CPCM NEWS BULLETIN 2010

This far it is Ebenezer

The year  ended 2009 was another year that we praise the Lord so much for because we continued to witness His faithfulness amidst difficult situations and circumstances in the ministry.

Our family development

Our family continues to do well with both of our children moving a class higher in school. Esther is now 12 years and in class seven. She has become a boarder in the school where both of them are, in order to have more time for study since she will be doing her final primary school exam in 2011, and then be able to join high school God willing in 2012.  We miss her a lot but we had to comply with the school regulation. Continue to pray for her that she may grow and learn in the fear of the Lord as we have always taught her at home. Her brother Ibrahim is now 10 and in class four. He has shown remarkable improvement in his school work. Continue to pray for him in his new class with the work becoming more and more difficult. We thank God for the Christian environment in their school.

Beth, her work and study

Beth continues to work with Birech College as the academic dean and also serving as the pastor in a local church called AIC (Africa Inland Church) Kaptildil. Both ministries have been challenging but we can gladly say that the Lord has been faithful. You possibly recall our calls for prayer especially for Birech College since it was not doing very well as a training institution. Much prayer is still needed for it but now we can include in your prayers for the college thanks giving for what the Lord has done and what is continuing to do. The work that Isaac began there while he was the principal continues to flourish. All the wooden structures that had become so much worn down have all been renovated and now in their place stand very good brick buildings. The new buildings are not fully completed but the Lord who began this new work will see it to completion. In progress is now a men’s dormitory that can house about 50 students when complete. Last year March we had a wonderful graduation which also saw the official launching of new two year certificate course programmes in the college namely; certificates courses in Christian counselling and  Christian leadership, the pioneer students will be graduating in March 2010. We are continuing to register an increased number of students and this continues to encourage us that the Lord is answering our prayers. There are still many more programmes envisioned to begin so continue to pray with us towards this end. Birech This college is among colleges whose objectives are shaped by CPCM

 Beth has began her Masters programme in education, this is an online program trying to approach educational endeavours from a Christian world view. It is a program at Scott theological College where she earned her Bachelors degree in theology. Kindly visit her online link: http://cpcm-africa.blogspot.com for more details.

Other CPCM Ministries

Hiv/Aids Ministry

CPCM continues with the ministry of sponsoring Elvis’ (an Hiv/Aids orphan) education. Elvis’ performance in school is very impressive and this encourages us a lot. He has a bright future if he continues this way. He fell seriously ill towards the end of the final school term but has now recovered. We are beginning to look for ways that he can be assisted further because CPCM alone cannot cater for his high school fees. In 2011 he will sit for his primary school final exam and that is why we have to begin early to look for other sponsoring bodies or bursaries that can be able to assist him pay for his high school studies. CPCM is also sponsoring foundational teachings for teenagers geared to curb the spread of Hiv/Aids. Recently we developed a well designed Keynote/power-point presentation on the theme: Sexual Revolution or Sexual Reformation this will be presented in high schools and upper primary school for the seniors.

Networking Public and Christian schools CPCM is currently working with heads and administrators of both public and Christian schools to engage with Christian world view in their curriculum, pedagogy and administration. Beth's M.Ed. study is invaluable here. We are engaging other stakeholders on this, Worldwide Christian Schools have offered to facilitate some training on this. CPCM is also encouraging public primary schools to start secondary schools in order to alleviate the problems of many primary school drop outs who cannot compete for the limited places in existing secondary schools.

CPCM and CPCHEA’s meeting—an initiative for public and Christian primary and secondary schools to think on implication of Christian world view on educational pedagogy, curriculum and administration

CPCM work in CPCHEA

You may recall that three of the founder members of CPCM were instrumental in the founding of an Africa wide organization known as the Centre for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education in Africa (CPCHEA). Today this organization is making a good penetration of Africa. It is networking individual scholars and institutions. The CPCM dream of penetrating the whole of Africa is now achieved through CPCHEA. Isaac is the Executive Director of this organization. CPCM Board delegated the directorship

of CPCM to Beth in order to allow Isaac to fully participate in the CPCHEA’s Vision and Mission which echoes CPCM Vision and Mission in a more amplified form. You can view the progress of CPCHEA under the Resource Links in the menu bar at the head of the page.

	As these children walk to primary schools, they should do so for secondary schools. One of the reasons poor parents cannot afford secondary school education is that the few available schools are too far from home for the children to walk to school each day. This forces students to board which has financial implications for parents. When secondary school comes to the neighbourhood, students will just walk there at affordable rates. CPCM is encouraging and promoting this
Esther Wanjiru with her father Isaac	Ibrahim Mutua with his mother Beth

 Esther is doing fine. She joined boarding in our friends' school this year which has a good Christian environment. We should praise God for Ibrahim because when Isaac visited Arbor Drive he was faring badly in school, he is now in class 4 —Kenya has 8-4-4 system of education—8 years primary, 4 years high school and 4 years university.

Ibrahim is getting on well only that he is too playful and sometimes concepts tend to get confused in his mind. Quite often he fails what he knows and some new concepts dislodges old concepts that he knew very well. For instance, he correctly picks that: 2+2=4 and 2x2=4 but employs the same logic, hence 3+3=6 and 3x3=6, this does not mean he does not know the difference between additions and multiplication but we think he attempts his own logic which fails him. We are glad he is a thinker, we pray that he learns to think within the syllabus. Kindly pray that he does not lose his thinking capacity in the process drilling that goes on in our schools.