Celebrating with style!

Allow us to catch up a bit and share about a significant day this past November, a day in the lives of some students in the high school ministry that Cherie leads. But first, a little background to better understand the day…

Being south of the equator, we’re in summer, headed towards fall – and correspondingly, our schools match the seasons. At the end of 2011 students across the nation completed a school year and have begun their subsequent year in the last couple of weeks. This past year was a noteworthy year. The high school class of 2011 was called “Mandela’s kids” because its students were born in 1994, the year Nelson Mandela was elected president in South Africa’s first fully democratic election. Those students were the first to go through their entire schooling under the new government and system that entitles all students to the same opportunity for education and learning. However, that opportunity has not been the reality for the students in Impumelelo Phambili, Cherie’s high school ministry, nor for thousands of others like them.

Unfortunately, large numbers of South Africa’s students are subjected to schooling in inadequate facilities with overcrowded classrooms; under-skilled, under-paid and unmotivated teachers; and a lack of funding and resources for books and materials – in other words, they receive a very sub-standard education that is trying to play make-up from the educational wrongs of the past. Sadly, the students are the ones that suffer from this reality. In 2011, of all the high school students that wrote their exams to graduate from high school, only 70% passed, though this was cause for celebration as this was the highest ‘pass rate’ in the nine years we’ve lived in the country (at least as best as we can remember).

The South African schooling system is different in significant ways from the system we knew growing up in the US. Much could be written about those differences, but here we’ll simply highlight that 12th graders study and write national cumulative final exams, covering material they’ve learned throughout their high school years, in order to graduate. After completing their exams, students wait about one month to learn if they successfully passed their exams, and have graduated. How do they know if they have passed? They look for their results in a newspaper. On the national release date of the results, students gather at their high school with newspapers in hand and look for their student ID number in the paper to see whether or not they have passed and graduated. This is pretty much the extent of their graduation. No formal ceremony with cap and gown (or anything). No Pomp and Circumstance. (Can you read our cultural bias between the lines of this update? Shame on us…) Now, back to a special day last November.

On Saturday the 19th, Cherie’s high school ministry honored and celebrated its first five 12th grade students – young people with aspirations and dreams of graduating from high school. When the high school youth ministry began in 2008, it only included grade 8 and 9 students. Four years later, it had its first grade 12 graduates from Impumelelo Phambili (IP). On that morning, the five graduating students arrived to the year’s final gathering not knowing that a celebration ceremony awaited them. The five were escorted to a separate room and dressed in formal graduation gowns and caps (donated by friends during our US home visit last year). They then paraded in front of their peers to the traditional Pomp and Circumstance march music and were individually presented with a graduation certificate from IP. Small group leaders spoke prayers of blessing over each student’s life and for their future. Graduates then had the opportunity to share words of wisdom, encouragement and challenge to their younger peers, and in turn, their peers got to share words of thanks and affirmation to the graduates. It was an amazing, beautiful exchange of encouragement amongst the students! Cherie had tears of pride and joy for her five graduates – young people that she has known and watched grow since 2002.
The celebration ended with the graduates tossing their caps in the air and much cheering, followed by a pizza lunch and cake which said, “Congradulations Class of 2011.” What a festive way to end the ministry year and honor students that had gone the distance.

In January, Cherie phoned her five IP graduates to find out if they had passed their exams. Only one out of the five had passed all their exams. The other four students had failed a couple of their exams and therefore, did not graduate. Cherie welled up with anger as she knows those students are bright, and the reason they failed was because the education system had failed them. The students who failed were discouraged at first – but they have a second opportunity to re-write their failed exams, in March. All four have positive attitudes and are trusting they will pass on the second chance. They trust they will “achieve forward in life” (Impumelelo Phambili in Zulu)! Peter, the only student that did pass, was able to do so partly because he was sponsored by a family that paid for his high school education, sending him to a better school outside his informal settlement. Peter has been accepted to one of the major universities in Johannesburg and is starting his studies right
now. Cherie asked Peter what he plans to study…his answer? He wants to become a high school teacher! Peter, after having a positive educational experience, will now be able to pour into the lives of disadvantaged students and hopefully become part of the new generation of teachers that are desperately needed to affect change in the future. Please take a moment and thank God for Peter…

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer 29:11, NIV – the verse inscribed in the students’ IP graduation certificates)

Praise Items

• Thank you for your prayers for leaders of Cherie’s high school ministry as they have developed plans to re-format the ministry. New ideas are in place and are being implemented as we write. Pray for Charles, a local leader that has been identified and will now being equipped to provide point leadership to the ministry beginning in 2013. Pray for Philen, a key leader, as he grooms Charles for that role. Pray for Cherie as she’ll now be primarily focused on recruiting mentors for the students, and writing curriculum for the mentors to use in building into the students. Pray for all, leaders and students, as changes are implemented one step at a time.
• Thank you for praying for David’s research trip within SA, from 29 January – 8 February. God answered prayers! David (and Cherie, who went as well) had an amazingly fruitful time connecting with leaders and returned with 40 completed survey forms from key pastoral leaders. Please pray for another trip that will take place sometime during the middle two weeks of March.

Prayer Points

• Please pray for Nkele, Innocentia, Zacharia and Godfrey, the four IP students that will re-write exams in late March for the subjects they failed. Pray that they will grasp and retain whatever information is needed in order to pass their exams. And pray against the spirit of discouragement.
• Pray for David as he meets with members of the TOPIC Global Leadership Team 16-18
  February…the team faces serious decisions regarding TOPIC International’s future. More than anything, pray that each team member would hear God’s voice, in a unified way, regarding His intentions for TOPIC in the future.
• Please pray for our hosting of a short-term ministry team 3-10 March, serving at the HIV + AIDS hospice home and Cherie’s children’s/youth ministries. Pray for a unified team that serves well, and pray that we can serve and host team members in a way that blesses them.

Language Lessons

A proverb from Guinea: Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.