Winamac Alum Takes Harcourt Leadership Skills to South Africa

Bethesda Outreach logo A former Winamac Community High School valedictorian and basketball star is making a name for herself in another country.

WKVI’s Harold Welter recently caught up with Tonya Small, who was a guest on his Saturday SportsLine Live program. She’s now in South Africa after continuing her education a bit closer to home.

“I graduated from Purdue with a degree in elementary education, and then I went on from there to teach for two-and-a-half years at Delphi Community Middle School. While at Delphi, I used my sports talents and did a lot of coaching there, but God was really working in my heart then and gave me a passion for teaching orphans in South Africa,” Small said. “I took a trip and came over here to South Africa to visit a friend who is teaching here, fell in love with the ministry that God has and saw the two things I love doing most in my life, which are teaching and reaching orphans, were combined in this place called Bethesda here in South Africa.”

Small has been in the country for six-and-a-half years teaching at Bethesda Outreach. She recently transitioned into a new role.

“Not quite a year ago there was a need for someone with leadership skills and abilities and a desire to be in a leadership role to take over as principal. Once again those skills I learned in high school during all those years of playing basketball and leading a team, I’m now leading a school as the principal of a kindergarten-through-7th grade school.”

Small graduated from Winamac Community High School in 2001.

Find more information about her ministry here http://bethesdaoutreach.org/