PACE and CALEB

I think that I should take the time to talk a little more about the people behind the school. Pan African Christian Exchange (PACE) is a mission agency created and managed by Africans and for Africans, providing them with spiritual, social and economic assistance.

"In God We Trust?" Or "The Blues?"

Why can't we have both!

PACE runs this school, which is really three institutions: PAA (Pan African Academy), which is a school for kindergarten and Grades 1 - 8; PAHS (Pan African High School) which teaches kids in Grades 9 - 11. They won't have a Grade 12 class until next year, as the school has been "growing up" since it was first established in 2003 from students in earlier age groups to the older ones. There is also a Theological seminary, but most of those students only come here for short periods and spend most of their time at a school in town. PACE is about 3 kilometres south of Nyahururu.

Coming into town.

There is also a dental clinic on site, where Destiny has been helping out, with a dentist named Ben Mburu. They do more than just dentistry, such as general health diagnosis, treatment and lab services, as well as a limited pharmacy.
To take care of the religious aspects of the curriculum, the school is allied with an association known as the CALEB Pastors, who are drawn from a variety of churches in and around  Nyahururu. Indeed, PACE grew out of CALEB, which is just now celebrating its 30th anniversary.

One of the houses built for a pastor.

Wachira Ngamau and his wife Glenda founded CALEB and then PACE, and are the driving force behind the mission and community development, both regionally and nationally. Our team has not yet met Wachira, as he has been on a fundraising trip to Canada. His arrival is imminent as I write this. Another mission team is coming with him. We are not exactly a mission team, but a group of teachers who hoped to come here to learn and to teach. It hasn't always been easy, but more on that next time.

Maina slum

Another pastor, Peter Njihia, does a lot of work in Rwanda, and there are some students who have come to this school from there. One girl tells the heartbreaking story of seeing her father killed in the genocide.
Pastor John Mugo came here from western Kenya in 2007. At that time he had a thriving church, but during violent clashes after the national elections, it was burned down, and he was forced to flee with his wife and three daughters. His oldest daughter is now studying in the United States and his church here is growing, a testament to how his faith and hard work have sustained him.
We visited his church this past Sunday. he is a powerful speaker (and singer!).

Teaching in Victory School

Pastor Francis Mwaniki and his wife Beth run the Victory School in the Maina slum, which we visited last Friday (May 31st). They try to improve the lives of these children from extremely poor backgrounds. All of these children touched the hearts of our team greatly, and we have resolved to do as much as we possibly can to raise some funds for them and provide some school supplies and toys. All they have to play with in their dusty little yard are some old tires.

Pastor Ferdinand Mati and his wife Rosemary run the Kauka church and nursery, about which I have already written.
It has been inspiring to see how these and other pastors have come together to work for the betterment of the children in this area. We have been very happy to get involved in this work as much as we can. It's a little disheartening to see how much there is to be done, and some tears have been shed about the plight of some of these kids. We can do so little for them, but whatever we do is greatly appreciated. We all want to bring them home with us when we leave.
That leaving is going to be very hard on all of us, I think.