The other day Fred Buyinza, ACT Rwanda chairman got a call from Reverand Gasabira who just wanted to call and say “thank you”.

You see out in the Eastern Province of the little country of Rwanda is a little District called Gatsibo.  In the little sector called Kabaore, there is a little church owned school called “Mustard Seed primary school”.  Now Mustard Seed was supposed to be a light in its community, but for a while there it certainly didn’t seem to be shining brightly if at all.  Symptomatic of the underlying problem was that for three years in a row the school performed miserably in the national grade 6 leaving exams, the tests which dictate the opportunity of this rural agricultural community to have its children go on to secondary school.  The parents were completely disheartened by the poor quality of the school and its staff.  Increasingly they were sending their children to a boarding school much further away at a much greater cost. With his school falling apart, Reverand Gasabira got a hold of Fred Buyinza, ACT Rwanda chairman in late 2008 asking for some advice and help.

Fred met with Gasabira and at the end of that meeting recommended that he hire ACT member Mbaraga Nelson to be the headmaster of the school.  Nelson exemplifies the heart of ACT.  Together with other ACT members in his region he has been chewing on devotional and thematic studies developed by ACT for its 750 + members across the country.  One of ACT’s biggest and most constant appeal to its members is that they begin to do the right thing as teachers even before their working circumstances change.  In a country where teachers are severely underpaid, where there are over 65 children in the average class, where the workload is high and the recognition is low, that is quite the ask.

By modeling a genuine passion for educating Rwanda’s next generation and giving the best of himself, Nelson quickly won over the hearts of his colleagues who promptly joined ACT themselves.  Their attitudes began to change and their behavior followed suit.  They began to serve and encourage their students in ways they never had before.  All of the teachers in the school set up a special care program to help the grade 6 students (many of whose parents aren’t literate) with their homework and revision.  They spoke hope and confidence into the lives of these little people.

And that is why Fred got a call from the pastor in Eastern province.  Gasabira wanted Fred to know that every single grade six student had passed the national exam, and that all but two had done so within the top level of results.  For the teachers of Mustard Seed primary school the circumstances hadn’t changed but their attitudes did, and the outcome was dramatic.  Now there is a whole grade 6 class from a little school in the little sector of Kabaore, in the little district of Gatsibo, that will go to high school and stand a far greater chance of becoming future leaders of the little country of Rwanda.

It just goes to show that a little love goes a long way.