It’s often heard that any organization is only as strong as its leaders.  Whether it is through the quiet, gentle style of servant leadership or the dynamic, energetic style of transformational leadership, leaders bear the responsibility for both sustaining the foundation of the organization and spurring its growth.  And certainly nowhere is competent leadership more fundamental than in the non-profit field, where uniting people around a cause is so vital.

However, as we at the Khanyisela Scholarship continue to witness, the growth of this program can not be attributed to strong leadership alone.  Instead, the credit for the development that the scholarship has seen over these past eight months goes largely to our supporters – those who have heard about the educational challenges faced by students living at St. Vincent Children’s Home and have been moved to respond in some way.  For the prayerful, creative, and financial support that the Khanyisela Scholarship has received, we are extremely grateful.

One group of supporters deserves special thanks.  The Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, an international religious community, has rallied around the cause from both sides of the Atlantic.  In South Africa, the Sisters operate St. Vincent Children’s Home, the beneficiary of the Khanyisela Scholarship.  The Sisters there have long advocated for accessible educational or employment opportunities for when the children age out of the orphanage.  The Khanyisela Scholarship was designed in collaboration with the Sisters and staff of St. Vincent’s, and the result is a flourishing, sustainable program that appropriately meets the needs of children.  In the United States and Canada, the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, or CPS (the Latin name of the community is Congregatio Pretiosi Sanguinis) acts as the scholarship’s fiscal agent.  This affiliation provides the Khanyisela Scholarship Program the benefits of being formally associated with a registered non-profit organization, including tax benefits to the scholarship’s donors.

The relationship between the Khanyisela Scholarship and CPS is far from a financial, or even organizational, nature, however.  (That’s not to say it doesn’t help – with the assistance of the North American CPS Sisters, the scholarship is on its way to accepting online donations, so keep your eyes on this website!)  In addition to tax benefits, the Sisters have given the scholarship their time and their prayers.  Last weekend Rachel and I visited the Sisters at their convent in Shillington, PA.  As we caught up with our long-time friends who live there, joined them in prayer, and found time for peaceful reflection in the still forests that surround their retreat center, we felt loved, supported, and deeply blessed.  The Khanyisela Scholarship is stronger because of all that the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood show us: the enrichment of community, the power of prayer, and the divine spirit that has touched this project since its inception.  So it is not, perhaps, the Khanyisela program’s leaders who move the project forward, nor even its supporters, but rather the grace of something larger than ourselves, something in us, and in everything, and everyone around us.

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