3.0 THE STORY FOR THE WEEK.

INTRODUCTION

I thank God for opening doors for me to serve for GOA organization, I have come to learn that GOA is a place where everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord, If you want to be shaped and grow where you are called to serve just make a commitment of serving in the ministry. Goa has a great commission of making Christians disciples of all nations, since my start of working for GOA I Have come to familiarize my self with Goa organizations, among them were various department of the ministry.

• Church growth
• Compassion
• Peace and conflict resolutions
• Leadership training and Development

During my time of orientation I received good mentorship from Rev Joyce who is my superviser under the department of conflict resolution, I am so glad to be given responsibility of peer counseling conflict resolution among tribes. I thank God for fulfilling my long time passion of counseling especially the peers. In addition to that I would like to register my appreciation to Rev Joyce who equipped me on various skills e.g. peer counseling, inserting and renaming of photos in a report. Among the responsibility to be undertaken includes;

• Family seminar
• Counseling among ministry members e.g. church,childrens in homes
• Cultural diversity
• Peer counseling

I had good opportunity of visiting various GOA Naivasha homes to familiarize my self with the homes which includes beat the drum, strongtower, Tumaini and Rhema. My visitation was not in vain because I had to learn the great need of peer counseling. During the visit I was able to accomplish the following;

1. MEETING WITH THE JUNIOR YOUTH IN BEAT THE DRUM.

 Among the needs the children raised were:

1. 1.      Choosing of careers.
2. 2.      To be helped in improving some of the subjects they are not performing well.
3. 3.      Overcoming stress and disappointment.

One to one guiding and counseling

I had to meet with Susan and Erick purposely to counsel them on their needs. Susan opened and said she is not happy sometimes and she is undergoing trauma of losing her mother in the year 2012 and her only brother in 2011. I encouraged her using the word of God which gives direction. Susan was reminded to thank God for what He had done for her and not to allow Satan to make her forget what God had done for her. Moreover, Susan was reminded that Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy, but Jesus comes to give life. Susan was very happy to learn that Jesus loves and cares for her and she smiled again and declared that I have to thank God for His doing. I prayed for her and her testimony will be heard soon.

On the other hand I had good time with Erick who is a slow learner. Despite his weaknesses,  he said that he wanted to be a policeman in future. I prayed for him believing that God would increase his level of concentration.

2. At Rhema, I talked to the young juniors on the following subjects:

1. Hygiene and sanitation
2. Measures to be taken in order to succeed in education
3. Forgiveness and love of Christ.
4.  Overcoming the fears.
5. Positive thinking.

The children were highly disciplined and showed greater participation. We had a good prayer and word sharing session for 2 days.

4. In Strong tower, I talked to them about measures to be taken for one to succeed in life, this are:

1. prayer and reading the word of God
2. Obedience and respect for each other.
3. Loving and caring for each other
4. Stewardship of time and other resources
5. Intimacy
6. Integrity

 The children gave several areas that the need to be taught:

1. Drugs and substance abuse
2. Career choosing
3. Behavior change
4. Sex and sexuality

Impact story

I interviewed 2 girls, Catherine (16) and Wahu (15). Catherine said “my life has changed since I joined strong tower. I used to stay up to three days without food but currently I have a meal daily and I thank God for that. Before I used to be chased away from school due to lack of fees but since GOA came in I have never been sent home which allows me to concentrate on my studies.”

Wahu testified that before she didn’t have school uniform but since she joined strong tower she has never lacked uniform. I thank God for opening a way for me to be at strong tower.

1. Meeting with 3 boys from Bungoma in Tumaini.

 The 3 boys whom I met were Matthew, Moses and Abiud Wekesa. I met with them to take their profiles and to do peer counseling. From my talk with them I realized Christ transforms lives of people.             

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

During my visitation I came to learn great need for peer counseling in home not only two days but organizing one week forum to counsel the school children for different homes. Not only homes but also the churches need counseling session. The finding reveals that the children in homes come from different background and they differ in many ways and have gone through different life stressing situations. Some are orphaned and others don’t know their parents. Others were abandoned while young, others come from desperate homes and others have suffered abuses of different kinds. Therefore there is great need of helping children to overcome them.

I kindly request your prayers for Gods opening doors to be equipped on Bible and counseling skills that will help me carry my work effectively and efficiently. I am a diploma holder in community Development and would love to join university to be educated; I come from a place where illiteracy is 80% that is the land of Marsabit where no one wants to live due to harshness of environment and high level of insecurity.

REPORT COMPILED BY

MARE DUSHE