Newsletter

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