Dream to Reality

I’ve got a few moments to ponder God’s goodness, and wanted to share with our family and friends another amazing part of our Rwandan journey. I need to hurry in writing because in a few hours I’ll be helping our Kigali International Community School (KICS) Secondary students replant some tress so we can create a better play area on site. I’m hearing one of my favorite sounds – children. Down the hall Dr. Holly Hixson is giving a Chemistry lecture. (I can’t tell you how proud I was to announce that we’ve got Ph.D. Chemist teaching at KICS.) Out in the play area I can hear young children running and playing. Grace Hixson and my son, Timothy’s voice seems to rise above the crowd and I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see their friendship and know they’ve found a school that is home. My son Ethan is playing basketball with his class, and I’m eager to see what their athletic future will be.

We opened our new KICS school year last week. Here are some of the numbers – We have approximately 80 students from Pre-School to Secondary. These students represent at least 11 nationalities. At least half of them are Rwandan citizens. My phone was ringing constantly in July and August as frantic parents were trying to get their children places in KICS. Though the school is small in number and just starting, it has become one of the region’s schools of choice.

One of my favorite Old Testament words is “remember.” God just kept reminding His people to remember and restate their journey of faith over and over. There is something about “remembering” that builds our faith, enables us to get through the moment, clarifies our vision, and strengthens our hand for the task at hand. Our family has gone done this journey with a wonderful community. Though many of you don’t know them, I need to name them to give honor where honor is due. Let me share the KICS story so far.

Our family first moved to Rwanda in June 2005. We came overconfident in our ability to adapt to new surroundings in Africa. We knew there were local schools in Rwanda and assumed our kids could make the transition to them easily. We started them in a local school in September 2005. After a few days, the kids were convinced it was not workable. It took me a couple months to come to that realization. One of our early moments was attending a fellowship of Americans stationed in Rwanda. While there we met a family, Dwight and Brenda Jackson who had three children close in age to our older ones. Also, I quickly realized in briefly listening to Dwight that he was a man wiser and more seasoned than I, and I wanted to be near him and learn.

A little over a month later we were in the Jackson’s home with a group of American families pondering our children’s educational needs. We had to admit some embarrassing truths. We had bitten off more than we could chew in coming here. Rwanda is a hardship posting for most organizations. In fact, many organizations simply would not station families with school age children here due to a lack of an educational option for their children. However, Dwight and I saw the challenge as an opportunity. It was time to take a bigger bite. We believed in the future of Rwanda and wanted to be where we believed God intended to move in a remarkable way. What if Rwanda would become a regional leader in education, trade, and spiritual renewal? If so, we needed to find a way to stay. What if God intended to start a new school that allowed international families in their peak career years to live here? If so, we needed to develop a school.

Thus the KICS dream began. For some odd reason, I was the first meeting chairman and have kept in that role for a season.

We began gathering families in similar situations to meet every other week at our home. We wrote lots of letters looking for teachers. We slowly began an odd process of gathering clusters of children to home school in available family’s garages. The process taught us that no family or organization would have the ability on it’s own to form a school. Instead this endeavor would require many hands to the plow in a united vision.

During those early months we went through a period of vision refinement. Would we exist to meet just our own children’s needs or would we exist to meet the needs of a community? Eventually, we concluded we existed to build a school for a community. In the process we chose our first board made up of Steve and Belinda Bauman, the Director of World Relief, Dabbs and Mary Cavin Chief Executive Officer for Opportunity International, Dr. Dwight and Brenda Jackson, the Regional Director of Food for the Hungry, Dr. Laurent and Chantal Mbanda, the Africa Vice President for Compassion International, George and Jana Ntumba working for a project of USAID, and our own family.

We found that our initiative was one that quickly pricked other’s interest, but their ears were skeptical. Could this endeavor possible succeed? A few overtures were made by secular sources which sought to minimize our commitment of faith. The overtures even came with enticements of financial help. However, as we pondered we concluded we had all come to Rwanda by the Lord’s calling; and we trusted that He would continue to care for our children. This was not a season to minimize our faith, but a season to cling to our faith.

We kept praying, planning, and recruiting; and by the skin of our teeth opened KICS in September 2006. We had three young brave, visionary, and dedicated pioneer teachers join us in Kyla Kiser, Amanda Moore, and Lauren Zumbron. (I still can’t believe they uprooted their lives to take the risk on our crazy dream.) Belinda Bauman served as our first Head Mistress until her husband Steve was transferred to Baltimore to become World Relief’s Vice President. We met in a four-bed room school. Brenda Jackson was our Secondary teacher. Sharon Barclay was our Pre-School teacher. Laura Ndora came as a missionary from Kenya to join us. We looked like several one room school houses in one location. For instance, our Kindergarten through Second grade was in one room, our Third through Fifth grade was in one room, and our Sixth and Seventh grade was in another room. We started with about 25 kids, but the vision was growing. The Baumans left in November 2006. Brenda Jackson assumed the role of Head Mistress.

Our elders, Tom and Sue Gooch and Larry Schwab were with us for that first week. Thankfully, they saw the potential in it. We became aware of the Hall and School for sale in the Caisse Sociale Vision 2020 Estate in Gaculiro, and off we went on the work of fundraising. We needed $1,356,000 to buy this property, and we seemed like a real rag tag outfit. Could this possibly happen?

Our family went on furlough in October 2006 and the journey continued. We thought many would think we were nuts, but instead many of you graciously responded. In February 2007 our family returned to Rwanda. The purchase of this facility was far outside of my areas of expertise. Thankfully, as Solomon says, “Many advisors make victory sure.” A few weeks later, Dr. Mike O’Neal (Oklahoma Christian University President) and Steve Clark (Oklahoma City businessman) were with us to finalize negotiations. They did a fabulous job, a contract was signed and the journey continued.

By the grace of God we made our first two payments, and now we are in discovery mode for the next $550,000. God has taken us so far that I can’t imagine the remainder will not be discovered.

In April our community of parents and teachers made the move to our current facility. Our trucks were full and our hearts eager. I wondered if we were the modern Rwandan equivalent to pioneers moving in a covered wagon to start a new life. In May we began our first semester in an actual school building. Our number of students had grown to 45. We were beginning to look like a school.

In July we completed our first year at KICS. It’s amazing what a year has done. At our closing ceremonies we could not believe the goodness of the Lord.

Over the last few months we’ve been joined by some others. New teachers came – Amy Brown, Jenny Conoway, Linda Huang, Rebecca Lewis and Christine Owor. We’ve got a full time Principal, Brian Dolinger and Librarian, Christy Dolinger. Bryan Hixson has come to manage the facility. Finally, our community of involved parents just continues to grow. Volunteers teach art. Others work the reception. Playgrounds are built. KICS becomes what we make it.

So what’s the point? Why is KICS so important for Rwanda’s development?

I wish all of you could hear the stories I hear each day. The general theme is “We want to be in Rwanda at such a time as this. It can not happen without KICS.” Our student body represents the children of the thought leaders in Kigali. It includes government, media, education, and business leaders. It also includes drivers in international organizations from embassies to the leading non-profit developmental organizations. Finally, it includes missionaries sent to simply plant churches and make disciples. KICS is a meeting point for our community. Without KICS Rwanda would lose the most capable personnel from both abroad and local. The well being of our children is our rallying point. Also, though we are clearly a school based upon Christian faith we are also an inclusive group. Those who are exploring (or even have rejected) faith are welcome here. Our faith drives us to care for the children of our community despite one’s heritage or belief system.

So what’s the way forward? Where do we go from here?

Just like I didn’t know when I arrived in June 2005 that the Lord would take our children’s need and turn it into one of the region’s leading schools, I don’t completely know. What I do know is that we have no option, but growth. My phone still rings. We have many more families who want their children enrolled than we have space for. Our growth is now limited by finding quality teachers. Will you join me in praying for more to arise?

It has been a surprising journey. We’ve come a long way. The Lord has far exceeded our expectations, and we eagerly await the next tasks he will place before us.

Imana ikurinde (May the Lord Stay with All of You),

Dave