A beautiful new children’s library is now open on campus. The kids are already coming in droves to check out books or to spend relaxing hours curled up with a good read on a cushion. More than 60 children have already registered, and the library has quickly become a favorite gathering point. NEGST children from several local schools even held a Bible club sleepover in the library.

The library offers children a peaceful, safe and beautiful place to expand their horizons after school hours and on Saturdays (giving their parents extra time to study). The new librarian, extension student Jecinta Wambui, is gifted in helping the children select just the right books, and spent most of her time over the past year volunteering to organize the library.

Children across campus are already making marked improvement in their reading skills, as they devour the tales from distant lands. Pistis School has been holding reading classes and book reading contests. In addition, NEGST students have been benefiting from the wide variety of Sunday school teacher materials available.

How did the library happen?

More than a year ago, Paul and Gwen Kato—Paul is the son of NEGST founder, Byang Kato—visited the campus primary school, called Pistis, and decided that the family would send a whole container of books to benefit the children. The work of the whole extended family required a year’s work, fund-raising and planning.

Since the container arrived last year, a Pistis School team has been organizing the thousands of books, entering them into a computer, building shelves, and creating one of the best children’s libraries in the area.

Early this year, NEGST offered a room on campus to house the books. Interestingly, the children’s library is located immediately adjacent to where the NEGST library was located in “the old days”. With the availability of a large room and with the help of Pistis interns Hannah and Stacey, the organizing moved along at a rapid clip.

The final push in this enormous endeavor was in conjunction with a group of women from Canada, called the WOW Women, who helped to paint and put up bright, new curtains to make the room a refreshing place for children to open their imaginations. Pistis children put the final touches on the room, as each class added hand-made decorations.