Our Mission
The Amazima School is a Christ-centered Primary and Secondary School that exists to equip Ugandan students with the tools of learning to enable them to live fully for the glory of God.
What We Value
How We're Different
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27
We must start here. One of the fundamental differences at The Amazima School is that we believe children are created in the image of God. This means they are valuable not for what they can do, but for who (and Whose) they are. This also means they have eternal significance.
The Bible has much to say about wise men and foolish men. They both build houses on different foundations and these houses look remarkably similar until the wind begins blowing. The harder the wind blows, the more obvious the foundations become. At The Amazima School, we believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and all 800 “houses” that we are building will be built on that One True Foundation.
By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” – Proverbs 24:3-4
The Amazima School aims first to bring glory to God. As we learn, teach, guide and mentor, we seek to worship the Lord, and follow the example and teachings of Jesus: to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind… [and] Love your neighbor as yourself.” Our Christ-centered approach in the classroom begins with faculty members who are committed to a personal relationship with Jesus. These educators invite learners to explore and more fully understand the world God has made, offering insight, wisdom, and godly truth that enables students to see that, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” (Psalm 24:1)
The Amazima School holds that all truth is God’s truth. We seek to integrate all subjects with historical Christianity and the teachings of the Scriptures in ways that are natural and not contrived. Our intent is to assist students and their families by providing a clear model of the Biblical Christian life and worldview and to encourage every child to develop a genuine and meaningful relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ.
God has a beautiful plan for males and females. The Biblical male/female relationship is one of God’s most purposeful objectives. At The Amazima School, we train our young men and women to treat the opposite sex with respect and dignity. Biblical relationships can only be present if we believe that all people are made in the image of God and that the Word of God is the One True Foundation.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the Lord our God.” – Psalm 20:7
One of the most difficult parts of the Christian life is trust. The temptation is to “do it on our own.” After all, we can see the iron chariots and feel the horses’ breath. We teach every student that God has called him or her to trust and faithfulness no matter what the circumstance. His wonderful, awful, beautiful, tragic, loving, incomprehensible plan is unfolding at The Amazima School.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6
This is a direct promise from God to parents and families. One of the greatest distinctives of The Amazima School is our family involvement. Students’ families are always welcome in our school. We want them to know the teachers, the students, and the administration. We exist to assist and enhance homes.
The Amazima School is not tied to any church or denomination. We stand on the critical doctrinal points in our statement of faith and allow for differing views beyond that statement. We exist to advance the kingdom of God through assisting families in the godly academic training of their children.
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:43-45
Jesus Christ came to serve. He lived a humble life and died a martyr’s death. He constantly put others before Himself. At The Amazima School, we are committed to train our students to be like Christ through serving others. We believe this is an integral part of our education process. We provide support and encouragement for the poor, sick, orphaned, and elderly. All of these activities are more than moral duties. They are reflections of God’s love.
Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” – Proverbs 4:7
Paul tells us in I Corinthians 8 that knowledge by itself “puffs up.” It seeks to elevate man and bring down God. Knowledge alone will never bring morality to any culture or society. That can only be accomplished through the power of Jesus Christ. If you add the fear of the Lord to knowledge, the result is wisdom.
Our school believes that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to make decisions as God Himself would make them. True wisdom comes from no man, but from the mind of God. At The Amazima School, our education starts with the fear of the Lord. Any other foundation is destined for failure.
The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God’s infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally, and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.
- There is one true God, eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each of whom possesses equally all the attributes of Deity and the characteristics of personality.
- Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever.
- He lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone.
- He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died.
- He ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own.
- Man was originally created in the image of God. He sinned by disobeying God; thus, he was alienated from his Creator. That historic fall brought all mankind under divine condemnation.
- Man’s nature is corrupted, and he is thus totally unable to please God. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- The salvation of man is wholly a work of God’s free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His sight.
- It is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust Christ as their Savior. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God in His written word.
- The Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He convicts and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them, continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. His fullness, power and control are appropriated in the believer’s life by faith.
- Every believer is called to live so in the power of the indwelling Spirit that he will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but will bear fruit to the glory of God.
- Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is composed of all men, living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith.
- At physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing.
- At physical death the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation.
- Jesus Christ will come again to the earth – personally, visibly and bodily – to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
- The Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple men of every nation. The fulfillment of that Great Commission requires that all worldly and personal ambitions be subordinated to a total commitment to “Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.”
Philosophy of Education
At The Amazima School, education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on Truth, Goodness, and Beauty so that in Christ a student is better able to know, glorify, and enjoy God.
We affirm that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Thus the educational process that culminates in wisdom must be built on a foundation of faith. The first objective in education is godly virtue or moral excellence. Moral excellence can only be achieved through the work of Jesus Christ and enables the soul to learn how to recognize and desire the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. The revealed truth of Scripture is the standard, or norm, against which all knowledge is measured. The student grows in the knowledge of God by studying His work in nature (science and mathematics), His will for Humanity in history and great literature, and His personal attributes in theology. The overarching goal of education is wisdom, the right use or exercise of knowledge, which Scripture declares to be “the principal thing.” A love of wisdom is therefore the greatest motivator for educational success.
The student has physical, intellectual, and spiritual needs which education prepares him to address. The teacher models to the student the process of physical, intellectual, and spiritual maturing. The educational process relates the teacher’s maturity to the student’s needs. This creates an opportunity for a deepening and growing relationship between the teacher and the student. This relationship takes place in a school culture of cultivation and nourishment that requires adequate time, effort, and grace. In addition to the assimilation of facts and the retention of information, there is a real focus on a desire and ability to act wisely in accordance with what one knows.
The structure of Christian education is such that the skills required for success in the school are identical to the tools necessary to enjoy a lifetime of learning. Education is not a product to be purchased or consumed, but a life to be lived. It is never a completed transaction. It is the ongoing conversation of many ages.
Because the end of Christian education extends beyond narrow, compartmented knowledge to God’s full design for our humanity, the means used by teachers, including the one divine Teacher, centers on the presentation of excellent models and the asking of questions regarding those models to promote conversation in our classrooms. Giving time to conversation about great models in a safe, nurturing, yet challenging environment, encourages both the development and the ongoing refinement of content, ideas, and skills—the three pillars upon which any effective lesson is built.
These three pillars support every lesson at The Amazima School. Content, the acquisition of organized knowledge, is taught through lecture and reading, then assessed through quantitative tests and examinations. Ideas, the form for virtuous human conversation, are taught through great discussions and writing, then assessed as they are embodied in the learner’s life. Skills, the tools needed for learning, are acquired through the interaction with excellent models and assigned practice, and then assessed by correct practice, performance, and application.
Such lessons, planned and implemented by excellent teachers, and attended to by energetic and motivated students, form the basis for a great classroom experience at The Amazima School. The student must, by God’s grace, respect the authority of God’s word, his teacher, and the nature of the subject. The teacher must, by God’s grace, model and instruct the student by respecting Scriptural authority, the nature of the subject, and the nature of the student.
We desire each student to acquire knowledge, ideas, and skills in order to mature in what he knows, how he acts, how he makes judgments, and how he reasons. We further desire each student to embody, in increasing measure, wisdom and virtue, exhibiting good judgment, moral and ethical behavior, and an appreciation of true beauty. Our ultimate desire is the spiritual and intellectual formation of men and women who, unimpressed by worldly distractions, embrace personal holiness, take up their cross daily, and follow Jesus Christ.