Eight Years of Christian Education

I first heard of Boniface’s school within days of my 2018 arrival in Africa, when my director told me that his employee was using his vacation time to tend to projects in his community:  “He already has a church, and now he’s started a school”.  After I met Boniface the next month, it didn’t take long for him to tell me about his Children’s Smile preschool and invite me to its Children’s Day celebration.  I was delighted to play with the youngsters on that occasion and again in October, when I visited on a normal school day.  Marveling at God’s mercy lavished upon the direly impoverished community through the sacrifices Boniface was making to Biblically educate its little ones, I began donating and assisting occasionally with the preschool’s administration and accounting.

By the time Children’s Day rolled around in 2019, I didn’t have far to go to arrive at the preschool’s celebration, because I had just moved into Boniface’s home in that neighborhood to become part of his family.  Both that June holiday and November graduations became fixtures in my yearly schedule, as well as an annual visit to observe classes in session.  God sent a volunteer filmmaker to create a promotional video and moved several donors to assist the fledgling ministry, where dedicated teachers often served for months without a salary.

When Boniface and his wife were with me in the USA in 2023, we spent several days visiting several Christian schools, where he gleaned inspiration and counsel for his dream of expanding his ministry from a preschool to a Christian school that would eventually include elementary through high school.  Upon learning near the end of the following year that he would offer grades 1-3 during the 2025 academic year, I began beseeching the Lord for Godly teachers and Christ-centered curriculum.  God lost no time in bringing Zaida, who had just finished her pedigogical education, to a fervent faith in Christ, and to the school, where her remarkable spiritual growth spills over in the Biblical worldview she imparts to her students.  

Last August, the Lord took me to South Africa, where dinner guests in our hosts’ home showed my companions and me Bible-based academic curriculum developed by Generations, a ministry I’d appreciated in the USA but not followed since my move to Africa.  I was delighted to learn that its colorful, Christ-centered textbooks and workbooks were being translated into our national language, and grateful that its distributors granted me a discount on the two boxes of it that I proceeded to import, piggybacking onto our organization’s overseas book order.  The curriculum arrived in March and is already in use at the Children’s Smile school, whose enrollment mushroomed from 16 first- through third-graders in 2025 to 48 pupils in grades 1-6 this year.

Meanwhile, I tried throughout 2025 to arrange for Christian-worldview teacher training for the school’s instructors.  Though my efforts seemed unsuccessful, in God’s providence, this January, a friend suddenly informed me that an instructor was coming to town in a week’s time to offer that weeklong course.  Nine of the school’s ten teachers were able to attend, and they found the Biblical training refreshing and eye-opening.

What a joy it was for me to visit the Children’s Smile school two weeks ago!  I sat in both the first-grade classroom and the combined second- and third-grade classroom while enthusiastic teachers presented Biblical principles from the curriculum I’d provided.  Then I observed Zaida instruct her fourth-graders about the soil that God created.  During recess, a mob of preschoolers showed off their skills by writing my name in the sand and counting to twenty.  Before leaving, I met with the director and educational coach regarding strategies to continue improving the quality of the education they offer.

As I look back upon the first eight years of Boniface’s school, God’s hand of blessing and guidance is clear.  But there is still much to pray for.  The school struggles financially, since locals can afford to pay only a fraction of what the education is worth.  Biblical worldview courses for the secular-trained teachers are scarce, and importing Christ-centered curriculum is costly.  Please pray that God will continue to provide this ministry with all the resources it needs to continue serving our needy community with the light of the gospel.