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Well time has gone by and still we're struggling with whether or not to start a Christian School. I thought after going home to see the boys get married, we'd have our answer, but we're just more confused. And nothing seems to be working out. The need is there, but maybe the timing is off. We've decided to pray as much as possible every day until we have an answer.

God answered. Sunday morning, October 21, 2001 Hart and I happened to be worshipping in different places. He went to church with some students, but I felt I needed to stay home, listen to a tape and really spend some extended quiet time with God. I prayed for some time and had a wonderful experience talking with God. I was filled with such peace and joy to know what to do.
I couldn't wait to see Hart. When he came home and we shared stories. I found out that Hart also had an experience with the Lord. At the same time Jesus gave each of us the answer we needed in our own way. What an awesome God!! So we begin! Another small thing.

The first thing we needed was land. We had none. As we prayed in the coming days, people started coming to us and asking if we would like to buy some land. Piece by piece God provided. We started with one then two, then the people next to that piece, then the people next to that and so on. We now own 8 acres of land all connected to one another with a beautiful view of the lake. Unbelievable!
Hart has organized the work crews for laying pipe, loading rocks, and gravel, and bricks. Mtebe has worked hard on registration, teachers, working with the local people. I have drawn up plans for the buildings, written constitutions, by-laws, and handbooks, began the Quicken program and entered all the finances. We've all done much, much more in addition.
We have now completed the foundation for the first school building, which consists of 3 classrooms and a storage room. And the foundation for the director's house, which resembles an NTC teacher's house with a couple of changes, is almost completed. This is very exciting!

We are now in the process of accepting students to fill a class of 20.

December 31, 2001. Listened to a tape today. The speaker spoke of a sermon by William Carey who challenged us to expect great things from God.

January 2, 2001. School starts January 7th, just a few days away. Standard 1 will be in the classroom next to me again until the new school is completed, hopefully by July. We have a certified teacher. Just as we needed a teacher one of the NTC students happen to marry one and bring her here to NTC in December. She is excited about teaching in our school, willing to learn new things and speaks English quite well.

My actions are such small things, but God's actions are such great things!

The following is from one of our supporters. He wrote it in response to the name of our school. We received it at an especially trying moment when it offered great encouragement. You might like to read it. I enjoyed it very much.

THE LION

VincentDonovan Christianity Rediscovered: An Epistle from the Masai, (SCM 1982), pp.62-3.
Vincent Donovan, [1926 - ], a Holy Ghost Father, served as a missionary in Tanzania. This book is a record of his experiences among the Masai people. While he worked as an evangelist introducing these people to Christianity, he also records a lesson in faith that they taught him.

I used to think that faith was a head-trip, a kind of intellectual assent to the truths and doctrines of our religion. I know better now.
When my faith began to be shattered, I did not hurt in my head. I hurt all over. Months later when all this had passed, I was sitting talking with a Masai elder about the agony of belief and unbelief. He used two languages to respond to me- his own and Kiswalhili. He pointed out that the word my Masai catechist, Paul, and I had used to convey 'faith' was not a very satisfactory word in their language. It meant literally, 'to agree to.' I, myself, knew the word had that shortcoming. He said 'to believe' like that was similar to a white hunter shooting an animal with his gun from a great distance. Only his eye and his finger took part in the act. We should find another word.

He said for a man to really believe is like a lion going after its prey. His nose and eyes and ears pick up the prey. His legs give him speed to catch it. All the power of his body is involved in the terrible death leap and single blow to the neck with the front paw, the blow that actually kills. And as the animal goes down the lion envelopes it in his arms (Africans refer to the front legs of an animal as its arms) pulls it to himself, and makes it part of himself. This is the way a lion kills. This is the way a man believes. This is what faith is.

I looked at the elder in silence and amazement. Faith understood like that would explain why, when my own was gone, I ached in every fiber of my being. But my wise old teacher was not finished yet.

"We did not search you out Padre," he said to me. "We did not even want you to come to us. You searched us out. You followed us away from your house out into the bush, into the plains, into the steppes where our cattle are, into the hills where we take out cattle for water, into our villages, into our homes. You told us of the High God, how we must search for Him, even leave our land and our people to find Him. But we have not done this. We have not left our land. We have not searched for Him. He has searched for us. He has searched us out and found us. All the time we think we are the lion.
"In the end, the lion is God."

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The following is taken from the journal kept by Lynn Inlow. These excerpts are taken from the period during which God first gave birth to the vision of what was to become The Lion of Judah Academy, and through the beginning days of the school.

Glossary of abbreviations and names:

NTC - Nassa Theological College - Hart teaches there, preparing men for the ministry.
VPS - Victoria Primary School - Lynn teaches there, a school for missionary children
Bulima Primary School - local school in the village run by the government.
Lion of Judah Academy (Simba wa Yuda Academy) - our new Christian primary schoolSmall Things

"How can our children get a good education?", asked Mtebe, an NTC student. A simple question asked of me as we were casually talking one day. Since I was new and involved in teaching missionary children I had never taken the time to even consider this question, but I felt a desire to find out what exactly he was talking about. So we agreed on a time to visit the local government school. (A small beginning which has turned into such a large miracle.)

Hart and I had driven past the entrance to this school every time we left or returned to the mission station, and it looked like the rest of the village schools, but I hadn't taken the time to really see it. (How often I look without seeing!) The outside was a set of two long buildings and one "short building". I had heard that the short building was like this because the rest of the classroom just collapsed in the rain before we arrived. A new section was being built. (Actually it has been "being built" for the past 3 years.) The grounds were kept neat and clean with the traditional rows of white stones forming the walkways. The buildings needed paint and repairs badly. I was introduced to the headmaster and the academic head teacher, Jackson, who took me on the tour of the school. We went into each classroom, starting with the 'best" of the two buildings. The blackboard, which is simply black paint brushed on the cement of the wall, was faded and cracked so it was hard to read the chalk writing, and the old paint-worn walls had large chunks falling out of them. Inside there were 100 children - 3 or 4 to a desk, with one teacher. The entire class had only 5 books for some subjects and no books for other subjects. As the children got older the classes got smaller, because in Standard 4 the children have to pass a national exam to go any further with their education. These classes had 30 - 50 children. Last year only 9 children passed the Standard 7 (seventh grade) exam and that was considered a very successful year! We were told that next year there would be over 200 children in Standard 1. There are actually 600 children eligible, but the government is not able to provide enough buildings or teachers. We passed the teacher's room which was the size of a small walk-in closet, and ending with the worst classroom, a disintegrating mud brick building with wood bee eaten roof timbers where 50 children were cramped into a tiny cave-like room. As I stepped out of the classroom into the sun and looked out over to Lake Victoria I started to cry. But the tears were different than just sadness. I was suddenly engulfed with what I somehow instantly knew was the compassion of God. I was filled so full I knew there was not room enough in me to hold one bit more. In that same instant I thought about Moses when God said that he might see a fraction of God's glory, and I knew I was feeling a fraction of God's compassion and love for these children. I had known God's great love for me, but I had never felt this immense measure of his love for others. The command to Love One Another took on a new meaning for me. I knew that this experience was not just for the moment, I knew God was preparing me to do something. But what? I already had a job, didn't I? Time is such a strange thing. This was all happening to me and yet in reality a few seconds later the others were coming out of the door behind me. Mtebe saw my tears and said, "You have a heart for the children too." I wiped my tears and shortly after we said our good-byes.

What can I do Lord? How can I help? I can't change the government. How can I possibly make a difference when the need is so great?...... I started reading a book I had brought along with me written about Mother Theresa. She often said, "Do small things with great love." So I will begin to look for small things to do with great love.

Tanzania Missionary Conference, November, 2000: During one of the sessions a missionary from Rift Valley Academy, a large missionary school in Kenya, shared about the outreach program they were involved in. This gave me an idea. My missionary school did not have an outreach program at all. Maybe we could do something for the government school as an outreach program. Children helping other children. What can my nine little kids do?

After talking to Hart I learned that the NTC students needed some work to pay their school fees. So with some "big kids" and some "little kids" Hart and I headed off to the government school with cement, paint, and brushes in hand to do some small things.
Together we finished one classroom. The VPS Board of Directors decided to give us money to help with the project. It looked so good we decided to do all the classrooms and the teacher's rooms. It took us eight Saturdays. One day Alex (a VPS student) decided that painting his hands and arms was more interesting than painting the walls; this of course was contagious. I had 18 little painted hands coming after me, a fun game - surround the teacher and scare her. Another day there were little footprints out the door as spilled paint got stepped in. One day I let them quit early and the dorm parents took them swimming and bought them ice cream in a town about 2 hours away. Actually I got quite a bit done that day!!

Hart is the NTC Library Supervisor and he was sharing about how so few of the students really know how to use a library. Many haven't even been in a real library. That's when I got the idea to start a library time outreach to the NTC student's children. They have been coming each Friday for an hour to look at books and then to check one out to bring home. They love it. Each week there have been more coming as the idea is catching on. Another small thing!

Jackson asked if we could add some educational paintings on the classroom wall. One of the NTC students, Magori, was quite a talented artist, so I hired him to do that with me. We went down to the school as the sun was setting, with the generator, the overhead projector and map transparencies of the world. We traced the entire world onto a blue background with black magic markers. By the time we were about 2/3 done the bugs were swarming around the overhead projector and us! Later we discovered that the map had a few lakes that were just bugs we had traced!

I have been told that the teacher for the Awali (Kindergarten) class at Bulima Primary School has some questionable values and behavior. And since this grade isn't a registered or mandatory grade yet, most of the NTC students have their children stay at home without schooling. What can I do?

Kirsty, a Scottish missionary and good friend, runs the Nursery School for NTC - ages infant to 6. Standard 1 in Tanzania begins at age 7. She suggested that I start an Awali class.

I talked with the Board of VPS and they are willing to let me use the empty classroom next to me to have an Awali class. Mtebe has secured a really nice woman to teach. She wasn't certified, but she had experience, and she was willing to work for what we could pay. So another small thing has begun.

There is interest in starting a private Christian School. I don't see how it can happen. It will take a huge amount of work, money and time. The work I can do or arrange to have done, I think, but the money and time I don't have. If God opens the door I'll walk through.

Doors are not opening , but closing everywhere. VPS does not want anything to do with the idea and neither does NTC. They believe the idea is a good one, but cannot offer any tangible support or assistance. What now?November 2001. While in the US, Hart, Carol and I were discussing the children of Africa over a very delicious pizza, which I remember very fondly. We brainstormed together and the Children's Book Project idea was the result. For $25, a child would have enough books for one year to take to school and use at home, buy notebooks, and a Bible. I thought we might be able to see if anyone was interested as we talked with churches and wrote letters to people. Well, God must have instilled the idea in our minds, because the response was amazing. We've been able to buy books for all the NTC children and for classes to come at The Lion of Judah Academy, and 500 English Books, Bibles and some teacher's books. Some people wanted to give to specific students, others just said to buy any books needed. The money is still coming. This is so much greater than my wildest imaginations. The following is part of a letter written to all of us from Jackson, the headmaster of the Bulima Primary School (government school).

"He who has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him. (John 12:21 NAS)
Thank you very much and we are grateful for your assistance.... We appreciate that you have done something very expensive for most people. I promise you that the school shall be working on using and handling these books under great care. Your heart of helping the school will never be forgotten easily in our school history.
Again I say we very much appreciate the help you have given us in this matter of waging war against illiteracy. Please give us advice most helpful on how you think we can do the best to uplift the academic quality. Please accept our sincere thanks. Nobody will beat your help.
I now end up by regretting that the school has nothing to pay you back in place of your assistance to us, but our gift back to you is 'ASANTE SANA AND KARIBU SANA BULIMA.' (Thank you very much and welcome very much to Bulima.)
Mr. W. Jackson"