(Kevin Ricquebourg)

IN THIS ISSUE
Christian Education Snippets
From the Chair……
Strategy Planning Day
Feedback : Online Christian Educators’ Conference
PSI Launch
Prayer Pointers
info@acsi.co.zw
+263 786 031 794
https://acsi.co.zw

Dear Colleagues,
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Matthew 14: 13-36. It deals with a 36 hour period during which Jesus puts his disciples through their paces, showing them what they could expect from life if they really decided to follow him. As you read this consider the emotional rollercoaster that the disciples are on:

• John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin had just been brutally murdered by Herod.
• Jesus had had no time to grieve but healed the sick from a huge crowd numbering approximately 10,000, including women and children.
• As it was getting dark the disciples, exhausted by now, reminded Jesus that the crowd had not eaten and that they should be sent away!
• They could hardly believe their ears when Jesus told them to feed the crowd! (On 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes)

Jesus sensing the discomfiture of his disciples told them to bring the food to him. NOTE CAREFULLY WHAT HAPPENS!

• Jesus organized the crowd to sit down, gave thanks for the 5 loaves and 2 fishes and gave them (the 5 loaves and 2 fishes) back to the disciples to distribute to the people. Perhaps they broke the loaves in half and 10 disciples took the bread while 2 disciples took the fishes. The point is that Jesus gave back to them what they had given to Him! They could easily have said to themselves, “So what has changed?!” We gave Him the boy’s breakfast and He has given it back to us… Wait a minute – this stuff is multiplying in my hands! As I break off a piece, so another piece grows back! It is truly amazing what is going on here! Jesus waited until we obeyed him before He started to multiply the food.”
• The disciples, probably euphoric because of what they were witnessing, handed out the food to the 10,000 hungry people! (Oh I nearly forgot to mention, afterwards they picked up 12 baskets of scraps!) Next time God asks you to do something and you feel inadequate, what are you going to do? Obey him! The results are His responsibility not yours!
• Jesus then made the disciples get into a boat in order to row to the other side of the lake (11 km away!).

TAKE NOTE…

• Some of them were experienced sailor some were not!
• Jesus let them row together, in the dark, for nine hours, against the wind and waves, without Him being in the boat with them – a recipe for some serious character formation!
• They thought they saw a ghost – some folk are frightened of the paranormal! It was Jesus coming to rescue them, walking on the water! Peter wanted to walk on the water too! “Come,” Jesus said. Peter started well – he jumped over the side of the boat and started walking towards Jesus. Then he did what we so frequently do – he noticed the waves and instead of keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus, he focused on the storm and this caused his faith to dissipate and he started to sink! The Creator of the Universe and Lord of all the storms calmed the storm and reached out His hand and saved him!
• “Then those who were in the boat worshipped him saying, “Truly you are the son of God.”
• May we be encouraged to offer Jesus whatever we have and allow Him to use it to meet the needs of those around us whom He asks us to ‘feed’ and may we remember when we are in the middle of the howling storm and huge waves threaten to overwhelm us, that He is the Lord of the storms and has absolute authority over them.

From the Chair…………..
“But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds”. (Psalm 73:28)

The Psalmist starts off this Psalm with a confident word of knowing God’s goodness in his heart, but then he starts to look around and wonders where is the presence of God? This causes the psalmist to feel depressed, even oppressed (vs16) until he enters the sanctuary and sees the final destiny of those he had seen as people with seemingly less troubles. I think this is a feeling we can all relate to at times, where we feel overwhelmed or tired of seemingly endless struggles. But as the psalmist works through his feelings and enters the sanctuary of God, he is reminded of God’s presence, His blessings, and our future inheritance.

We hope that you were able to join our recent on-line Educators’ Conference and from it were refreshed and encouraged in your calling and excited to continue a lifetime of learning for God’s glory. Our prayer has been that it helped you enter the presence of God and be reminded of the eternal impact of your relationships and teaching. We pray that like the Psalmist you can declare all of God’s deeds as you are drawn closer to Him. As we begin to look ahead to 2022, we are excited at the new opportunities and praying for God’s favor and growth in our membership and areas of influence. We long to be more accessible to anyone interested across Zimbabwe, whether in government or private education. We are also looking at how to be an increasingly clear voice in education, declaring God’s standards from a Biblical worldview. We believe this to be key to true holistic education and transformational for our country. In line with ACSI global, we will be focusing on the 3 pillars of advancement, access, and advocacy. A key part of our advancement is that we long to strengthen partnerships with churches and other interested Christian organizations or individuals. We are also looking at new trainings and continuing to promote PSI, the Paths to School Improvement programme. For access, we continue to work on our data base, strengthen our social media platforms and presence, and also seek ways to subsidise membership fees for struggling schools. Our role in advocacy for now is building relationships and seeking to be a voice for integrating a Biblical worldview in education both to encourage individual teachers as well as institutions.

At our recent strategy planning day, we, as the board were challenged to have God’s vision for education across Zimbabwe and that was very scary/daunting and overwhelming, but also exciting and demanding of faith and only achievable by God’s grace, strength and favor. And so we are continuing to step out in faith, trembling at the knees, weak in our own abilities, but our hearts are excited for all that God is doing and is going to do in and through ACSI Zimbabwe, and in each individual’s life as they seek to glorify God. Thank you for partnering with us in this vision. May we together be faithful in telling of all God’s deeds.

Partnering in faith, trusting our Big God, for His Glory.

Sarah Cross (Chair)

CURRENT MEMBER SCHOOLS
Celebration International School
Eaglesvale Junior School
Eaglesvale Senior School
Gateway High School
Gateway Primary School
Karanda Mission Primary School
Lendy Park School
Maranatha Group of Schools
Midlands Christian School
Midlands Christian College
Millennial Academy
Mutarazi Junior School
Rainbow Pre-School
Southern Lights Trust
Success Tutorial College

STRATEGY PLANNING DAY

On Friday 24th September the ACSI Zimbabwe Advisory Board met together in Harare at the Christian Counselling Centre to strategize for
growth in 2022/23. The day’s proceedings began with a zoom link with the Director of ACSI South Africa, Mr Sean Moore, who encouraged the
members with a devotion on the deep-rooted joy that it is possible for believers to have regardless of their circumstances. Team Consulting facilitated the day’s discussion at no cost. After a time of quiet and waiting on the Lord, members re- grouped and formulated a broad implementation plan which will now be worked on by the four sub- committees: Marketing / Training / Partnerships and Finance for discussion at the next Board Meeting on 9th November. Thanks to Florac Catering for providing teas and a delicious lunch.

ACSI ZIMBABWE ADVISORY BOARD 2021

Back Row (Left to Right) : Eric Zinyengere, Kevin Ricquebourg, Lenard Mudiwa, Gus Hulley, Unity Sakhe
Front Row (Left to Right) : Sarah Cross (Chair), George Faneti, Tunga Mashungu, Tavonga Goto, Melanie Martin, Caroline Chirume, Temba Mkhosana, Charmian Deysel

FEEDBACK ON-LINE CONFERENCE
“A LIFETIME OF LEARNINGTO LIVE FOR GOD’S GLORY”

Over four weeks, between 13th August and 3rd September, the 2021 online Christian Educators’ Conference was released via a moodle platform. Under the theme of “A Lifetime of Learning to Live for God’s Glory” (“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples -John 15:8″) four weekly sessions of a plenary and four workshops were made available.

The programme included:

• 4 local devotional speakers
• 4 worship sessions led by two member schools and two churches
• 2 interviews
• 5 plenary speakers (3 local, one from Australia, one from South Africa)
• 3 feedback sessions (1 local, 1 regional, 1 international)
• 16 workshop speakers (11 local, 4 South African, 1 American)

This was the first time we have used a moodle platform and we recognise that many of the 600 delegates who registered had challenges with network and bandwidth. All the recordings are downloadable and can be saved to a device to be viewed at your convenience. The conference material is still available and can be accessed for an indefinite period by registering at https://online.acsi.co.zw/acsi/login/?lang=en once you have registered you will receive an email from System Administrator advising your username and password. Please note this email does not come through immediately as users have to be uploaded from the registration form first. We would still encourage you to take advantage of this excellent, informative material addressing many different aspects of teaching from a Biblical worldview. If you require assistance or would like the conference presentations copied on a (supplied) flashstick, please do not hesitate to contact the office – info@acsi.co.zw or call +263 786 031 794

The ACSI Paths to School Improvement (PSI) is a strategy to accomplish resourcing as many schools as possible through a school improvement process
For more information: email info@acsi.co.zw or
Tel: +263 786 031 794

• Involves a two-year commitment to training, undertaken during school holidays by Heads, and then actioned throughout the term. There is a cost involved. The process of improvement continues as a lifelong commitment by the school.
• The advantage of this programme is that you walk the continual process in partnership/relationship with other schools, building a community committed to\ improving Christian Education through Zimbabwe and Africa.

PSI LAUNCH: 22ND OCTOBER 2021

On Friday 22nd October, ACSI Zimbabwe hosted a launch which was attended by six schools who are considering commencing training with Cohort 3 in April 2022. If you would like to know more about this programme, please do contact us as above.

Above: Kevin Ricquebourg opening in devotion

Above: School Leader – Tonderai Mandaza

Above: Candidate Trainee Maggie Gotora

Above: Sarah Cross (ACSI Zim Chair)

Above: Candidate Trainee – Caroline Chirume

Above: Candidate Trainee Hannah Marks

MEMBERSHIP DETAILS

If you would like to enquire about membership of ACSI Zimbabwe please contact the office for details : info@acsi.co.zw or acsizimbabwe@gmail.com or call +263 786 031 794 https://acsi.co.zw

Membership Categories are as follows:
1) INDIVIDUAL: ($10 per term)
2) SCHOOL: (0.50c per pupil per term)
3) ASSOCIATE: $50 per term (for churches / business organisations)

PRAYER POINTERS

• Re-commencement of PSI (Paths to School Improvement) training in April 2022;

• Schools who are currently part of PSI as they implement what they are learning;

• Implementation of PSI App (Local Host Partner);

• ACSI Zimbabwe Advisory Board as they strategise for growth in 2022 – 23;
  
• Sean Moore as Director of ACSI Southern Africa and his leadership and mentoring role of schools in SA during these challenging times;

• ACSI Zimbabwe Members Schools: – those who are facing financial and other challenges;

• State schooling system;
  
• Protection for our communities, schools and families from Covid 19.

If you have something to share, specific prayer requests or response to any article, please contact us : info@acsi.co.zw acsizimbabwe@gmail.com If you would like to receive latest news from ACSI Southern Africa please notify by email to info@acsi.co.zw
acsizimbabwe@gmail.com https://acsi.co.zw.