April 2012

Wellspring Academy project hits the home stretch

WhyiTmeans sO much foR meBy Richard Taylor

It is hard to describe how meaningful it is for me—as one of Wellspring’s founders—to reach the home stretch in our financial commitment to The Wellspring Academy. I vividly remember seeing the land where the school now sits for the first time. It was 2002. I was a recent University graduate and had come to volunteer for two weeks with a church called Christian Life Assembly Rwanda. The land was a mess. It was steep enough to be a small ski hill and years of neglect had left it with massive carved divots, scrub brush, and struggling trees.

Despite these constraints, there was a group of Rwandans with a vision that one day this land would develop godly leaders for the future of their nation. They saw a model Christian school where there was once a history of brokenness, violence, and neglect. Little did I know that two years later Jeffery Komant (Wellspring’s co-founder) and I would sit in a room with these visionaries and commit ourselves to walk alongside them in fulfilling the vision.

So much has happened since that day. The land itself is unrecognizable and the echoes of children’s voices fill the void. Today one of Rwanda’s best Christian schools climbs up the side of the ski hill. And we are so close to completion I can almost taste it.

We are trusting God again for his provision in this one final push to finish the sporting facilities and outfit final classrooms. And I cannot wait until we celebrate together with our Rwandan brothers and sisters, giving all the glory to Him.

WELLSPRINGACADEMY

The Wellspring Academy infrastructure is almost finished!

In 2012 our goal is to complete the remaining

academic building (for Arts & Music) and sporting facilities.

This will give the school facilities for 650 students in K-12. Eight years of work is within a few more months of completion. We still need your help to build a building for physical education, change rooms, and work out facilities, a hardcourt for volleyball and basketball, a sports field, tennis courts, and a sand volleyball court.

We have an exciting matching grant available for all individual donations given before May 15th up to $75,000. That means your donation towards the completion of the Wellspring Academy will be doubled.

Thanks for helping us finish strong!

Matching Grant

Opportunity through May 15th

Double Your Donation up to grand total of $75,000

Secondary School - 2012 Projects

Completed

Soccer

Arts

Volleyball

Tennis

Volleyball

Gym

Toilets/Changerooms

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Secondary School Project UpdateDuring the month of March a lot of great progress was made towards finishing the Wellspring Academy. The foundations for the Arts building were put in place. The photos below show the work progress to date.

The below picture shows the work on the basketball court We were so blessed to have things turn out like this!

A missions team from Surrey BC arrived in Rwanda to work on various construction projects. One of them was the building of a pirate ship for the Wellspring Academy primary school playground.

Country Director had always wanted to tackle this project and bring to life a pirate ship. “I really thank God for the believers from Cedar Grove who came out to serve alongside of us for a couple of weeks and tackle a creative project. Thanks for making this little dream come true”

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The crew undertook an enormous retaining wall project to prepare for the future aerobics/weightroom/ and change rooms that will be located below the maintenance workshop area of the Campus.

Preparations were also undertaken for the future retaining walls around the upcoming sand volleyball court. We continue to thank God for CLA’s Bulldozer and skid steer without which this massive project would have been extremely hard to undertake.

Up Next:

• Start on the brickwork for the arts building • Finish the details on the new God honoring pirate ship (:

• Finish the rockwork around the future aerobics/weight room and change rooms.

• Finish the rockwork around the future volleyball court.

About two months ago I was spending time on the playground with the foundation year (kindergarten) students. I saw and began talking with one bright, energetic, beautiful girl who has a Canadian mother and a Rwandan father. About one minute later a Rwandan child came up to us, looked us over, and knowingly and proudly declared that, “You and her are the same!” I knew he was referring to our skin color, which is coincidentally very much NOT the same, and chuckled to myself in thinking about the brazen and “say-it-like-it-is” way that young children have and are allowed to have because of their naivety to social norms. Wellspring Academy’s vision and mission guides us in working hard to create a place where students are prepared to lead and live in ways that are also brazen and against certain societal, and perhaps even cultural norms.

The vision of the Wellspring Academy is to produce a new generation of servant leaders to bless Rwanda and display the best of Rwanda to the world.

We currently are working towards fulfilling this vision in the lives of the children from foundation year to se-nior 2 (grade 8). We will continue to add an additional class each year until we reach 650 students K-12, which would happen by the start of 2016. Class teachers guide students each day in morning devotions, in caring for their class’s and school’s cleanliness, in helping assist teachers and other students in various activities, and in caring for the overall well being of their peers. Rwandan society is not especially different from other societies in that servant leadership training is not common among its schools. Servant lead-ership training is being taught to and displayed by Wellspring students in a real and practical way that is preparing them and will hopefully launch them into a lifetime of service.

The mission of the Wellspring Academy is to educate and equip students to become highly skilled, Godly leaders, and agents of community transformation.

Wellspring Academy is a school that focuses on the whole child’s well-being, which is something of a novelty, and is definitely brazenly counter-societal when compared to many, if not nearly all, other primary and/or secondary schools in Rwanda. We are constantly working towards trying to help parents see the value of not just ensuring that their child scores well on their exams each year. This is the primary focus of most other schools in the country. Here, the academic results speak, almost exclusively, to the success of the school. We are actively engaging with parents and the community to help them see the value of a more comprehensive approach. One that focuses on the child’s spiritual growth, their emotional well-being, their social skills, their development in extra-curricular areas, and yes, their skill and knowledge in academic areas. It is an ongoing process to engage with the community in this way, but I have heard the comment from many parents in my short time as the school’s principal that they are so, so thankful for the opportunity to have their child receive an education that looks out for their entire well-being and seeks to support and help them in all areas of development. The school’s efforts to educate counter-culturally, by God’s grace, are not going unnoticed by our stakeholders and by those outside the Wellspring community, as our large waiting list (20-40 students per class) each year testifies to.

A Word from Wellspring Academy by Neil Entwistle, Principal

There are areas that the school needs to improve in, which we see as a sign of good health, as we do not want to settle into a state of apathy but want to push hard towards what we know, with God’s help, is possible for our Rwandan students and, in turn, for the country of Rwanda. We need to continue to work with our teachers towards increasing the quality of instruction going on inside the classroom. We need to look carefully at the systems of management that are in place to see how they can be modified to increase effectiveness and efficiency. We need to seek out and bring excellent international educators to help train our teachers. We need continued and increased involvement from our community members that will bring unity and momentum towards making our school’s vision a growing reality. We need to complete our school’s facility development projects so we can make some of our dreams become a reality. Looking ahead towards the future brings excitement. Teachers, parents, and students alike are truly beginning to see what is possible when the favor of the Lord rests upon a school that passionately loves Him and seeks to glorify Him in all that is done. It is an exciting time to be someone who has committed themselves to helping make Wellspring Academy’s vision attainable.

I sense God’s very real presence at this place. He has brought unity among all staff members. The children are proud to call Wellspring Academy their school. Lives are being challenged and changed for the glory of God. I have had the privilege of being able to invite most of the staff members, in groups, to my house for dinner during my time here. While eating, I have asked them, “What does Wellspring Acad-emy mean to you?” The responses have involved tears, both from the staff members who share and from those who listen, including myself. The answer that I have commonly heard is that they feel as if they are part of a family, which for some, is something they have not experienced before.

Wellspring Academy, a school for Rwandan children, taught by Rwandans, and for Rwanda is a place of hope. A hope that is centered on the Lord and what is possible when He moves in the hearts of His follow-ers. A hope that is centered on what is possible when young, Godly, servant leaders rise up and lead the country. And a hope that is centered on the power of Christ’s redeeming work in the lives of those He loves.

“Not to be served but to serve”

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5years

The Wellspring Academy is celebrating 5 years of empowering the next generation this year.

What’s your favorite memory of the Wellspring Academy? Maybe you’ve been there and remember a funny skit the teacher’s put on for the students, or you saw the grand opening of the school. Maybe you saw the Flag raising ceremony or got to chat with a couple of students playing on Ben’s Boathouse. Maybe you helped with landscaping or were excited to hear that the P6’s all scored in the top 10% of their national exams last year.

Whatever your favorite memory is, we’d love to hear it!

Visit the Wellspring Foundation Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/WelspringFoundation) and share

your favorite Wellspring Academy memory.

Wellspring’s 3rd Annual Lake2Lake Ride for Rwanda

will be on September 29+30, 2012.Team Wellspring is excited for the 3rd edition of the Lake2Lake Ride for Rwanda.

Last year saw the number of riders double and over $75,000 raised to empower the next generation through education that transforms lives.

This year we are hoping once again to expand our rider base and raise more awareness for the need of quality education in Rwandan Schools. If you rode last year, encourage your friends to join you this September.

New this year will be the opportunity to purchase a first edition Lake2Lake Rider Jersey. We will be posting a design on the blog and will be giving riders the opportunity to pre-order their official Lake2Lake Rider Jersey in the coming months. If you’d like to be informed of when the design is ready, sign up for email notifications.

Registration Open!$180 Earlybird until August 3rd

www.lake2lake.org

The Wellspring Foundation for Education is working with Rwandans to empower a new generation of leaders through education that transforms lives. Since 2004, we have offered training to hundreds of teachers, established a Professional Development Center, developed a model Christian school called the Wellspring Academy, supported the growth of the Association of Committed Teachers (ACT) Rwanda, and launched an innovative new community-focused solution for school transformation called the School Development Program.

Join the conversation:facebook.com/wellspringfoundationtwitter.com/wellspringfdn

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www.thewellspringfoundation.com