also art and music. But our vision has always been more than that. It includes using the building to teach community adults art (especially atelier art) and music (especially piano or keyboard and how to read music!).
So I am using my brain and my heart to ask God to enable Rafiki to send out short-term artists and musicians to teach in the RICE buildings that we have built. These artists and musicians would teach our RICE students, and adults in the community, short courses in art and music. God began to answer my prayer at the last Rafiki board meeting. We agreed to set up a fund in Rafiki called ARTS FOR AFRICA to help those who cannot pay for a trip to Africa for two weeks or so. The cost is around $3,000. People can give into this fund and get a tax deduction. I have had the joy of giving the first donation to this fund. And I will have the joy of helping to send my own professional artist daughter, Kathy Cook, and her Christian artist friends to fill the art building in one of the countries we serve in Africa for a few weeks.
If you are, or know of, a professional artist or professional musician who wants to serve God in this way, please ask them to write me (RMJ@rafikifoundation.org) or Karen Elliott (KarenE@rafikifoundation.org). We would be eager to tell them all about ARTS FOR AFRICA!
No matter what our age, God has things that he wants us to cast away and things he wants us to seek and keep.
God has shown me what he wants me to cast away and what he wants me to keep. What is he showing you?
Thank you for this very fascinating post, Rosemary. My first thought when I read that God wanted you to think instead of do, was to praise God that you still have a mind that can think! Not every 92 year old can still think as clearly as you do. I thank God for preserving your mind and your ability to think clearly. Obviously, He still plans to use you in that capacity. I love your ideas for Kathy to go to Africa to teach for a few weeks. I've seen her art online, and it is stellar. I know that the students with an artistic bent will be excited to learn from her.
ReplyDeleteThank you for telling us what God is doing through you and RICE.