WINNING STAR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

This school is associated with Mount Zion Community Church, a church plant springing out of Titian Ministries International. (See Our Story) The vision began to expand.  Pastor Fred is a great visionary, and he soon began to dream about establishing a school.

In 2014, Dr. Gertruda Armaly brought a team to minister in Ghana and they visited Pastor Fred and Blessing and their church family.  We established a wonderful relationship with Pastor Fred and Blessing. 

The original vision of the church included a Christian children’s school.  The school was started in 2015 in the church.  That was their first academic year. The school expanded very quickly because of the desperate need of the children who came to the church but many were not attending school.  Several rough structures were put up on the property, but they lacked staff and supplies.  The attendance grew quickly and at one point he had over 100 children.  But COVID interrupted everything.

During the COVID era, the school began to struggle, and Pastor Fred could no longer pay his staff.  Many of the children in this village were unable to pay for their one meal a day and were unable to buy the school supplies needed or the uniforms. Their needs were huge when they turned to us to help them. The District Assembly (government) was giving them requirements that they could not meet.

Dr. Gertruda Armaly and Rev Donna Rohrmiller began to ask the Lord what His desire was regarding the school.  The Lord’s approval was felt all over this new assignment.  It is interesting to note that our children’s home had closed which was the original vision for Titian Ministries.  We were still serving foster children and educating some previous children’s home children.   But our yes to the Lord allows us to impact many more children.

Matthew 25:21 His lord said to him, “Well done good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of the Lord.

We now have 215 children.  God has provided for a computer lab with all the needed equipment.  All their curriculum and books have been brought up to date and kindergarten workbooks have been purchased.

We have 15 teachers on staff and 3 nonteaching staff who help prepare the food so that the kids can have 2 good meals a day.

Sometimes the needs seemed overwhelming. The buildings that the students had their classes in were very poor structures. The children sat sometimes 3 in a desk because they did not have enough desks. So desks for the children and for the teachers were purchased as well as blackboards.

The students at this school are very good in sports and have won several competitions already.  But to continue they needed to have uniforms. So, we purchased the needed equipment and jerseys for the team. This identified them as competing for Winning Star School.

There were no toilet facilities for the staff or children, so that became an urgent need. When that was completed, we built a kitchen for the women. They had been cooking outside and sometimes in the rain.

Because of the poor conditions of the classrooms and lack of storage area, our next project was to complete the KG room. It was all open concept and some of the children were having great difficulty learning. The Ghana Department of Education asked that we put in the needed partitions between the classes. Ceiling fans, windows, floor, storage area, colourful paintings on the wall and new round tables and chairs were all provided. It is a great improvement for them.

Our next project is to finish the “Long Building” which has students in it from grade 1 to junior high. It is just a rough shelter. We are closing it in, putting in a cement floor, windows, new roof, dividers, ceiling fans etc.

They are also in need of a dorm for the boys and one for the girls. Little by little the school is being upgraded. It is a joy to see these poorest of the poor get a up-to-date facility.