“I am a father to many children,” says Moses Nkembe. “I want to transform my students, and help them become good citizens. Whenever I enroll a child, my prayer is that the child will become different. We want to impact their lives for God, so they can impact their own generation.”

Growing up in northern Cameroon near Bamenda, Moses came from the anglophone region, and has seen the impact of the English-French conflict in his country. But when he went to work in the Congo, his business there collapsed due to war. When he returned to Cameroon and settled in the city of Bertoua, he felt called to education.

“I had a vision to create a school, but I did not have the means. I met with some brothers, and shared the vision. In 2015, we started Shekinah Bilingual School, and by the grace of God, we now have 800 students.”

After starting three more schools in the next few years, Moses could see that with the challenges of society, he needed new skills, methods, and strategies. “A leader who stops learning should also stop leading,” he says.

“When I heard about the Abundant Leadership Institute, I said ‘at last, the Lord has answered my prayer.’ It will go a long way to empower me as a school leader. It will help me to increase my skills. I see in myself that I am lacking skills and capacity.”

One of his students had been stealing at home and at school, and Moses had to call his parents. The boy’s mother started to cry, and said she didn’t know what to do with him. He told her to not give up, and befriended the boy. The student has now graduated from that school, changed greatly, and comes back to visit Moses.

“In Cameroon,” he says, “we have much conflict. Our city is far from the conflict lines, but among our students we have internally displaced students, who fled their homes to come to our city. When they arrive, we show them love. They don’t pay the same school fees. We preach peace. We preach living together and harmony, and love for your country. When we do this, we bring our own little help to the situation.”

So many times, leaders say these words, but don’t live it. For Moses and his wife Alima Shire, they took a refugee family into their home. With those five new children, it’s not easy, since that family fled the conflict, and arrived with nothing. “I give equally to all the children. They are coming to our school for free.”

When Moses looks ahead, he says “in this program, there is an objective, something I want to achieve, new ideas I will gain. I imagine what I’m going to gain there, and I will come back and transform my community.”