Graduation and the coming year

It’s great to be home and back to the routine of things. However, telling you that routine is another story. Until next week, when school starts again, every day is completely different. We had a great trip to the States and God has provided more than we could have asked or imagined.

The third graduation of the Rock school was last Saturday. This year’s graduation was special because it was our first group of kids to go through the program. Since most of these kids have never been in school, we help them complete 6 grade levels in 3 years (2 grades per year). We had 4 kids graduate from 6^th grade and 23 graduate from kindergarten. The 6^th grade graduates will be going to a local public high school. If you are asking, how can these kids afford school now, if they could not before? The difference is now these kids can work to pay for their own studies. We have poured into their lives the importance of education and they have accomplished something they never thought they would be able to. Now, they have dreams and the ability go farther in life. For a child that cannot afford to go to school when they are young, they do not completely comprehend what they are missing. As they grow, they are not dreaming more and more about completing school, they are simply trying to survive. This is why our kindergarten is equally important. It sets a standard and routine for learning. The parents have committed time and learned responsibility and now these kids can continue in the public school. We are educating the parents the importance of education, so they can fight for their child’s education.

The new school year will start next Monday. We will lose one of our older students because he has caught up to his grade level and will now go to public school with other students his age. Our next update will let you know about the new students! We are looking forward to introducing English to the students 5 days a week. This will open doors for the kids to know English.

The kindergarteners singing

When I say God provided more that we could have asked or imagined, we are talking about our goals for the year. Whether you were at the beginning of our trip, or the end, you know we shared about opening a daycare in the neighborhood where we work, and are planning to start teaching trades and starting micro-loans. When we originally talked about these ideas and plans, “we thought” it would take about a year to raise the funds and get started. However, “God thought” otherwise. God has provided the funds for the construction of the daycare and to start micro-loans. We want to thank God for opening doors and providing for the families we will help! It’s still a long road ahead, but God moved us forward to the action stage quicker than we thought! Thank you to everyone who has helped us with this step.

Other encouraging news from our trip is that we will have more teams coming down this year to help reach this community and start working on developing micro-loans, constructing the daycare, training youth pastors, and outreach. We are also excited to have a few interns this year too! Please let us know if you are interested in coming down with a group or as an intern. God’s doing great things in this ministry and would love for you to come along side and help us.