Letter from our founders, Liz and Chris Tait

In 2009 Liz and I were approached by parents in the Church who could not find an affordable English medium school for their children. As I come from an engineering background and Liz is a Social Worker, neither of us had experience in the education field.
We chose the ACE system as it was Christian based and committed our efforts to starting a Mission School. There were many obstacles to overcome but we believed that this was what God wanted and trusted that He would lead and guide us. Looking back over the last ten years we can see that without God’s help the task would never have been accomplished.

The first obstacle was finding suitable premises and after exhausting all possibilities in the Township we were offered the use of the newly constructed Sunday School facility at the Knysna Vineyard Church free of charge. What a blessing this was as it stood vacant during the week, there was a large park for the children to play in and it was central. ACE and the Western Cape Education Department both required that we have a qualified and registered teacher as the Principal and God provided one at the eleventh hour. Lauren Gebhard offered her services for a year and Laura van Blerk and her son Rudi were our first teachers. Liz and I attended training in Durban at ACE as I was the Administrator and Liz was to be the Principal. The School was registered with the WCED and all the other requirements were attended to with the Dept.of Health etc. Knysna Vineyard made a substantial donation to the School and we where able to construct desks and purchase all the necessary equipment. We can only look back in awe and give God all the glory for providing the premises, the people, the finances and all the approvals.

In 2010 The Knysna Christian Mission School opened with 20 students and has steadily grown since then. The School soon grew to over 100 students and the Church premises became too small. Once again, the search for larger premises began which is not only near impossible but expensive in Knysna. We believe that God came through once again and the School moved to the Melville Centre in town. We received our first Government cheque the month we moved which covered the rent. Once again, the Vineyard Church made the School a donation of 100 chairs. Liz and I retired from our business and we were able to spend more time running the School as it had grown substantially.

KCMS is blessed with many volunteers in the field of art, chess, reading and the YFC girls and boys. These volunteers have been with us all these years and are such a blessing to the School.
At the end of 2019 Liz and I retired from the School and have handed it over to younger and very capable people who with God’s help will take KCMS to greater levels of excellence. Looking back it is amazing how God provides us with talents that can be used in the extension of his Kingdom. Liz has used her Counselling skills in helping the students, the teachers and the parents. We have seen
many lives turned around and our one conviction was that we would never give up on a student as Jesus never gives up on us. We had to remind ourselves of this many times as there were times when the situation looked impossible. God never failed and his miracles have been seen over and over again in the lives of these students. This is what makes it all worthwhile, watching God at work at KCMS. The ethos of the KCMS has not been to only educate the students academically but to also prepare them spiritually for the rest of their lives. We pray that they will always remember what they learnt about Jesus and his love for them as they experience the challenges of life.
We have made mistakes, but we believe that if the leadership keep their eyes focused on Jesus, He will accomplish His mission at KCMS. We believe that we have left KCMS in the hands of capable spirit filled Christians who have the welfare and the future of these precious souls as their first priority. We remain on the board of trustees who have been our support for the last ten years. May God bless those who have toiled at KCMS for so long and done such a good job.

Note:  “KCMS” had changed to the name the school now has, “Trinity Primary”.