The year 2016 has had its challenges for our partner schools in Sierra Leone and Honduras. Our little Christian school partner in Choluteca Honduras continues to struggle under an enormous accumulated debt load that makes paying salaries some months difficult. These hardy and faithful servants continue on when many of us would have quit long ago. Our school in Sierra Leone is undergoing a leadership change. After 10 years at the helm, JT Koroma the founding headmaster is going back to university to upgrade his education in the hopes that he will be more useful to the fledgling Christian school movement in that country. Any leadership change is difficult; this one even more so.
But there are many things also being made new even as you receive this at the end of 2016. Our first students who began in Class Four 10 years ago will be graduating from our high school after writing the first ever West African Senior School Certificate Exams (WASSCE). That is a major milestone for the school and we anticipate it might make nation wide news. What started out 10 years ago with 70 students is now close to 400. After several years of no teams going to Sierra Leone, especially in the wake of the Ebola Crisis, a team of 7 will be going in March. We are also sending a team of 15 to Honduras along with two of our Honduran colleagues at Surrey Christian. These trips have a lasting impact on the team and we trust also on the hosts.
We have been in the business of Global Partners in Christian Education for over ten years. There have been many times when I have felt like the resources were not going to be there to support our partner commitments. But every time again I have been proven wrong. The faithfulness of God through our supporters continues to humble me and I feel like that is a good way to make our way into 2017, by humbly asking you to continue your support.
If you would like to make a donation to Global Partners in Christian Education, (8930 – 162 Street Surrey BC V4N 3G1), before the year end, send us a cheque postmarked on or before December 31, 2016. You can also do this online by going to our GPCE Web page. You are part of making good news happen when you support these efforts.
Humbly and Gratefully
Dennis deGroot
Director Global Partners in Christian Education