The Nairobi Christian Church witnessed for the very first time a teens led thanksgiving service at the Umoja Sanctuary on the 1st December 2013.
Amos Otieno the teens’ ministry leader delivered the sermon on appreciating the gift of forgiveness in Jesus Christ through repentance. He focused on 1st Timothy 1:12-17, urging the congregation to do their level best to show their gratitude to Jesus Christ adding appreciation as the highest form of prayer. He cited the challenges teens go through and the role mentors play to ensure teens’ needs are met.
Amos delivering the main message
Joshua Ondatto shared the Lord’s Supper from 1st Peter 1:3-5. Reminding the congregation of how fortunate we are to have Christ who help us to have hope and persevere. He appreciated the fact that many disciples have been in his life which has moulded him to be who he is today drawing examples from his life on how God has promised us much greater things….bigger than we can imagine….The service had powerful performances, impactful life testimonies, sobering Holy Communion and a reflective key message which resonated well with the audience.
Victor Ingati stated how powerful God through his uncle, aunt and mentors have not let him go down despite the absence of his parents. He appreciated God, his uncle, his aunt, mentors and the church for being a family. Esther Nzula shared her struggles after the loss of her friend and how her family has been supportive even when they did not have much.
Esther Nzula sharin
The teens displayed clearly marked Billboards with deep underlying messages depicting how tough it is to be a teen disciple. Amazingly the teens managed the serving, communion, poems, special songs, sharing and announcements with much precision.
The year 2013 has been an interesting year in the teens’ ministry with some highs and lows. The mentors have had two productive team building retreats with the first retreat preparing the mentors for the youth and family changes, introducing the initial change stages and building team work for transition and after the transition. The last retreat was a time out for the mentors after August holidays work.
Joshua Ondatto sharing the communion
The teens also had a successful bible challenge in April as well as a successful teens’ week. It has been very encouraging to see teens get innovative. The teens from Philippians have come up with a support group called PHOENIX – Pursuing holiness Over everything N in Xelence.
Teen leaders sharing good news
Amos Otieno points out that the mentors have been the greatest asset in the growth of teens. Though few in number their efforts have bore lots of fruits. They have big hearts for the teens and have been valuable partners in this ministry. The church in Kenya has 350 teens with 95 of them disciples. The church also witnessed the baptism of 9 disciples into the Kingdom.
Early this year, the church embarked on an Evangelization campaign and as a result thousands have been reached out with 17 people being baptized from registering at the visitors’ book. The congregation had an opportunity to watch a video appeal for the Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and made some contribution towards assisting the victims. The typhoon killed almost 6,000 people devastating hundreds of towns and cities and leaving millions of people without food, clean water and shelter. The millions affected by last month’s storm are still facing a huge task to rebuild their lives. Disciples were also affected by the typhoon.
Everyone was a teen at heart
The writer can be reached at ostinmoriz@gmail.com
