Liebing October 2020

Students eagerly awaiting a new school day at the Rafiki front gate

What a wild year 2020 has been and promises to continue to be! I do hope that you and your families are well and are continuing to persevere in the joy of the Lord. I am sure that many of us will look back at 2020 as a milestone year of some sort, and the case is no different with me. I am actually writing to tell you about some important things that have been going on with me this year.

As most of you know, I have long been passionate about missions—both domestic and foreign—and have had several opportunities over the years to serve in international short-term missions. I have been deeply blessed and challenged by those times and have always left aflame with passion for the global Church. Therefore, for years I have prayed and hoped that the Lord would one day clearly open the door to long-term foreign missions if my time and energy would be useful to my Savior in that capacity. It seems that He is doing so through an opportunity to serve with the Rafiki Foundation!

I first came into contact with Rafiki through friends at Mars Hill Academy in Cincinnati. They told me to look into this reformed missionary organization that focuses on intensive Bible study, widow’s ministry, orphan care, and…wait for it…developing classical Christian schools in their training Villages in Africa. They were looking for missions-minded classical teachers to serve. I was thrilled—what could be a more perfect fit for my experience and passions? I ended up spending part of the summer of 2014 in Tanzania; teaching, training, and falling in love with the children and staff of the Rafiki Village there. Since then, the Lord has led me down many unexpected paths, but Rafiki’s mission never left my mind or heart.

Over the last year or so, I have felt that timing and opportunity were providentially aligning to direct me back towards Rafiki. I began praying much and seeking counsel from my family, church leadership, and other godly mentors about whether the Lord would direct me towards long-term service with this mission. Last spring, I applied to be a long-term missionary, and have now completed several rounds of training with Rafiki, including a two-week-long training called “Survival Camp” designed for incoming long-term missionaries. At the end of that time, the leadership at Rafiki confirmed their acceptance of my application and their desire that I serve with them as a headmaster of one of their PreK-12 schools. I am also very grateful to say that my church missions board at Independent Presbyterian Church has recently confirmed that they want to send and support me in this endeavor. In other words, I believe that the Lord is swinging the door to Africa open and directing me down this path of mission service with Rafiki!

A Rafiki teacher and students enjoying the beautiful weather in Malawi!

The plan, Lord willing, is for me to finish this school year teaching in Savannah while raising support and preparing to go to the Rafiki Village in Malawi for an initial two-year term. I hope to be ready to leave sometime next summer. All of these things are both exciting and deeply humbling for me—I would appreciate your prayers as I walk this path and seek to hold my Lord’s hand firmly in every step!

Would you prayerfully consider learning more about Rafiki’s mission to raise up godly disciples of Christ in Africa, and about my role serving in the Educational Program of this ministry? I am excited to start spreading the news of this wonderful work, and there is, of course, much more I wish I had space to tell you here. Frankly, writing this letter has long loomed over me as a daunting task because of how difficult it is to succinctly communicate how the Lord has brought all of this about. It is impossible to articulate in a page all that I hope and pray He is doing through it. If you are getting this letter though, it is because you have been a precious brother or sister in the Lord. You are one whose love and wisdom I have treasured in my own walk, and whose support I deeply value—in whatever way the Lord may lead you to offer it. If He lays it on your heart, I would love any opportunity to talk more with you about all of this!

Every Rafiki School starts the day with a hymn and studying God’s Word with the Rafiki Bible Study

In the meantime, may the Lord bless and keep you, and may we all continue on in stirring one another up to good works, for He is worthy!

For His glory!

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