Craig and Claudia Smith - Uganda |
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c/o Crosslinks
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Craig and Claudia headed for Uganda in August 2008
Previously they were living in Redhill where Craig was a maths teacher in a secondary school and Claudia a school chaplain. More recently they trained at All Nations Christian College. Craig has previously worked with Crosslinks in Zimbabwe. They have two children – Leo and Bethany.
Crosslinks has been exploring the possibility of a three year placement at a university in southern Uganda. Craig would be training maths teachers (and maybe doing some maths lecturing!) with Claudia having a chaplaincy and counselling role. These possibilities are still to be confirmed, but if they do go ahead the work could make a big difference. Poor training and subject knowledge of teachers, alongside difficult conditions and low pay all add to low retention rates of teachers – especially maths teachers. As well as developing their skills, as future role models it would be great to see future maths teachers have a strong faith in Jesus. Likewise Claudia’s role will be an important one as she seeks to use her chaplaincy and counselling skills with students and the wider community. Alongside these things, we would also be working with the local church. The roles sound very exciting and exactly what we are hoping to do.
They write: "We are both really excited and thank God for His leading and guidance. As you can imagine, this is a big step for the family. It is enormously important to us that we build a good foundation of prayer support among our family and friends, both for us as a family and for the work that we will be doing."
Craig and Claudia write their own blog: http://www.smithsinafrica.blogspot.com/