MISSIONS OUTREACH & CED REPORT Enlarge Your Tents Strengthen your Stakes

Transcription

1 MISSIONS OUTREACH & CED REPORT 89 Enlarge Your Tents Strengthen your Stakes

2 CITAM ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS We started the year with the resolve of positioning ourselves for overflow. 90

3 Enlarge Your Tents Strengthen your Stakes CITAM MISSIONS REPORT Rev. Patick Kuchio Missions Coordinator HGHF show at the Prestige Mall. People came in big numbers and we staged a record six shows in three days. Over 700 people accepted Christ. Bread of Life is an initiative of CITAM Missions, Outreach and Social Action department in response to the drought and famine situation in various parts of Kenya. Preamble The theme of the year became a reality to us both at individual and ministry level. We started the year with the resolve of positioning ourselves for overflow. We thank God for His faithfulness in our key areas; Evangelism and Outreach, International Missions, Church Planting, Urban Missions, Social Action, Advocacy and Governance (SAAG), Missionary Care and Frontier Missions. Highlights Evangelism and Outreach In line with the theme for the year, for sure our tent was enlarged as the year begun. God made a way for Co-operative bank to sponsor HGHf Drama. With the sponsorship we managed to recruit 27 cast members and 6 crew members. By the grace of God we got the latest state of art equipment that enabled us to minister effectively. Before the sponsorship, we managed at most 5 shows in a month but today we are averaging at least 12 shows in a month. Over 70 percent of the shows we did were in learning institutions in Kiambu, Kisumu, Kericho, Kilifi, Nairobi, Kajiado, Meru, Nakuru, Baringo and Machakos. The reception and expectations in these learning institutions was notable. Many young people received Christ as Lord and we continue to walk and stand with them. HGHF directors, crew and cast members at CITAM Kisumu. Heaven s gate and hells flames in partnership with CITAM urban missions and CITAM Woodley conducted that first ever HGHF show at the Prestige Mall. People came in big numbers and we staged a record six shows in three days. Over 700 people accepted Christ. HGHF also staged several shows in CITAM and non CITAM 91

4 CITAM ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Besides the blessing of being part of the housing solution, the 5 girls are going through in-depth discipleship and are active in the church. It was a time of thanksgiving when finally a sister from our fellowship in Dili felt the call of God to serve as a missionary in the easternmost District of Timor Leste, Lautem. She has already began prayer meetings and Sunday Services and a few households have started responding to the Gospel. In addition, she is volunteering at a local kindergarten, which will help her to connect with children. churches. Masses were reached and many received Christ. We continue to thank God for this powerful tool for mass evangelism. In we were able to do 120 shows and reached out to 77,533 people. Out of that number 25,483 souls came to the Lord. To God be the glory. Great things He has done. INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS East Timor Mission The year had a very compelling theme of enlarging the place of our tents. We began with a very successful season of prayers and fasting and looking back we can attest to the goodness of the Lord. As part of our social responsibility, we have always had a burden of housing students who have no place in Dili as they pursue their studies. In, we were finally able to set apart a place for 5 girls. In the course of the year, two of the girls who were not Christians have given their lives to Jesus. In the month of December, we sent a team for a mission trip there and the response was very positive. We held a number of youth outreach programs in Dili. This is a forum where we invite young people mainly from high school and universities with a purpose of engaging them with the Gospel. We had wonderful opportunities of organizing prayers for pastors and church leaders in Dili as well as in the districts. Through these initiatives the Lord opened a door for us to start an outreach and discipleship centre in one of the sub-districts of Dili. We meet with this group once a week and equip them to reach out to their community. Bangkok Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name, make known among the nations what He has done. (Ps.105:1) Where did we see God at work in? Supremely, He gave us the opportunity, not only to connect to the faith community at the Evangelical Church of 92

5 Enlarge Your Tents Strengthen your Stakes Bangkok (ECB), in an intentional way, but also to exhibit Jesus outside the walls of the church! What a joy and a privilege it was to partner with Him in. In order to support and equip the LIFE group leaders in their role as under-shepherds, monthly leaders gatherings continued to be held to review, emphasize and strengthen the values (Welcome, Worship, Word, Works) undergirding the work of LIFE groups. These gatherings, which were often facilitated by the leaders, also provided opportunity for Groups to share faith stories of what God was doing in and amongst them. The year saw a resurgence of outreach activities. For instance, a LIFE Group joined an ECB mission partner in reaching out to the homeless, as part of their outreach. A second Group, in partnership with another mission partner, organized and facilitated a weekend English teaching camp for more than one hundred Thai students. These were all great opportunities for sowing the seed of Christ! A further LIFE Group illustrated in a different way how it sets aside time to love what God loves, by holding a Baptism service for one of its members. What a great moment it was as the LIFE Group celebrated this public declaration of faith in Jesus in a public swimming pool. Perhaps the highlight of in terms of equipping and training the leadership, was the visit in May by Joel Comiskey the internationally known cell group guru. Over a ten-day period, Joel spent time reviewing the principles of LIFE groups, coaching leaders one-on-one and encouraging the church as a whole to live in fellowship every day in application of the values of LIFE Groups. It is also worth noting that for the first time, this training was opened up to leaders from other churches in Bangkok, as a way of blessing the city. There then followed a shift in ministry focus from purely increasing the number of members to also making disciples, as a result of which a number of new leaders were developed; including the ECB Chinese student community, and following this intentional discipling exercise, multiplication took place in a number of LIFE Groups. The year ended on a high note for the LIFE Group Ministry, with the Advent season providing opportunity for intense outreach activities which involved most LIFE Groups. The International Food Festival was a perfect example, as members invited friends, workmates, neighbours, etc., to come and sample both the spiritual and the physical food. We had a lot of fun through the carol singing and invitations to the Alpha course. The sheer joy that was evident as LIFE group members came alive and spread good cheer to all who came and was a reflection of the move of God through the smaller expression of the larger community of faith LIFE Groups. As we look ahead to 2018, the raising of new leaders needs to remain high on our agenda, so that we can see more multiplication in the Groups and ultimately have more members of our congregation connected through LIFE Groups. To help achieve this goal, in addition to the regular training of leaders, a network of LIFE Group coaches will be set up to ensure more effective pastoral care and the current tools in place will be updated to better suit our needs. May it be a year of abundant fruit and God s favour! The year saw a resurgence of outreach activities. For instance, a LIFE Group joined an ECB mission partner in reaching out to the homeless, as part of their outreach. 93

6 CITAM ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS SOCIAL ACTION ADVOCACY AND GOVERNANCE (SAAG) Bread of Life is an initiative of CITAM Missions, Outreach and Social Action department in response to the drought and famine situation in various parts of Kenya. This initiative is undertaken in support of the existing government and non-governmental organizations efforts in provision of relief foods. It is achieved by raising donations (both monetary and in kind) from CITAM members and the general public. In we distributed food in West Pokot, Turkana, North Horr, and East Pokot resulting in access of food to hunger-stricken families affected by the drought. In partnership with Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Emergency Relief and Development Overseas (ERDO); we managed to set up food assistance projects within eight locations in Marsabit and Samburu counties which has resulted in increased support for women to participate in humanitarian action, established food banks as benevolence towards needy families at the Marsabit mission stations and saw the constitution of technical taskforce by relief and development organizations. and Samburu counties with regard to exercising their varied leadership responsibilities; Governance Training of Trainers (ToT) for equipping all CITAM pastors on governance matters in early for elections and beyond and lastly networking with various governance groupings such as Christian Institute of Governance (CIG). Church Planting It was indeed a year of expansion in the area of church planting. Three CITAM assemblies were rolled out with CITAM Clay City successfully launching their services. CITAM Meru and CITAM Nyeri holding prayer meetings with prospective congregants as they prepare to launch their services. Urban Missions We began the year by handing over Game Ready machines for the Kenya rugby 7s team (Shujaas) in partnership with CITAM Valley road and HOPE Media. Other strategic achievements in discipleship among the rugby fraternity included, adoption of the Mwamba Rugby club for discipleship and mentoring by CITAM Buruburu, adoption of Under 20 Kenya national rugby team by CITAM Woodley for Discipleship and mentorship. Hosted a strategy retreat for the four national Rugby squads technical benches, the Administration and the Board of management (Bringing together the three arms of governance for the sport) which has never taken place since the game began in 1923 bringing a shift in governance. We rolled out the first Golf outreach at the Karen Country Club and reached to over 300 golfers composed of some of the top influencers in the society. In Advocacy we thank God for enabling media engagement by the SAAG overseer more so during the elections period (pre and post) and assemblylevel advocacy initiatives. In governance we organized Joint Political Aspirants Forums towards encouraging and equipping CITAM political aspirants ahead of the national polls. Leadership and Governance Forums in Marsabit 94

7 Enlarge Your Tents Strengthen your Stakes As a department we are keen on reaching out to the international community that is based in the urban cities. We have narrowed down currently to reaching out to the Somali and Chinese community that God has brought to our nation as well as equipping members of our congregations who are students and business persons travelling to China for studies and doing business respectively. This has set off with equipping our members with the Chinese language and three classes have since graduated. Two of them took place within the year and one of them being a class of a number of our pastors from various CITAM congregations. The certificate runs for three months in partnership with PAC University. Plans are underway to set up a Chinese language and culture center within the Hurlingham environs to capture the almost 8,000 Chinese nationalities residing in this area. This will entail recruiting a Chinese missionary couple to reside within this space to facilitate effective outreach to their own. This is necessitated by the fact that this Asian community is closed and it will take the church longer if we take a local missionary to do the same work. CITAM Missions through the Urban missions pillar is keen on establishing effective chaplaincy to strategic five institutions within the next ten years and such partnership with CITAM Parklands. Two Sunday services were held in year at the Children s ward in partnership with CITAM Valley road and CITAM Embakasi. We hosted Christmas Carols for the patients during Christmas. Within the year we also received Chaplaincy for the uniformed forces (DOD) and plans are underway to stage the Heavens Gates and Hells Flames shows within the premise. At the close of the year we hosted a Christmas party for the Gertrude s hospital kids in partnership with CITAM Valley road. The adopt a mall strategy is effective in reaching out to the urban populace because we live in a generation where malling is the in thing. This includes not showing up to a physical church in preference of family times in shopping malls on Sundays. This is common thing with the millenials. CITAM Urban Missions has put in place strategic outreach programs to take the Gospel where the target audience is. This includes staging Heavens Gates and Hells Flames shows at the malls, hosting kids parties among others. In we had a fruitful outreach at the prestige plaza on Ngong road where more than 6000 persons were reached out with the Gospel through the Heavens Gates and Hells flames shows as well as the social media campaign with 800 decisions made to follow Jesus. We also hosted a three days Christmas Carols at the Greenspan mall in partnership with CITAM Buruburu, bringing together the Morans from Olturot one of our missions station in Northern Kenya and children from CITAM Woodley. Through this outreach we were able to reach out to an audience that included Somalis, Sudanese, and the Muslim community. Missionary Care that has already taken off with the outreach at the Nairobi hospital. In the year we reached to close to 4000 persons through regular chaplaincy, which entails bedside visits and prayers to the patients and their families and the staff as needs present. Decisions to follow Jesus were made and Bibles given. We also held a medical outreach in Missionary/Member Care takes place in three phases; Pre-field, On-field & Re-entry. This year, we were privileged to offer care in all the three phases. Pre-field support is given to missionaries/missioners before going to the field. It includes orientation programs that are given to prepare one (physically, spiritually & psychologically) for the cross-cultural 95

8 CITAM ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS dynamics of the mission field whether on short visits, short term and/or long term assignments. To this end, we prepared at least three short term groups; Camp 6; Camp 7 & Distribution monitors (SAAG Team) which were assigned to our mission centres in Northern Kenya at different times. This support is given to missionaries while on the field. This includes prayer, field visits, moral support were received from the contractor on 4th May. The sanctuary seats 300 adults and the Sunday school block accommodates 240 children. The official handover ceremony was held on the 13th June. On PPI Archers Post adopted Umoja Muehlbauer and also inaugurated their first HOPES Class. 7 needy secondary school students benefited from the CITAM Scholarship. etc. We were privileged to celebrate with Victor & Myra Omondi s as they wedded in Singapore. We thank God for this addition in the Missionary family. We were able to conduct & facilitate debriefing sessions among others, returning missionaries, Camp 6 (upon return from the field) & Distribution Monitors during their break. Re-entry support is given to missionaries returning from the field (especially international missionaries) either temporarily or permanently. This year we were privileged to host three of our missionary families who returned from the field, some on furlough and others on permanent return. The church participated in peace brokerage meetings and prayer rallies as well as hosted the Samburu East, Waso Sub-County prayer rallies and peace meetings attended by stakeholders. This culminated in a prayer breakfast on the 29th of June for 40 leaders. Vet Camp in conjunction with Vet with a Mission (VWM) where we treated 9, 646 animals in three days. We were able to reach 200 persons with the message of the Lord Jesus Christ and 40 souls were won to the Lord. We had DVBS, one of its kind in the region. Our target was to reach 500 children daily, but we managed to reach to 340 children on average daily and by Friday we reached a total of 1, 682 children from ages We also send a team of 19 youth the very first Youth Camp in the Northern Kenya Frontier Region. We registered growth of the church membership and giving of the offerings and tithe; we recorded normal average attendance of members by 30% a whole year. We are now at 80 grown-ups, mainly women; youth 50, children 290 (Ages 3 14years old). It has been our desire for a while to extend the Camp Internship to the mission field in our endeavor to raise & develop our own missionaries from within. We thank God, that for the first time we recruited, prepared and commissioned five young and passionate camp interns to our mission fields. NORTHERN KENYA FRONTIER MISSIONS Archers Post Archers Post celebrated the official completion of the sanctuary and the Sunday School block that 96

9 Enlarge Your Tents Strengthen your Stakes Kargi MOHI School was officially opened in a colourful ceremony full of joy and hope. We continue to offer spiritual services and run the medical dispensary. A team of 8 intercessory brethren came from Nairobi to Kargi for prayers and breaking the altars as they set up new ones. We joined them in prayer for the one day of their stay. Surely we broke the altars and poured oil symbolic of new anointing to Rendille soil. We attribute great harvest to these prayers. The merging of two congregations to a single united church was our greatest victory of the life of the church. Since then we have increased numerically, spiritually, financially and quality services to the congregation with increased local leadership and participation. Children, women and youth ministry has thrived. The unity has eased ERDO/CFGB/ CITAM food feeding program to special needs group in the community. We are grateful for the support we received from CITAM Woodley. Among the gifts we received include; a new Keyboard, solar upgrading, pews, transport,clothing, solar lamps, and foodstuffs. We have lighting in the church. We also received 222 plastic chairs and tables with wooden desks; chairs for our small children and Adventures (Junior Youth). The Women Ministry donated an Incubator. The climax was the impact to the church as men women and youth received Christ and about 30 were baptized. The number continues to grow and we have 20 more to baptize. Our tents were enlarged and our stakes were strengthened. God bless CITAM Woodley and the leadership of CITAM. Challenges We managed to connect the soft Dhakhane Water to the CITAM compound. This has never been pumped to us though we use the same system to get salty water from the community animal borehole pump supply for construction. The management has been experiencing some challenges. Way forward We desire to grow the church congregation spiritually, empower them economically and intellectually. The community mobilization for quality education of children and community education on adverse cultural practices and new education system. The ERDO/CFGB/CITAM project is good but a temporary measure for the perpetual food problem. The Kargi community has relocated to Kabinye, Bagazi, New Kurkum, Dakhane and Ririma. All these have no church or access to the Gospel at all. We need nomadic pastoralist pastors trained locally in contextualized ministry. The ministry to school is overwhelming. We have one secondary school and four primary schools. We wish to have slaughter house, solar and wind power operated cold room or deep freezer. A market for goats, sheep, and camels is necessary as well as camel milk collection and marketing. A polytechnic is vital for the community as well as a microfinance scheme or program for economic empowerment. More research is needed on safe water and supply for irrigation and domestic use in the new settlements. Installation of solar power pumps and encouraging local labour by youths. Olturot and Elmolo We are grateful to God for the scholarship program that CITAM has provided to 31 students from Northern Kenya. This includes students in high school and theological colleges. We are committed to mentoring them so that they can realize their full potential. The Safari program is key in the growth of our church members. We are currently on Embrace and we see evident transformation giving has increased, commitment to prayer meetings and Baptism of key members is just part of it. Sports evangelism and Morans Trip - Early this year, we conducted Sports clinics in all our four stations in bid to enhance and/or challenge our approach of it into ministry. Our goal is to see Sports being embraced in and used for evangelization. We believe this will yield more harvest of souls. 97

10 CITAM ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS The Morans in our context are our target audience, culturally they do not mingle with women and children and therefore it becomes a challenge to come to church. However, through soccer many have given their lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and are being discipled. Last year we baptized 5 of them. We also brought 22 Morans for a trip to Nairobi where they had friendly matches with our Kiserian youth and also performed at the Greenspan mall during the Christmas Cantata. This was a life changing experience to all of them. They now attend our Sunday services without fear. Our Teens week in August dubbed: Committed to Purity Ps 119:9 brought together 46 teens who went through one week of discipleship teachings on purity/chastity. At the end of it, they committed themselves before God to live pure and holy lives pleasing to God. 15 recommitted their lives to God. In August twenty Elmolo youth came to Olturot for an exchange program with Olturot youth. We took them through Enter and Encounter one discipleship program and 18 of them gave their lives to Christ. They also played a friendly match with Olturot youth where the gospel was also shared. The Annual Youth Seminar brought together over 100 youths from 5 different communities within Marsabit County. The main goal was to challenge them to interact with each other and build relationship that would promote peace and cohesion. Historically they live in enmity with each other. The guest speaker was one of the gospel artists -Nissie Okoth who is a native from Marsabit and a former Muslim. She challenged them to embrace one another, stop negative cultural practices and hold on to Jesus. We thank God for the Food bank project. We feed over 250 children every Sunday both in Elmolo and Olturot. In July we held a Children s Fun-day which was a success. In December through partnership with Citam Buruburu and Thika Rd, we held our DVBS and over 250 were reached. Many parents who never came to church earlier now attend our services. We held crusades in Elmolo and Olturot in December. 15 believers in Elmolo and 85 in Olturot were baptized. 3 of those from Elomolo were quite elderly but had yearned for baptism for over two years. 5 of those baptized in Olturot were Morans. We also had a powerful service during Christmas and food was shared by all who attended the service in both the stations A joint WM between Kargi and Olturot Women that brought together 78 women was a big success. The main speaker, a renowned local who understands the dynamics of the two cultures tackled the negative cultural practices (FGM, early marriages, adultery) with boldness and bravery that challenged the women. Most of them committed to stop these practices. We were privileged to have Camp Interns season 6 engage in ministry in our mission fields for six weeks. They performed tremendously as some of them were stretched beyond what they are used to. They were involved in teaching in schools, PPI, Guidance & Counselling, Fora ministry, Moran Adult literacy, Church ministries: Women ministry, Teens, Youth, Children and the Manyatta visits (door-to-door). They also ventured into sack farming. They all said that missions was their climax of the Camp program. Marsabit We thank God for His mighty presence and protection in Marsabit. Indeed it was a year of enlargement. In Mataarba and Gororukesa, we witnessed tremendous growth in numbers. The two church plants of Ilman Gufu and Dadach Kambi are doing well. The support we receive monthly from a Safari group at CITAM Valley road helps the local evangelists and this has motivated them to engage 98

11 Enlarge Your Tents Strengthen your Stakes in ministry there. This same safari group has been supporting us in food bank to reach at least 60 needy households within our churches. The food received through the initiative of SAAG has greatly helped the community in the drought season and this program is evangelistic in itself since some people got added to the church through this. We held a successful couples seminar in both Gororukesa and Mataarba with attendance of 50 active participants where many areas of family life were taught to ground them on biblical truth about family, marriage and salvation. In school outreach, we were able to minister to two primary schools and three high schools where we engaged in safari for discipleship. The Marsabit church has completed The Safari up to Encounter three. Sunday school graduation saw the establishment of senior and junior Sunday school while the former junior Sunday school has graduated to join youth and choir. Eight needy students from two mission churches got CITAM scholarships. We had a successful joint missions youth camp in Marsabit at Marsabit Boys high school. We received donations of over 100 Borana Bibles and Sunday school Bibles which boosted our ministries For the first time ever, we received Missions Camp Interns who were of great help to us especially after Pastor Hirbo left us in the year. Compassion International has partnered with CITAM Gororukesa and 200 children have been selected from the community for sponsorship. In addition, two professional staff were appointed from the community in December in the positions of project director and project social worker. The construction of the Pastor s house at Gororukesa was completed and furnished. The Gororukesa church construction was also started. Namorupoth General improvements academically because we emerged position 3 in the sub county and topped in social studies/cre in the KCPE. This was attributed to the penetration of Gospel as 90% of our candidates last year were saved and baptised. We also recorded 99% transition to High school as only one girl who got less than 200 marks opted to repeat. The teachers did an exceptionally good job. The school did exemplary well in co-curricular activities i.e. we were able to retain our titles in football, volleyball boys and netball girls in Loima sub county. We were the only school in Loima sub county school to take a child to nationals in boys football he got a scholarship to Lugari high school in Bungoma for the 4years. Spiritually the school administration was supportive in the execution of the SAFARI discipleship tool for allowing our missionary to engage the pupils. Through CITAM Eldoret we trained about 17 volunteers into children ministry as workers and also launched the DVBS for the first time over the April holidays. DVBS recorded very high numbers of up to 1,200 children on the third day and 750 on the first day. The PPI program and the evening devotions went on uninterrupted. Many children gave their lives to Jesus and 37 were baptised. Some of the children were also bold to promise reaching out to their friends, relatives and children in their villages. There was a great harvest of souls from the outreach that we did in the villages, where we discipled and baptised many. We did evening fellowships and revivals at the PAG church. The church formed her local mission wing with about fifty people signing in. During the DVBS we trained about 20 children workers in a training workshop at Lodwar town. The church has supported the establishment of Christian Union at Loima boys by constantly sending speakers to their Sunday services, discipling and conducting baptism classes. We baptised 17 boys. CONCLUSION We would like to thank all the Missions Head office team and missions staff those who are within the country and those who are out of the country for their immense sacrifice in answering God s call. May God richly reward you! The LORD has done great things. May His Name be praised! 99

12 CITAM ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Glory to God. CITAM Romania has taken off with ENTER and ENCOUNTER 1-3 (CED) 100