It's been a crazy mixed up year for us all! The academic year started back in February and lasted all of 6 weeks before Covid restrictions and school closures "hit" Mozambique along with the rest of the world. Fast forward nine months ...
Nine months of "HomeSchool" with 150 school age children ....
We organised groups according to grades, our Mozambiquan staff became teacher's overnight and we kept some semblance of a school programme rolling - more to protect our sanity I think!
Then the government announced a staggered re - start for all the exam years!! Year 12 went first followed by year 10 and finally - Year 7s!
We shopped for all the "safety measure equipment " you can imagine. Three masks per child, hand gels, disinfectant sparays and rules and regulations on returning from school....
I don't think we were any different from the rest of the big wide world!
BUT GOD ...
Nine months with 150 children is an "impossible" equation - in the natural. But they have studied in small amounts, we have raised up people to teach and passed more and more responsibilty onto our Mozambiquan team - and the children have relished this return - NO FEAR!
This has been the "light" in this difficult season. In the natural we so want to protect each of them as they sit single file, wear visors at their desks, limit contact with colleagues, curtail recess ... but we can't . Our "Back to School" kids are learning the reality and the truth of GOD as their protector - their Super Human shield. Once again in the difficulties we see God at work and young lives growing to trust Him again.