Koepke April 2024

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

Graduates update

• Lydia is a school teacher, wife, mother, and on the short list to teach at Bingham University.
• Philip and Job have been working at a business in Abuja. They make lamp holders and plastic products like buckets, chairs, etc. We are proud of our guys working there. We know it is difficult factory work but will help them learn to support themselves.
• Tabitha is studying biochemistry at UNIJOS while working part-time sewing for a company in Jos that makes athletic wear like jogging pants and jackets. She is a wonderful seamstress and a budding biochemist!
• Moses John and Micah are budding artists. Their paintings are very good and they are using money from the sale of their art while at UNIJOS where they are both studying architecture.
• Luke graduated from computer repair and computing school. He then went on to graduate from Nigeria Television Network where he learned to take professional pictures and videos. He currently works at Rafiki’s Institute of Classical Education in the teacher training program.
• Blessing and Joanna are teaching at the same primary school in Abuja.
• Claudia’s Dean said she has passed her exams, and nothing will stop her from being a doctor. Praise God!

Women of Hope
Women of Hope is a ministry in Jos, Nigeria that trains widows to sew a wide variety of items that are of high quality. Rafiki has partnered with Women of Hope, and routinely ships their products to the Home Office in Florida so they can be sold and provide an income for these needy women. Here is a sample of some Christmas tree angel ornaments that they recently made.

Bible distribution

Crossway Publishing is currently pursuing the distribution of 1 million Bibles into parts of the world where the need is the greatest. Because Rafiki Foundation has laid the groundwork for importing goods into each of its ten countries, Crossway has partnered with Rafiki in the distribution of about 200,000 of those Bibles. Recently, 55,000 Bibles arrived at Rafiki Nigeria Village. They will be distributed to partner denominations for dissemination to seminaries and churches throughout the country.

55,000 Bibles being offloaded at the Village

During the Home Office visit in February, we were asked to investigate the possibility of printing Rafiki materials in-country. The demand for Rafiki School Curriculum, hymnals, the Rafiki Bible Study, and Sunday school materials has approached the capacity of Rafiki’s press, so we ask for your prayers as we need wisdom in determining the best way to go forward in each of Rafiki’s ten countries.

Because of the generosity of Ligonier Ministries and Rafiki’s long-term relationship with ECWA, an indigenous church in Nigeria, 2,000 Reformation Study Bibles were distributed to missionaries in the Evangelical Missionary Society. These missionaries serve in nineteen countries, reaching the unreached throughout West Africa and beyond. Upon receiving the Bibles, the missionaries broke out singing in Hausa, “What shall we say unto the Lord? We can only say to Him we are grateful.” Afterwards, several ECWA missionaries were called to the stage and honored for their continued devotion to the Lord after having been kidnapped or losing their families or villages to violent attacks.

ECWA missionaries receiving study Bibles

Village news

Our kitchen ladies do an outstanding job of providing nutritious and tasty food for 528 hungry mouths at lunchtime, plus breakfast for 400 students. Two of the ladies were formerly Rafiki Mothers in the cottages, but as the resident children graduated, these two ladies transferred into the kitchen. Their experience as former Mothers is a great benefit to the kitchen. These ladies also take care of all the laundering of staff uniforms and table linens.

We will be traveling quite a bit for the next six months. A need has arisen in Ethiopia that we are well suited to fill. The plan is that we will spend a month in Ethiopia and two weeks in Nigeria, repeating that pattern until October. Since we just spent four weeks in Ethiopia in November, it will be nice to reunite with our brothers and sisters in Christ there who work at Rafiki.

Praises

• Inflation has stabilized to a large degree in Nigeria.
• A container with 55,000 Bibles has been delivered and distribution of those Bibles has begun.

Prayer Requests

• JAMB exams that determine whether students can be accepted at universities are underway. NECO and WAEC exams that demonstrate students’ high school academic abilities will follow soon.
• Wisdom for us as we work in Ethiopia and Nigeria over the next six months.
• For God to strengthen ECWA missionaries, who work in very difficult areas.

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