CGA's 7th Graduation

On Friday, February 15th, CGA’s 7th class of students graduated 8th grade. Over 200 students have now come through CGA’s primary school and moved on to higher levels of education. Many of these 200 students would have never reached to the end of primary school without a ministry like CGA.  When the school began back in 1997 in response to the AIDS pandemic, the goal was to provide a quality education for the AIDS orphans and other needy children in the community. For 15 years Christ’s Gift Academy has been doing exactly that, and so much more. In addition to educating these children, the school also works hard to instill the Word of God in their students along with helping to meet their basic physical needs including food, clothing, medical assistance and other essentials. We strive to help them develop Christian character so that they can take the authority of God’s Kingdom to every domain of life in Kenya. These children are the future of Kenya!

This year’s graduation saw 27 students march across the stage to receive their certificate and the school’s gift of a Bible. It was a unique class because the girls outnumbered the boys 2 to 1. After the marching, specific students were rewarded for their performance in each subject, along with the top overall, most improved and Christian Character. A complete list of the recipients in included below. After the awards presentation, parents, guardians, and special guests were given time to present speeches encouraging the students in their future. Then there was a joint prayer for the class as they set off on a new adventure.

After the ceremony, everyone was fed a nice lunch with the graduates and their parents/guardians as the honored guests being served meat, rice, fish and a bottle of soda.

The next week the students were busy reporting to various secondary schools throughout the country, happy and excited to be continuing on in their education with the support of Christ’s Gift Academy!

 

 

Awards:

Christian Character- Mary Amisi and Collince Okeyo
Top Overall- Esther Juma (2nd best girls in the district)
Top Boy- Dancan Elisha
Most Improved- Shadrack Ooro and Syprose Akoth
Social Studies/Religous- Esther Atieno and Isaiah Owino
Science- Lucy Cynthia and Fenny Adhiambo
Math- Nancy Alice Mokeira and Calvince Oduor
English- Wendy Melanie and Dennis Mboya
Kiswahili- Beatrice Atieno and James Okach

List of all the Graduates

Austin Odiwuor Otege

Beatrice Atieno Maklago

Calvince Oduor Ochich

Cecilia Anyango Ndiege

Collince Omondi Okeyo

Dancan Elisha Onyango

Dennis Mboya Osii

Emmaculate Atieno Onyango

Esther Auma Juma

Esther Juma Atieno

Faith Achieng Lumbwa

Fenny Adhiambo Otieno

Isaiah Owino Ooro

James Okach

John Okello Dache

Lorna Apiyo Wanga

Lucy Cynthia Auma

Mary Amisi Orwa

Mildred Anyango Anode

Nancy Alice Mokeira

Sarah Achieng Odhiambo

Shadrack Onyango Ooro

Syprose Akoth Oswere

Tecla Agutu Osodo

Valary Achieng Otieno

Wendy Melanie Opiyo

Winnie Adhiambo Otara

CGA Student Meets the President

Last weekend CGA student Lucy Cynthia had the opportunity to meet the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki. Lucy was one of 2,100 students from across the country that qualified for the Equity Group Foundation “Wings to Fly” scholarship program. They choose students based on their academic performance on the 8th Grade National exam and their need. Each student went through a rigorous interview process and had to meet several other requirements. The Equity group will help these students with all of the costs associated with going to secondary school including tuition, books, uniforms, and other stipends for all four years. They also do training in leadership development, career guidance, networking and mentoring to help succeed in school and beyond. Upon graduation, high performing scholars are given support for post-secondary education and are selected for internships at Equity Bank.

On Friday, February 15th, the 15 selected from Mbita were taken to Nairobi to join the other 2,100 students from different parts of the country. The president welcomed them, shook hands with each student and gave some encouraging words. The students also performed some cultural dances and songs to entertain Kenya’s top man! The Chairman of the Equity Group Foundation also promised employment to any of these students who score a B in their final year of high school. 13 former Wings to Fly scholars are currently attending Harvard University in the U.S.

Lucy is 15 years old and has attended CGA since she was in Nursery class at age 5. She is the 2nd youngest out of five children in her family. Her father died in 2001 and because her mother is in very poor health, Lucy and her younger sister have been raised by her aunt.

She is grateful for the opportunity to be selected among these individuals and to come face to face with the President of Kenya. Her section of students also voted Lucy to be their overall leader. It is nice that many people outside of CGA can also see her great potential!

Little Champs

This past weekend the Suba Lakers primary girls participated in the Homa Bay High School BUOP Open Invitational Tournament. There were secondary schools, teacher training colleges and technical training institutes from different parts of the country competing in many different sports. We were the only one with primary school girls. There were tons of boys football teams, but only 7 girls football teams. Since all of our secondary girls are away in boarding schools, we played with our primary school girls and 2 girls that have already finished secondary school. In fact most of our girls were in 6th and 7th grade and competing against high school and college students.

In the first match we eased through a 1-0 victory over Mawego Girls on a goal by Winny Akinyi. In the second match we pulled off a 2-0 victory over Ogande Girls with goals by Primerose and Winny. We emerged 1st place in our pool and proceeded directly to the finals on Sunday afternoon. We were pitted against Ogari Girls from Migori. They had also won all of their matches and were a strong team. We faced off on the main football pitch with thousands of people milling around. Our opponent might have overlooked us a little... literally. Every player on the team was at least a head taller than our younger girls. Our girls were unfazed by the size difference and took it to them from the opening kick, creating several scoring chances before the smallest player on the field gave us a lead from a stunning goal taken outside the box. When the rebound rolled out to her, Brenda June kicked it with every ounce of strength in her tiny frame and put it right above the goalkeeper's reach. And the team celebrated enthusiastically. The Lakers continued to dominate ball possession and our opponents had very few opportunities to get close to our goal. The game ended 1-0 and the Suba Lakers were able to take home the trophy!

A Different Kind of School

On January 7th the children of Kenya opened a new school year.  Christ's Gift Academy welcomed 237 students to it's primary campus this year, along with 40 in it's early childhood development center.  These students are afforded a unique educational opportunity because all that they need is provided.  At the other local schools students are sent back home to bring school fees, find shoes to wear, purchase a uniform, or search for money to purchase a desk, exams, and iron sheets for the roof.  Most of the classrooms are overcrowded and underequipped.  Desks, textbooks, pencils, charts and other learning materials are frequently lacking.  But Christ's Gift Academy puts all these things in place for the children. 

The CGA students in Grade Three were given an assignment to write a paragraph about their school.  They first noted that CGA was a Christian school, and after filling the board with many other important details, they decided CGA was a different school.  Out of that revelation a topic sentence was formed and some wonderful paragraphs followed such as this one...

Thank you for making Christ's Gift Academy a different school.  Without your support and prayers it wouldn't be possible.  We are grateful for the sponsors who sent letters, Christmas cards and gifts to their children this yera.  Fifty two students have come into the office in January to pick up something special that was sent to them. 

Continue to keep them in your prayers and stay in contact with them. 

CGA National Exam Results

 

The results for the 8th grade National Exams were released this week. The 27 students who took the exam in December at CGA did very well! This year’s class was filled with girls. There were only 9 boys in the class and 18 girls. That is very unique in itself because in the this region the number of boys in schools and taking national exams is always more than the number of girls. Around Lake Victoria in Kenya few girls are able to go very far in their education. Many times they are not able to maintain consistent attendance in school because of household duties, taking care of young children in the home and other factors. When they reach adolescence many of them drop out of school because of unwanted pregnancies and early marriages. Families around Mbita also don’t take much of an interest in educating their daughters because in this culture once a girl marries, she goes to stay with her husband’s family. The men will remain in their parents home and contribute to their family. Most people feel there is no reason to educate a girl who will end up working for her in-laws rather than a son who will support you. At CGA we try to give equal opportunity for all of our students, no matter the gender, clan, tribe or any other factor. We want all of them to succeed!

This year’s class at CGA improved the overall mean of the school by 12 points over last year’s class. Their overall mean was 306.44. The general pass mark is considered 250 and the “quality” pass mark is 300 so we far exceeded both of those. Four of the five subjects had a mean over 60 (a “quality” pass mark for an individual subject). It was only Kiswahili that was a little below with a 56. The class performed best in English, followed closely by Math and then Science and Social Studies.

The top student in the class was Esther Juma with 386 which we expect to be one of the top scores for girls in the district. She was followed by Wendy Melanie with 372 and Dancan Elisha with 371. Four others scored in the 360’s including Lucy Cynthia, Beatrice Atieno, James Okach and Nancy Alice.

Next week the students will be waiting for various secondary schools to select them and send them an invitation letter. Then in late February or early March they will be beginning the next stage of their education as they enter high schools. Most of them will be attending boarding schools and will have major adjustments to make adapting to a new way of life.

Suba Laker National Exams

We have received the results for most of our Suba Laker 8th graders who sat their National Exams in December. Just like the previous two years, our girls have done well.

In Mbita District less than half of the girls ever even finish primary school (8th grade), and of the ones that finish, very few reach the pass mark, especially at public primary schools which is where most of our girls go to school. We hope that through the club we are encouraging them, motivating them and giving them hope that they can make it with hard work. Through the years we have tutored them, helped them with revision books and exams, brought in speakers to share with them, and given them plenty of time for their studies. We were even able to help a few of them with their school fees and other small levies their school charged during their primary school education.

All but two have passed, and most of them even exceeded our expectations. Our top two girls scored 309 marks. Peninah Akoth was one of them. She did especially well in English but her Kiswahili score kept her from scoring higher. Faith Wambi was the other one. She scored over 60 in four of the five subjects. It was only Social Studies that was below 60. In all of her practice exams Faith was scoring around 270 marks, so her teachers and family were very surprised that she was able to score 309.

The overall mean for the 11 girls was almost 270 (the pass mark is 250). They scored over the pass mark in Math, Science, Social Studies and English which was the subject they performed best in. That might be because when they come to the club for training, they are spoken to in English most of the time and are encouraged the speak to each other in English. The lowest performed subject was Kiswahili, mainly because there was one student that was extremely low in it. If it wasn't for that one low score, they would have also finished over the pass mark in that subject.

In the coming weeks these students will be receiving calling letters from various high schools throughout the country and we hope that each of them will be able to continue their education. Please pray for God's provision so that they are able to join high school.

Latest Update

Back Home?? … Not really, but almost!

After nearly 5 months in America, I arrived back in Kenya on New Year’s Eve, ready to begin my 10^th year serving in Mbita.  Among other things in the past two weeks since I have returned to Africa, I have gotten settled back into my house; reunited with friends, colleagues, students and football players; helped 80 returning secondary students go back to school;  began the new school year at CGA; and had a weekend of training with the Suba Laker Primary School football girls.  In the coming weeks as the school year moves along, we will begin preparing our 27 CGA graduates for their graduation and to join various high schools throughout the country, as well as 14 girls from our football club. 

In some ways, it feels so good to be back “home” in Kenya.  It is wonderful to connect with dear friends and to see the young ones growing and maturing into what God created them for.  I love the warm weather and beautiful sunsets over the islands on Lake Victoria.  I am in awe of the way the stars light up the sky at night as well as the fishing boats on the lake, the sound of the birds singing sweetly in the morning, and even sometimes the hippos grunting down by the lake.  I smile at the random cows, sheep and goats dotted across the landscape, especially the baby goats that can barely walk.  There is much joy in my heart walking down the road when I hear a small child shouting “Uncle Joe” as he waves energetically.  I treasure going to church and seeing the people worship God with total inhibition, singing at the top of their lungs one minute and bowing down on the dirty cement floor in reverence the next minute.  For the past 9 years of my life this has been my “home.”

But something big is missing!  This time it feels much different to be back.  That is not because I was gone for the longest stretch since I came to Kenya in 2004.  It is because a huge piece of my heart is back in Portland, OR!  I know many of you have heard about Daneen, but many of you have not until now…  

My life was turned upside down in October.  Towards the end of my travels in America, I was heading to the Great Northwest before returning home to California.  A friend that I had met in Mission Training back in 2003 and had served with his wife in Kenya several years ago, told me that when I travel to Portland I should invite his friend Daneen to any speaking engagement I would have because she lived in Africa for a couple of years and is passionate about that continent.  I followed through with that advice and invited her to a small reception I was having for friends.  I was immediately attracted to her, and it wasn’t because of the delicious Apple Pie she had baked (though that didn’t hurt either).  Not only was she beautiful, intelligent, passionate, warm, friendly and outgoing, but she even worked for a non-profit that provides college scholarships to students in Africa!  What a perfect fit for CGA (and me)!  That was a great excuse to see her again at her office to discuss partnering with CGA.  Our relationship grew at a very rapid rate, probably because we were both at that stage where we were ready to find someone to share our lives with.  At the same time we were both very open, honest and ready to talk about our deepest desires, passions, struggles and weaknesses.  Towards the end of 11 amazing days together in Southern California I told Daneen I was postponing my flight back to Kenya for a month (until Dec. 30) so that I could spend a couple of weeks in Portland with her and then a week with her family in Pennsylvania at Christmas time.  I proposed to her with a poem on December 27^th at a point overlooking her hometown of York, PA.  We are planning a wedding for early next summer and then will be returning to Kenya in July for another wedding and to serve together in Mbita. 

So that is what is missing here in Kenya... DANEEN!!... my new “home.”  It is exciting to know that wherever God leads us in the coming years, we will always be at home because we will be together until we reach our ultimate home with our Father in heaven!       

It has been another incredible adventure for me that has the fingerprints of God all over it.  My life will never be the same again!  I can’t do justice to the story in a short e-mail update because once I get going I could fill up a hundred pages talking about Daneen and what she has brought to my life in the past few months.  If you want to read more, check out the stories on my blog:

http://www.joekenya.blogspot.com/p/love-story.html

 

My Time in America

During my time on furlough, I had travelled all over America seeing friends and family, and sharing about the work that God is doing in the lives of the young people in Mbita.  It was tiring and tedious with lots of travelling and staying in different places all the time, but at the same time it was wonderful reuniting with incredible friends and telling the great stories of hope that I have seen with my own eyes and experienced firsthand over the years in Kenya.  If you were not able to hear me speak while I was home, you can listen to one of my presentations at:

Joe speaking at Harvest Springs

I saw God’s provision through it all as I learned lessons of trusting in Him.  My faith continues to grow as I rely on God daily and see Him at work throughout the world.  The last 9 years of my life have been an incredible adventure serving God in Kenya.  I would have never dreamed up this path for myself and would have never come if I hadn’t felt God’s call so strongly.  Looking back I can say that it has been the best nine years of my life.  I can’t imagine living anywhere else or doing anything different at this time in my life.  At the same time though, something has been missing.  I don’t think I even realized it was missing, until Daneen finally came into my life…

I know many of you have been praying for a wife for me.  Thanks for your faithfulness in praying.  God is so good and answers prayer beyond our wildest imagination.  This next “season” will be incredibly busy and challenging.  I need your prayers more than ever!  Thanks for your support!

Prayer Requests:

1)      Pray for the Lord’s guidance in my relationship with Daneen as we grow to know each other deeper while we are apart.  Pray that together we would bring even more glory to Him than we have as individuals.    

2)      Pray for God’s financial provision for the 8^th grade graduates from CGA and the Suba Lakers so that they will be able to join high school in February.  Pray for their hearts and minds to be prepared for the rigors of boarding secondary schools.