Gladness and saying goodbye

What a joyful moment to see 11 of our nursery school children in their toga! They are ready to go to standard 1 of the primary school. They learned a lot during the past year. It is amazing to see how they changed during that year. They can now memorize the alphabet, they know different Bible verses by heart (in English!). It is great to see how some children changed from crying, shy children into children that now dare to give a public answer in class and visibly enjoy learning at school.

During the conversations with parents in the last weeks, all parents todl us that they notice the differences in their child: differences in knowledge, in behaviour, in weight. Parents were very positive about the nursery school and the teacher. That is very good to hear! Also on the day when the children that will go to standard 1 received their diploma, the joy and pride of the parents and the children was clearly visible. It is a very good feeling to know that you can be part of the chain to provide those children with a future in the society. To see how the lives of those children change because of sponsors who think about those children. Then it happens that on a happy morning like this, a tear of joy rolls over your face, while seeing all the happy children and proud parents. We always believed that a sponsoring program and providing children with education really helps, but seeing the impact a year later makes us full of gratitude and gives us hoop to continue with our work, step by step!

On the other hand, it is also hard to let those children go to another school and to let them go. Because how will they do with another teacher, in a classroom with many other children and too few textbooks? It is good that we do not have to let them go completely, because they will come to the Centre every day to eat and to receive extra help whenever necessary and to also hear Gods words. It is our prayer that the children will carry everything they learned about God in their harts and take it with them to the primary school. All children who said goodbye to the nursery school, received a Bible for children with the wish of Psalm 119: Thy Word is a lamp before my feet and the light upon my path. This is our greatest wish for all the children!