February 2008
Happy New Year!
That is what Kenyans were saying to each other at the end of last week after the President and the opposition leader signed a peace agreement in the Kofi Annan led mediation. There is a sense of jubilation and hope for a new beginning among Kenyans; many feeling like the country has been snatched from the jaws of doom. The new agreement is hoped to bring sufficient balance of power to enhance accountability and responsibility in the government. It also allows for fair representation in the government by the different large tribes.
- Business Incubator
The political situation in Kenya had a huge negative influence on all businesses. The young businesses incubated by PA were also affected greatly, especially because it has been hard to get business deals. The new political deal has brought new hopes for a better business environment and we hope to see the incubatees making some sales. They have a new momentum of going out to market that we believe will make returns.
One of the incubatees (Benart of B2M Marketing) is planning to move on from incubation to self-support at the end of this month, having finished one month of incubation. Although, he does not have any major savings, he has developed strong products which he will be marketing. A new sense of responsibility will be a needed challenge for him to grow to the next level. PA will be available to cushion him in hard times but it is important that he starts nurturing independence.
- Community organizing programs
We also managed to carry out our community activities for the month of February. This was a follow-up community training work in Mbeere district. We were concerned that tribal issues will make our work hard but we experienced God’s favor.
- Mentoring the students
The mentoring took place in two elementary schools and one High school namely:
- Mithini elementary school – 750 students
- Mithini high school – 120 students
- Gangara elementary school – 450 students
The goal was to teach Christian character and motivate kids to commit to the pursuit of excellence in education for a better future. This was done through numerous activities including Puppet shows, Character skits, Interactive games, Motivational talks.
The outcome:
- The Christian message was shared with the kids through all our activities.
- New methods of teaching the students were introduced where before the only way of teaching was lecture method in classrooms with poorly trained teachers.
- At the end of every lesson, the teachers noticed that their students were able to remember what they were learning a lot more than they did in their classes.
- Some of the teachers felt the exposure benefited them also.
- For the first time the teachers were able to interact with students in interactive games thus creating a healthy friendly view of each other where otherwise the students feared the teachers.
- The team of young professionals who volunteered were enthusiastically involved and were greatly encouraged for an opportunity to serve.
The school administration and teachers believe that PA is adding value to their work since they merely focus on the academic aspect. We bring in the values, faith and goals aspect to the class lessons. The teachers also feel encouraged in the process.
Way Forward
- Continue in the motivational activities for the three schools
- Re-focus the mentorship efforts to target involving the community
- Focus on building the mentorship teams within the community
- Streamline/ Create a curriculum relevant to the kids
- Get both the city and community churches involved in mentorship agenda
- Session with the Pastors
In a meeting we had last year with pastors, church elders and community leaders; they identified the following issues:
- The church lacked impact and relevance in the community
- People are increasing not attending the church
- Church members, pastors are very poor
- Church ministers preach only about money leaving the congregants starved for God’s word
- There is fighting for power and positions in churches
- There are strong divisions in church based on clans and class
- Church members are also plant and use miraa – (a local drug which is destroying the community)
With the issues enumerated above, one of the pastors lamented, ‘I am ashamed to be called a pastor – I feel helpless to help God’s people…’
Another pastor wondered if PA ‘is the Moses that will deliver them from poverty and weakness as did moses for the children of Israel.’
The Way Forward
- The process meeting came up with a way forward for helping the pastors and the local church in this year. The recommendations arrived at are;
- To bring together church leaders to work towards achieving unity among them and in their churches.
- To train the pastors in servant leadership
- To assist the pastors and churches acquire ministry resources, including bibles, reading materials, ministry audio/visual, musical instruments
- To help the church lead the community in doing a community water dam to address the problem of water in this semi-arid area.
PA will therefore be working with the local church here in this year by:
- Holding a unity meeting for pastors and church leaders from this community at the end of March
- Beginning a systematic training in leadership and spiritual disciplines for the pastors and their church leaders
- Expose the churches to other good preachers from the city
- Plan along with the pastors on a community economic project that can help the churches generate income.
In March
- This month PA will return to Mbeere community to follow-up on some of the mentoring initiatives initiated
- We will be in another community – Namawanga and Mt. elgon where we will be following up on work already started
- We will be meeting with pastors in two other communities to train them in the role of the church in the community.
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