Anistemi Training College

Children of Promise Ministries has been working with orphans and vulnerable children in Namibia since 2003. Through the years their children have grown into teenagers who need marketable skills to enter the workplace. Enter Anistemi College and Training Centre.

The vocational training school opened earlier this year offering programs in Information Technology (IT) and Tourism & Hospitality. As they continue to grow in the future they plan to add Office Management, Woodworking, Hair Design, Agriculture, and more.

Computer lab

Funded through generous donors from the Netherlands, the facility in Usakos is perfect for this project. They have multiple buildings to use for different skill shops, classrooms, kitchen & cafeteria, student & staff housing, offices, etc. There are gardens, fruit trees, and even an obstacle course waiting to be fixed up for fitness training. This will be a place where students who most of society has cast aside will receive training and skills to become financially-sufficient, independent adults.

My parents and I visited the school just before all the students left for their mid-year break.

My dad brought along some storage drives
for the IT students to take apart.

My mom sharing her testimony with the students

Visitors

There's nothing to help procrastination like getting visitors! My parents came to visit for a week with Dan, one of the pastors from their church back home. My parents have been here quite a few times over the years, but it was Dan's first time in Africa. Most of our time together was spent visiting different ministries to show Dan some of the different things God's doing in Namibia and to introduce him to some of the ministry leaders.

We spent the first weekend visiting Children of Promise Ministries and Eagle Christian Center in Arandis. We enjoyed spending time with the church youth group on Friday night. They ended the night sharing jokes using different accents, so Dad chimed in with a Swedish accent telling a Jan and Sven joke. On Saturday we hung out with some ministry families and visited the church plot where they've begun construction on a perimeter fence. The church is currently meeting at the outdoor amphitheater because the Town Hall, where they usually meet, is undergoing renovations. So Sunday morning Dad, Dan and I joined some of the church guys to set up a shade covering over some of the benches, however that morning was quite windy. After much effort and engineering we managed a makeshift tent that wouldn't blow away in the wind. Monday morning we helped lead the assembly at Talitha Kumi Christian Academy with a puppet rendition of the Noah's ark story. My job was the special effects including lightning, sound effects and real rain! :)

After Arandis, we spent some time visiting friends and ministries in Okahandja. We went to a community center located in a squatter's camp area where a missionary couple is helping train women in making beads and jewelry. From there we walked a few streets over until the joyful sound of children singing could be heard emerging from a large building made of wooden pallet slats. This was one of almost 30 preschools throughout the whole city started by local teachers who our friend Joan has helped train. Six of her teachers have since gone on to receive official certification and are now teaching in public schools.

We also spent a day in Windhoek visiting NETS. We sat in on morning chapel and a freshman class on Understanding the Bible. In class we played a few games, students-vs-visitors, in which we prevailed, but probably our collective over-100 yrs of church background gave us a bit of an edge. We also got to visit with my SIM leader and the director at Campus Crusade for Christ.

In addition to ministry visits, we made sure Dan got to experience a bit of Africa since it was his first time. He got to try the world-famous Walvis Bay oysters, see the dunes of the Namib desert, watch the sun set over the Atlantic, barter at the wood carvers markets, and even see some wildlife on a safari game drive. Overall it was a great time having them around. It's always nice to have visitors with whom you can share the new things and experiences you've grown to love. So who's coming next??

Children of Promise

"What was the saddest day of your life?" She looked back at me after posing the question, eager to hear my reply. I wonder if she realized what a depressing conversation starter that was, or if it was just a normal topic in her life. Without much time to think about it nothing really came to my mind, at least nothing that compared to what I knew of her story. She's experienced more sad days in her short 12 or 13 years than anyone should ever have to. And now all she wanted was someone with a listening ear to ask her that question in return.

Children of Promise Ministries is a Christian foster care organization who places orphans and vulnerable children into Christian foster families. Most all of their kids have stories like this girl, including abandonment, abuse, neglect, or absentee parents. The ministry helps provide for their physical needs, education, and perhaps most importantly, a loving family. I've been working with this ministry in Namibia since 2004, so over the last 10 years I've watched many of these kids grow from toddlers to teenagers.

Most of their families live either in Rehoboth (about an hour south of Windhoek) or in the small mining town of Arandis. To get to Arandis from Windhoek, you hop on the main paved highway and drive for about 3 hours as the towns you pass through get smaller and smaller. The vegetation along the road turns from trees to shrubs to grass until finally there's nothing but rocks and sand and desert as far as you can see. And that's where you find Arandis. This was a town originally build for the workers at the nearby uranium mine, but since housing was inexpensive it seemed to be a good location for Children of Promise to set up one of their headquarters. Now they have a few different homes with foster families dotted throughout the community. Realizing the need for quality education for their children, they founded a private school, Talitha Kumi Christian Academy, which is now accredited by the government and runs from preschool through grade 7.

Back in 2008, I lived in Arandis for almost 4 months teaching Bible classes at Talitha Kumi, helping lead Bible studies at the public high school, getting involved with worship and youth ministry at a local church, and trying to provide a good male role model for these kids. Then I would see them about once a year when I would help lead teams over there. But last weekend I made my first debut in Arandis as a resident of Namibia and it was exciting to tell them I was now living in Windhoek. We took plenty of walks around town, made photos of the sunset and the stars, and played lots of Skip-Bo! It was great to be back with them again. And now that I'm only 3 hours away I hope to go much more often.