Tuesday, November 3, 2009

To our extended family - our sponsors

Words cannot express the love we feel for you, our sponsors. All the kids are forever grateful for the input you have in their lives. We have so much progress going on in all their lives. All are well behaved, despite coming out of the streets, all are really hopeful of making something out of themselves. God is at work here, with all the team and students. Everyday spent here is like being in a small heaven. We thank you for your everyday prayers, you thinking of us through our times of difficulty and times of joy.

We have 21 students in literacy program, Literacy A has students with capability of both reading and writing. Literacy B are students we have just taken in, though not really new, they are the ones on the road to perfection with writing, talking and reading skill being perfected. All levels of course have shown great levels of improvement in talking English. We have made it our policy to always talk English while at the Learning Center . Have in mind that some of our students had never been in a classroom and some had started school but due to some reason did not manage to complete. God being the top of our hierarchy, we absolutely teach the His teachings and His unending love for them, despite their background.
We have 14 students who are reaching the ages of 18yrs or have reached that age. Three of these students are in job attachment (entrepreneurship) in town. Two are in Beauty and Journalism colleges. The rest of them are in skills training that we have been providing for them in MITS. All kids are promising and do really work hard in their skill areas. A class has been created for them just to be ready for the 'outside world' once they leave us. We teach them money management, goal setting, business ethics, dating, getting a job among others units. The class has been an eye opener, and all the teachers involved in these classes have certainly made sure that the skills student get the best advice on life and living with God as a helper.
We have a separate group of kids in a class we call Fast Track. They are 14 in number and we have gone ahead and registered then to take the national grade 8 exams that other formal school take in order to go to high school. We believe that exams are not the final pointer to ones' life and grading is not the answer to one being smart or not, but to give them this chance both helps the students and us in so many ways. At the end of the exams whether passed or not, they get a certificate that helps us in getting documentation and sometimes helps in securing a job for them once they reach 18yrs. So please pray for this elite group as they prepare for their exams that will starting on Nov 9th 2009. They will be the second group sitting this kind of exam.

Eastleigh Center has seven teenage girls who have babies. Two of these girls have not yet had their babies but are expectant any day from now. They come every other week to the farm to be with the rest of the student body. We are expecting a new girl to join us soon as the Eastleigh team makes the finally arrangements.

As we enter the festive season, we want it to be a relaxing time for all our students. They are all so busy working chores, studying and living teenage lives. (it can be tiring at some points), we are having some thoughts of what to do this holiday season away from classroom activities. There is a committee set up just to handle this matter. If you have any ideas just to add to something we can do and extremely mostly fun. Feel free to share it with us, any activity, game, event etc.

We want you to be so much involved in the child that you sponsor, know how they are doing, tell them about yourself. Have some sort of dialog with them. We have set up an email account just for students, so that you can use to mail back and forth with them. Especially this coming holiday season, we will create a schedule as to have them all have turns to email you. Their email is mitsstudent@gmail.com As you write please specify the names of student that you wish to address the mail to.

The team is teaching these students how to love, forgive, live with one another and enjoy the company of having a large family. We pray for you, and again thank you for constantly praying for us. Thank you also for always finding time to come and visit with us at the farm and online.

Have a Merry Christmas and may God bless us all.

2 comments:

Hawkeye fan said...

Musa, thanks for describing the education program in detail. There is sooo much happening. I am praying for all the students to pass their national exams. Regardless of the final results,they are already winners because they have come so far from the streets and now know God and have a hopeful future...Larry
ps tell Evans he has an email waiting for him!

michelle said...

This was great, Moses! I really appreciate your detail too. Thanks, Michelle