This week I want to introduce you to Gladness, however if you read my blogs with any frequency you have met her at some point. She has maintained top position in the three years she has been part of our standard grade classes.
So I am going to tell you some things that you may not know about our sweet Gladness. First she is a fraternal twin. They are the youngest children of the local pastor and School Director, Stephano.
She is pictured here far left being held by her mother, Yustina with her twin brother being held by her father. This picture was taken by a team from B2BU out of North Carolina in 2012 before I joined the group. I could not find a photographer credit.
As I mentioned, she is the top dog in her class academically every month. She does get challenged and sometimes her lead is only a single percentage point. This particular month her brother broke into the top three as well and is standing in the middle. Gladness is the far right and this was a good photo because normally I cannot get her to smile for set photos. But this month her parents were there teasing her to get her to smile for me. Obed, her brother will smile anytime you ask him to.
She is an avid reader who loves to visit the books we have on site. She has also won a small library collection of books for placing 1st in our academic competitions and she does an excellent job reading aloud to the younger students. The photo to the left is one of my favorites I caught of her reading a book she had just won to Josephine.
The best way to get a picture of Gladness smiling is to catch her playing with her fellow students. Simple games excite her and she casts a wide and beautiful smile when she is playing. One of my favorite memories of her is when the team visited in 2019 we took the pastor and his family out to lunch at the TPC plantation club. She spent the entire lunch head down not interacting much with the adults but always casting furtive glances over at the playground equipment. Though she stopped long enough to eath her ice cream at the end she still could not wait to be released to go play in her chiffon Sunday dress.
Since she is a Pastor’s daughter she is always a leader at devotion time, however it is her brother that likes the limelight and to lead singing. Gladness is more a Martha type, quietly working in the background to get the less discplined kids quiet for worship time.
That is a small summary of who Gladness is and her personality. Hope you enjoyed meeting her today and maybe one day you will visit and help her smile some with a game. I believe she has the potential to be anything she wants to be from Doctor to Teacher and thank everyone who is giving her a chance to excel with a better education by contributing to our school. If you would like to that, please click on the “Support” tab above.
Steve and Barnabas 
Gladness may not smile for the camera, but she made me smile reading about her! She will bring “gladness” wherever she goes. Love meeting your precious students. Grace and Peace, Phyllis
Sent from my iPad
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