Culture of Grace and Forgiveness

KW works with a TeachBeyond partner school, located at a creative access location in Africa. “Our school is relatively young and we are still establishing its foundations. One of the core values we are trying to develop is a culture of grace and forgiveness,” said KW, as she shared a story of a boy who joined the school at Grade 2.

The child would spend hours playing a violent video game at home, and often used a lot of inappropriate, vulgar language. However, after a few years in the school, his father came to KW and said, “He’s different. Why is that?” “I think he’s learning about love,” she responded.

The boy would often get into trouble. “One day, I realized that I falsely assumed him to be the troublemaker in an incident. So, the next day, I pulled him aside and said that I was really sorry I had accused him of something he hadn’t done, and I needed to ask for his forgiveness. Two weeks later, we saw him do the same thing with another student on the playground, going through the reconciliation process.”

The boy also joined ‘Bible club’ as an afterschool activity, where the students were asked to write out prayers. When asked how God would respond to his prayer, he said, “God would say, I love you.”

“Being in a country where we are restricted with what and how we can share, we need to be creative in our approach. We look to live out our faith and create an environment where we can demonstrate God’s love through our actions, which opens up doors to further conversations,” said KW, adding, “we thank God for sending these children into our lives. It has been amazing to watch God transform them.”