A NEWSLETTER
FROM EAST AFRICA
I.
Salutations
Peace and Grace be with our bishop
J.Alfred NDORICIMPA in Jesus Christ our Lord and savior.
II.
Thanks
We thank God for his Grace
and Love to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We thank our bishop of the
East Africa Annual Conference for his full spiritual, social and moral support
for this programme. May God bless him.
We thank Mr. Lazarus BANKURUNAZE for his full collaboration
and also we thank all the staff of the annual conference for their physical,
moral, social and spiritual support. We thank the G.B.G.M regional coordinator,
Mr. Abraham Sellu, the area financial executive, Miss Janice McLain and for
their full support.
Finally, we thank the coordinator and all the participants
for their dedicated participation in all activities.
III.
Work
The retreat started on Monday
August 5, 2002 and ended on Wednesday August 7, 2002 in Naivasha at Lakeside
Tourist Lodge.
The theme of the retreat was Peace
building for future leaders supported by
John 14:27
On the first day, we had devotion
led by the organizer, Mr. Kasombo Kapumba, a missioner of hope, where he
conducted a bible study from the book of John 14: 1-7; 15-27 and the topic was:
Do not let your hearts be troubled, Peace I leave with you.
The bible study was focused on two
key words: trouble and peace.
We concluded that we have to trust
in God and in Jesus Christ who gives lasting peace.
After the devotion, the organizer
gave a speech showing the reasons and importance of the spiritual retreat.
It was then the turn of Mr.
Lazarus BANKURUNAZE who represented the bishop to give a speech that focused on
peace and leader thereafter he declared the retreat officially opened.
Mr. Abraham Sellu gave the last
speech where he showed the great concern of the GBGM in supporting financially
the youth and young adults programmes.
We had various teachings; pastor
Kepha Oloo Otieno who spoke on prayer where he explained the meaning,
importance, types, places, and time of prayer conducted the first one.
Rev. Paul Matheri focusing on sources,
negative results and positive aspects, approaches, and side issues of conflict
on conflict resolution and management conducted the second teaching.
Another bible study on the topic
of “I am the good shepherd” from John 10: 1-18; Psalm 23 led by the
organizer, Mr. Kasombo Kapumba, who emphasized more on the qualities of the
good shepherd and the hired hand.
In addition, pastor Moses Maina
had an opportunity to share also two bible studies.
One was based on purity and
uniqueness of any human being as created by God.
The second was based on the Love
of God, which is long, high, wide, and deep for his people.
IV. Conclusion and
recommendations
-
Participants requested to hold regularly such retreats
in various countries of the East Africa Annual Conference.
-
Participants were motivated to contribute with their
own ideas.
-
It was a wonderful spiritual retreat where everything
went perfectly well and the participants appreciated the organization of it.
-
We give all the glory to God Almighty for making
possible the spiritual retreat.
The picnic was organized at
Thika, a small town that is situated at about 100 km from Nairobi.
We left on October 6,2002 at
around 9:30 am and reached there at 10:40 am.
The programme started with a
prayer, which was followed by songs, choruses and some games. The coordinator,
Mr. Kasombo Kapumba shared an exhortation from the book of John 15:1-11 where
the topic was “Remain in me, and I will remain in you”. Jesus
said; He is the true vine, and his father is the gardener who cuts off every
branch in Jesus that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. No branch can bear fruit by
itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you
remain in Jesus.
We were challenged by the bible
from Galatians 5:22 to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Through it we will
be recognized as disciples of Jesus Christ.
After the exhortation, we sang,
prayed and blessed the food.
We shared the food and proceeded
to visit those fourteen falls. It was very wonderful and excited to walk on
rocks, approach the falls. What we saw is wonderful creation of God.
To cross the water, three boats carried us and it’s
the other side where we were near the falls.
We ended our journey at 3:30 pm.
IV.
CONCLUSION
- All the participants were very interested and
suggested if possible to organize more visits and picnic to various places.
- We spent that day in the
presence of God and enjoyed various activities. We give all the glory to God Almighty
to make our journey safe and enjoyable.
- May God bless our bishop, the
staff of G.B.G.M, the beneficiaries and the coordinator.
Kasombo Kapumba
Missioner
of Hope/Coordinator
SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE ORGANIZER AND COORDINATOR,
Mr.KASOMBO KAPUMBA, AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE SPIRITUAL RETREAT ON AUGUST
5, 2002
His Excellency Bishop J. Alfred NDORICIMPA represented by
his assistant Mr. Lazarus BANKURUNAZE,
The GBGM/regional coordinator, Mr. Abraham Sellu,
Our central district superintendent, Rev. Paul Matheri,
The assistant district superintendent of Nyanza district,
Rev. Kepha Oloo Otieno,
Dear pastors and precious participants,
It is our pleasure and honor to thank our bishop his
Excellency J. Alfred NDORICIMPA for his blessing and support to carry on this
spiritual retreat focused on Peace building for future leaders.
We are grateful to appreciate also advice, professional and
moral support from our GBGM/regional coordinator, Mr. Abraham Sellu.
As a missioner of Hope for the Children of Africa assigned
by GBGM to East Africa Annual Conference. I have been working with United
Methodist Children and Youth.
This work has been made possible with the collaboration of
the East Africa Annual Conference staff. It is wonderful to gather youth and
young adults in this building for spending time in a spiritual retreat
emphasized on prayer and peace building in order to prepare them to be aware of
their future responsibility as future leaders.
Peace is very important in someone’s life, in a given
community or country. As Jesus told his disciples that do not let your hearts
be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me
(John 14:1).
Jesus continued saying that Peace I leave with you; my peace
I give you. Jesus knew that peace is important in the ministry of his disciples
to give them a good environment for work after his ascension.
Africa was a peaceful continent where Jesus sought refuge
when Herod wanted to kill him. However, today it is among the continents, which
is devastated by various conflicts.
It is crucial for young people to be equipped with tools
that will empower them to carry on conflict resolution in order to bring peace.
Peace is a key for development but conflict is a gateway
toward poverty and underdevelopment of any given country.
Dear participants, the time has come to be equipped to be a
solution instead of being a problem in our society.
We can bring solutions to conflicts with the help of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Let us use carefully the time we have here in studying on
prayers and conflict management so that we can be able to bring peace in our
lives, our community and to the extend of our continent.
Prayers are important to establish permanent peace in any
level of our life through the help of the Holy Spirit. As Christians, we have
responsibility to be ambassadors of Christ to bring light in darkness, peace in
conflict situation.
Let the light of Christ in us shine in our daily
environment.
May God bless you.
