Day 22 - The Power of Yet

Children in Sierra Leone are learning the power of Yet.

Education in Sierra Leone is a major national priority. Levels of illiteracy (approximately 48% in 2022) remain some of the highest in the world. To tackle this, the Sierra Leone government has made primary education both compulsory and free. It hopes that within a couple of generations, mass illiteracy (which is already mainly seen in older generations) will be a thing of the past.

In the city of Bo, the charity EducAid has partnered with the UK charity One World Link to work in primary schools alongside students and teachers to deliver in-depth training and support. Education in Sierra Leone is improving, but much of it is still very traditional with learning by rote. EducAid is working to empower teachers and students with new teaching techniques and programmes. Just one of these is “the power of Yet”.

The “power of Yet” emphasises that intelligence, talent, and skills can be developed over time through effort, strategies, and learning from mistakes. Instead of saying, “I can’t do this,” or “I don’t understand this” simply adding “yet” can transform a statement into, “I can’t do this…yet” and “I don’t understand this….yet.” It signals to the students that progress is possible.

When I heard about this, I was inspired by this simple but effective technique. And it made me think, can “the power of Yet” be relevant to us as Christians? Are there any parallels we can draw?

The answer, I think, is yes and no.

How often have we said “Lord, I am struggling with this”, “I don’t know what to do for the best” or “I don’t think I have the strength for this”? Quite regularly, if we’re honest. The power of Yet can speak into such situations, but not in the way that it does for students learning educational or life skills. When we use the power of Yet, we are speaking, not into our strength, our inner resources or our determination, but – paradoxically - into our weakness. We draw, not on our own strength, but on God’s. We can say “Lord, I am struggling with this, yet I know that in your strength we can find a way through this”. We can say “I don’t think I have the strength for this, yet in your strength, I trust.”

The apostle Paul had a lot to say about God’s strength and our weakness.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12: vv 9-10

The “power of Yet” aims to help students take control. For Christians, it can be a way, not of taking control, but of letting go. For students, it is about a “can-do” attitude, giving independence. For us, it is all about being dependent on God. But for both us and the students in Sierra Leone, the power of Yet can be a way of giving us strength and peace.

May we pray for the “power of Yet” in the lives of the students and their teachers in Bo, and also in our own lives and our witness.

Philip Clarke