Learning to Beg

As the Secondary School Sponsorship Coordinator at CGA I am responsible for all of our students that graduate CGA and move on to Secondary School. Through carrying out my responsibilities I have developed some good relationships with secondary school principals and teachers as I visit our students at their various schools. The education system in Kenya is very different than America. These students are "called" to various schools throughout the country after their national exam results come out. Sometimes they get good schools that they are excited to go to. Other times they don't. This time almost all of our students were selected for schools that were not their first choice, even the students with high marks.

If a student doesn't like the school he was selected to then their parents can go out "begging" another better school to give their child a chance. There are very few "good" schools in the country and so everyone rushes to those schools after they get called to a school they don't like. So hundreds of people clamour for a chance at a good school that may only accept 10-20 additional students besides the 200 ones they have already selected to join through the computer selection process.

Since we are so deeply involved with our secondary students and because most of them are orphans, we take this responsibility upon ourselves to help them find a good school because it will greatly impact their chances of going to university and their futures.

So Pastor Amos and I hit the road this week driving all over Nyanza province to every good school we know. At each school we went to we would find long lines of parents waiting to see the principal and beg for a chance. God showed us much favor at each place because of our good relationships with the principals, deputy principals and other teachers. Most of the time we didn't have to wait in line and were able to present our request. Some granted the requests on the spot and others asked us to leave the request and check back next week. It is humbling though to be at the mercy of the principals. They can really say whatever they want. Ultimately though it is all in God's hands. He will find the right school for each student. I found myself trusting in his sovereignty more and more as the journey went on.

I was amazed to see how God cares for the orphans. He opened some amazing doors for his dearly loved ones. At the best boys school in the province there was a stack of over 400 requests from parents and all of them had higher exam scores than Joseph, but the principal accepted our request and wrote out an invitation letter immediately. At a National School (one of the best in the country), the principal said he could get fired for doing it, but felt like he should give our top orphan boy a chance to join. He said if we are that concerned about the orphans that he should support what we are doing however he can, especially since he was once an orphan.

There are still many more requests we are waiting to here back on in the next week. All of the students will reporting to their new schools on February 1st.