I wanted to share with you the reflections from Jane Chege about the Children’s Conference. Jane is one of the Partners for Care social workers and the primary coordinator of the Children’s Conference. The valley of the dry bones…Ezekiel 37….God talked to his servant Ezekiel about the dry bones. In the valley the bones were too dry hence no life. Symbolically the bones represent the people who have no hope to continue in life. The scriptures explain prophetically that God gives hope to the hopeless. The children’s conference was all about giving hope to the children who at one time had lost hope as a result of many difficulties that they have passed through. The objective was to help the children feel that they have a place in God’s kingdom becoming Champions for Christ as…everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord. After dreaming about the conference for six months it became a reality. All the children from the six children’s home at one time had no hope, they all faced rejection in one way or another some even hurt by their closest relatives. All of them were in the healing process. As I organized the conference questions kept lingering in my mind – would there be a positive outcome? How practical would it be to control all these children bearing in mind that some are just a few days, weeks or months in the rehabiltation centers? What seems impossible to man is quite possible before God. God kept them together in perfect harmony in a miraculous way. The lives of all the participates were changed in one way or other spiritually, socially, psychlogically and physically. SPIRITUALLY Becoming champions for Christ was the theme for the conference. All participants got spiritual nourishment through very powerful sessions of praise, worship and bible studies children. who were once far from Christ got themselves in a deep mood of prayer, calling upon the name of the Lord, praising the Lord and fully dedicating their lives to him. By the strong move of the Holy Ghost children got courage to lead prayers, many of them gave testimony of their renewed strength and their desire to walk with Christ The conference enhanced great integration between and among the children and the staff as well. Children and staffs from different homes had a chance to interact with one another. Through group work children got to know each other and hence learning from one another. SOCIAL GROWTH Complete healing starts from within. It is through psychological healing that manifest into physical healing. The children conference addressed this aspect through guiding and councelling sessions children in different categories of individuals received different talks as per their ages and gender. PHYSICAL WELL BEING Proper physical fitness was addressed in different angles. NUTRITION Proper quality and quantity of food was given to the children everyday WEATHER kinangop region is well known for its extreme cold weather conditions. All participants got all the necessary items to keep them warm especially at night. A temporary structure which acted as a temperature regulator was put in place to ensure that all the children especially the very young ones didn’t suffer from the great weather variation experienced in the area FATIGUE Through sports participant the children and staff got a chance to refresh their minds, physical exercises enhanced the same greatly. Apart from the four main aspects explained above, the conference enhanced most of the children to make use of the many different talents that God has given them; these include talents in sports, drama, poerty, dancing among other talents. Sports evangelism football teams from different homes competed among themselves to climax all vary powerful team was formed which will under training and compete even in other countries. APPRECIATION Different participants (staff and children) were appreciated by getting certificates in the learning sessions and field activities Written by Jane Chege, Partners for Care Social Worker If you are moved by what Jane wrote you can help with next GOA children’s conference which is scheduled for August 21. Please contact Connie if you or your church want to help GOA provide this experience to hundreds of children. ccheren@aol.com
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