In September, we told the story of the impact Jane Brenda is having through her seminars. Through her workshop, she was a catalyst for a teacher, a pastor, and a local community leader to engage on behalf of children. In a little over a week, we will gather in East Africa; we will meet with Jane Brenda and our staff team from Burundi, Congo, South Africa, Switzerland, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Our suitcases are filling, classroom resources are prepared, and the Celebrating Children Workshop teachers have glazed eyes.
Yet this Celebrating Children Workshop in Tanzania is very different; it is the culmination of years of work, training, and multiplication, and now we launch the future.
Anna and Sizwe from South Africa will weave in what they have learned working with children in Johannesburg’s inner cities. Habona will add experience from her decades of work in Mombasa, Kenya. At the same time, Barthelemy is one of the French translators and shares experiences from living and working with street children in Congo. This synergy of life experience serving Jesus among the most vulnerable with solid current research and practice into how best to work with children will catapult more than fifty participants from ten nations into working to bring God’s intentions for children to their communities.
We are partnering with another organization to train their staff, with regional directors attending from West and East Africa. This will fuel our partnership and multiplication. By having more Africans carry the teaching load and small groups, we will see how they have contextualized the material and what needs to shift and change in our curriculum. As staff, we will also consider the future of the Celebrating Children Workshop and the seminars, which have exploded in growth; it will be rich and full-time.
When I consider Jane Brenda’s impact, what will another fifty strong African leaders from across the continent do?
Please pray for
- A workshop that stands as a model for a new season of multiplication with a diverse staff team
- For the fifty-plus participants – that we will hear them well, that they will be encouraged in the difficult work they do and further equipped for their call
- A clear strategy to develop from this time for future expansion of our training and capacity building.
