Our Leadership Summit coaches have been giving incredible testimonies as they see growth and change throughout the school year. Emily, one of our coaches, wrote the following testimony about Boitsebelo, one of the schools where she teaches.

“Boitsebelo learners are always doing their work, even though I didn’t tell them to do so, because I always teach them that it is important to read the lesson before we do it. I am glad because even if I was not there they still do what I’ve taught them to do. I want Thrive Africa to know that they are very important to youth because they open the students eyes and minds.”

We love getting feedback and seeing how the coaches are impacting the students in their classes!

Our AIDS Prevention Program, Leadership Summit, is taught by incredible young  Basotho leaders we call coaches. As we gear up for 2010, we’re recruiting more of these young leaders to work with us.

Recently, Thapelo, one of our current coaches, came to a LaunchPad class to talk to some of the students about working with Leadership Summit. It was encouraging to watch him talk passionately about his role as a coach. Eyes were fixed on him as he described how God uses him and the curriculum in each of his classes. By the end of his short description, every hand was reaching forward for a flyer to learn how to apply to be a coach.

We love seeing the coaches’ passion for what God is doing and how excited they are about having people join them in changing their community.

A Leadership Summit Coach, Tshidi, is beginning to see the fruit of being a consistent mentor in the lives of her students.

“I just share my life with them and they share with me. Many [students] come up to me after class and tell me that they are now reading their Bibles at home and now understand what God says about things like sexual immorality.”

It’s not just the Coaches that are seeing growth. One of our Leadership Summit students shared the personal impact the AIDS Prevention program has had on her, “I couldn’t forget what you taught me.  I remembered when you said that self-control must be in my mind, day and night, at school and even at home.”

God is definitely moving! We love seeing how He’s using Tshidi, as well as the other Coaches, to influence the youth in their community for Christ.

At the last IMPACT, each group of student leaders was charged with coming up with an idea to impact their communities and schools.

As we stood back and looked at all of their projects Monday afternoon, we were amazed! Each school came up with an original idea-from gardens that help reduce poverty to plans for reducing violence at their schools. It was so encouraging to see how each group met and exceeded our expectations! We can’t wait to see the fruit of the students’ hard work in their communities.

Check out all of the photos from the most recent IMPACT here.

In Leadership Summit, the coaches are not only teaching their students valuable information, they are also building genuine relationships.  Through their classes, they are investing in their students and building a deep and compelling trust.

A student in Patricia’s class has opened up to her enough to share an untold hurt.  When the student tried to share this with her parents, she was met with cold shoulders and indifferent hearts.  Instead of being unreceptive, Patricia welcomed her with love and warmth, enabling her to find freedom in the arms of God.  Patricia helped her student embrace healing by putting her in contact with someone who could provide additional counseling and connect her with the right authorities.

“I’m free!” she exclaimed.  One of Tshidi’s Leadership Summit students had approached her with a heavy heart about being an orphan, but left school that day liberated.  “I told her she wasn’t an accident.  God made her for a purpose and wanted to use her,” said Tshidi.

Tshidi always has a testimony to share during our weekly coach meetings, but this week her faced glowed as she retold the story.  Another Leadership Summit Coach, Thapelo, practically interrupted Tshidi with a similar story.  In Thapelo’s words:

“After teaching the lesson on self-image, a boy from my class came up to me and said, ‘You really lifted me up.  The kids always make fun of me because I’m a little darker, but I’m made in the image of God and that is all that matters.’  It felt so good to be used by God to help him.”

Leadership Summit kicked off this week with the welcome addition of a new school, Dithotaneng. School headmaster, Leputla said that he is very excited for Leadership Summit to be coming to his school. He shared that Dithotaneng is a “tough” school which will benefit from the mentoring and counseling the coaches bring to both learners and Life Orientation Teachers. He has experienced the difference made in the past and is excited about the bright future with a partnership with Leadership Summit.

Our coaches are really looking forward to heading into this new school. Please pray with us that they would be able to connect with these kids and begin to speak Godly wisdom into their lives.

Beginning in February the interns will be teaching the class “Discover your Gifts” to the Leadership Summit coaches as part of their development. It was great timing when the interns “dropped in” on one of their coach training days as they toured Qwa Qwa.

The day provided a relaxed opportunity to share a little about themselves with the coaches as well as open time to visit one on one. The coaches were thrilled to meet their new “teachers” prior to the classes beginning.  It was evident in how well everyone got along that this was going to be an amazing God-inspired year!

Photos of interns and coaches meeting.

Many of our coaches go way above and beyond for the students they teach in our AIDS prevention program. Joseph started an after-class Bible study to help his students dive more into God’s Word. We were able to give each of them a Bible, and now the Word of God is really starting to come alive in their hearts.

One of the students shared:

“I want to thank Leadership Summit for giving me the Bible that will encourage me to live my life in God’s way. It will teach me to know God better than the way I know him now.”

Another said:

“I want to say thank you for giving me the Bible. This Bible will change my life because I will read it day and night. I will tell people about God and spread the words of God.”

We are so glad we have the opportunity to lead programs like this in public schools!

I never cease to be amazed by the power of teamwork.

We had a huge challenge before us: The need to collate and bind 5000 workbooks for our AIDS prevention program next year. The interns worked diligently to get the thousands upon thousands of pages collated. All that was left to do was punch holes in them and add the comb binding. But without enough time left in the internship year, we knew they wouldn’t be able to get all the work done in time. So we came up with a plan.

A sign-up sheet was made with ten days worth of time slots to bind the workbooks after hours. We signed up for three- or four-hour shifts on weekday evenings and over the weekends. In groups of six people at a time, we figured over the course of the next two weeks we’d surely get all 5000 books finished.

Everyone worked together, interns and staff. We played music, ate candy, and even watched movies while we labored together on the books that will go into the hands of students early next year. And we managed to finish the whole project in only 5 days!

Jenn, the Director of Leadership Summit, sent out an email today that said—

“Above and beyond, working hard, enduring sore muscles, arm cramps, and much more, we, as a team, have FINISHED the collating, binding, stacking, organizing, and putting together of all the Break the Silence books for Leadership Summit students to use next year!  Days before the schedule deadline you have finished what seemed like an overwhelming and daunting task – nothing is too difficult when we come together, join forces, and work for God and His Kingdom!”

I love seeing what we can accomplish when we all work together.