The spiritual development of students is a daily priority for Rift Valley Academy staff,
Our highest responsibility and richest privilege at RVA is the task of nurturing our students in their love for and likeness to Christ…We foster this conviction through daily life as dorm families, discipleship, dorm devotions, Christ-centered classroom environments, a variety of student-led and collective worship experiences, engagement with Scripture, and sharing meals and conversations together in our homes. (from rva.org)
In addition to this daily discipleship, every year the school hosts Spiritual Emphasis Week. Usually a pastor is brought in (often from the U.S.) to encourage and challenge Jr. High and High School students in their walk with Christ.
Part of Lilli’s spiritual growth came as a result of the influence of one of these speakers, Dave Busby, who came to RVA for Spiritual Emphasis Week in the 80’s. Dave was a man whose love for Christ gave him a passion to encourage young people in the gospel. Though he daily struggled with cystic fibrosis, polio, liver disease, heart disease, and diabetes, he exuded a joy that could only come from a deep dependence on Christ. I, Jonathan, was blessed to meet him before he died in December of 1997.
“Could it truly be, Father, that by your sovereign grace and mercy you’ve gifted me more than many by giving me thorns and difficulties? I’m blessed to experience your intimate, manifested presence and power. David said it best: ‘…a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere…’ Good math tells me one month in your active, intimate presence is more than ninety years. Then I’ve lived many lifetimes and you’ve blessed me abundantly.”
-Dave Busby
Probably the biggest name to speak for Spiritual Emphasis Week was Billy Graham in 1960. He was on a six-week “Safari for Souls” tour in Africa and had addressed 20,000 Kenyans at Mitchell Park in Nairobi. One-thousand people, led by an old Kikuyu, came forward.
Many speakers have come to RVA for this special week, some well known, some not. That’s not important. What matters is whether they pointed the students away from themselves to their only hope for life and godliness, Jesus Christ? May it be!
