“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that a man found and hid. In his excitement he went and sold everything he had and bought that field.”

I don’t write a lot about Rift Valley Academy, the school where we work. RVA is a boarding school for missionary kids. It is American accredited, 106 years old, has 30 different passport countries represented on it, and is so remote that there are baboons on the campus. Nancy teaches French and is in charge of professional development; I am the college guidance counselor.

I’m passionate about what we do outside the gate of RVA, but it was really the students of RVA who were the impetus for us staying in Africa. I may be the only person who came on staff who had never taken a Bible class or a teaching class, and my deficits in both areas were pretty staggering. What was truly amazing was the kindness of the students of RVA to us, and the amazing stories that they had to tell.

We couldn’t be bush missionaries; I have no skills. I can’t make or fix anything. I know cars have four wheels, and that is the extent of my mechanical knowledge and ability. Bush people are pretty special, and I knew I wasn’t one of them.

But seeing those kids made me want to be a part of something bigger. I had pretty much wasted my life, but those kids were worth investing in. These kids were going to be world changers, and it was them that inspired us to come back to Africa after our initial year.

There were three special seniors I wanted to mention this year. Jonathan is from Rwanda, and he and his parents were scheduled to be executed during the genocide when they received a miracle; they were able to flee to Scotland. His father ended up receiving his PhD but then returned to work in Africa.

What I love about Jonathan is that he has already figured out that life isn’t fair, but it is also a gift to be cherished. He is an amazing communicator and writer; he received a full tuition scholarship to Furman, a school known for its writing program. I can’t wait to see what kind of writing he produces.

SoHee is the first Korean student in RVA’s history to be accepted to an Ivy League School. She will be attending Princeton in the fall, and the story of how that came to be is another part of the miracle that follows this place around.

A few years ago, SoHee’s sister had an opportunity to go to the states to participate in a summer college program. The plan was for her to go to the states for the program and then visit a score of colleges. I had arranged for a retired counselor to take her around.

That counselor had a heart attack, and I really didn’t know what to do. I finally called one of my oldest friends, Len Bergstrom, and asked him if he would consider taking around two high school girls for ten days in the US. He not only took them around, but he took them to their first Broadway play, bought them their first lobster dinner, and become an uncle to them. SoHee’s sister became our first student to attend Wellesley (that is another great story for another time; let me know if you would like to hear it).

SoHee asked if Uncle Len would consider doing the same for her, and when she won a scholarship to study at Columbia last July, the Bergstroms adopted another Korean girl for the summer and took her all around the country looking at colleges. It is so hard for poor international students to get into US colleges, especially Asians. There are so many great Asian students that it is almost impossible to break through. But God did it and another ceiling was broken.

Caleb is a US citizen who wanted to go to the Air Force Academy. It is so hard for anyone to get into the Academy; they make you jump through so many hoops. Multiply that by five and you have an idea how hard it is to get in. Caleb was determined and worked so hard, and the miracle happened. He was accepted.

RVA has an unusually late graduation; it was July 14th this year. Caleb had to graduate early in order to report for orientation, and they did a special early graduation for him last month. Our principal did a great job with the ceremony and had this to share:  when Caleb was asked why he was going into the Academy, he responded that he didn’t think he should live for his own comfort.

That is when I absolutely lost it, because I knew a secret about Caleb that very few knew:  Caleb turned down a full ride to Yale to attend the Air Force Academy.

At the end of the ceremony, they had a line to congratulate and say goodbye. He had so many kind words to say to me, and I couldn’t get any words through my tears.

All I could think about is a common thought I have about RVA; I don’t deserve to be here, but what a gift it has been to our family. And I was again reminded of a broken man who had lost a son who came to Africa, and in the students of RVA, he saw the treasure, and his family sold everything they had to purchase the field.

Your pal,
Steve

From Nancy …

Getting our students off campus and into the community is a priority at RVA. It is unfortunately easy for our students to live in Kenya nine months out of the year and yet never really get involved with Kenyans. One way we encourage involvement is through outreach Sunday School classes.

For the past three years, Steve and I have led an outreach group of about 20 students. Each Sunday morning we walk down to the CURE Crippled Children’s Hospital, which is about a half mile below the school. There the students share a Bible lesson, sing Swahili songs and then visit with the patients.

This hospital and its doctors are an amazing ministry in and of itself as they perform life-changing surgeries on children with various physical disabilities, such as cleft lip and palates, club feet and burn constrictions. Often the surgeries seem to be miracles to the patients who have been viewed as outcasts in their communities, but leave the hospital as “normal.” Kenyans, as a whole, are fairly uneducated regarding people with disabilities, and “normalizing” these kids’ conditions not only helps them physically but enables them to become a part of regular village life.

Our students do an amazing job of loving on and sharing with the patients and their parents. The favorite game is “Bat the Balloon.” Many of the patients are confined to their beds, but you can still lay there and hit a balloon back and forth! It’s such a privilege to interact with these brave kids and their equally brave parents – to share with them, pray with them and love on them. Many have never been in a hospital before, some never in a building with a cement floor. Often the surgeries and treatment are very painful and scary to kids fresh from a remote village. To watch our students bring smiles to their faces is worth more than a million bucks!