The Equip 2024 group was our second cohort, and we are grateful to God as we see the vision of Equip become more and more clear.
We had 13 students. Not all were alumni of Moriah: six of the 13 were recommended to the program from elsewhere. Three were ladies and the rest were young men. Incidentally the ladies were all single mothers, one of whom had left an abusive marriage. One of the men had struggled with drug addiction.
The ministry was quite fruitful. Every week we sought with each topic to encourage the delegates to allow God to bring restoration into their lives. We also set aside time for one-on-one prayer ministry for the delegates. We witnessed God doing great work in the delegates through the prayer ministry.
We had fruitful bible studies in the evenings which helped the delegates firm up their convictions through scripture. This interaction was good especially for their own growth and it was done in such a way that they could continue having the culture of studying the Word even on their own.
We engaged the delegates in school ministry and discipleship initiatives in neighbouring schools. The weekly pastoral program in primary schools has especially been a good avenue for the delegates to put into practice that which they had been taught in class. And we have received very good feedback from the school administrations and the wider community.
We took nature walks with the students, which kept us fit but also broke barriers.
The teachings were very fruitful and impactful, and we bless the Lord. We could see that from the conversations during the break and lunchtimes that the delegates were reflecting on how the teachings impacted their own lives.
With the weight of ministry and the reality of spiritual exposure, the Lord led us to mobilise a few of our friends to join in interceding for the work here.
The LivingWe grew vegetables on the farm, and sweet potatoes too to supplement the breakfast menu. We harvested lots of tomatoes from the greenhouse. This provided us with organic nutrition and cut down on what we had to buy.
We thank the Lord, who through BHW provided us with support that enabled us to buy a fridge and a freezer. This helped greatly in facilitating purchase of food in bulk, which is much cheaper.
We decided this time to have four days of teaching and one day of rest. The teachings ran from Tuesday to Friday, and we rested Mondays. Most of the school ministry was on Friday mornings, when primary schools scheduled the government-mandated pastoral programs.
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We ran the high schoolers discipleship camp in November as before. 35 students attended, among whom we bless the Lord for 23 who became converts. A majority of the converts were baptised.
We have continued to receive encouraging feedback from the parents who send their children for the DTP camps. A good number of those who are receiving faith are able to maintain the walk with God even after the one-week camp.
We bless the Lord for this avenue and are grateful to God for His presence with us to bring impact and transformation.
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Commissioning We did the commissioning just after the three-months’ training, a departure from 2023. The combined commissioning at the end of the high school leavers’ program tended to eclipse the delegates, and so we thought it best to give them their ‘moment’, suitably right after their training.
This testimony is from Elizabeth, and she shares the Equip Experience for her in her own words.
‘Equip program is a powerful tool that God used to point me back to the cross of Jesus. I was bitter with life, I had given up with God because I felt God had disappointed me, I felt in charge with my life and I can revenge to anyone who causes me pain, forgiveness was a forgotten word that never came across my mind, at that state, God by His mercy and His grace, He found me through the program that I was not even to go to...(I felt forced) through teachings, healing sessions, prayer and sharing I was able to forgive and to forgive myself, I was able to let go and allow God to take charge, it was not easy but God's grace was sufficient. Since then, I have been walking in freedom of God's forgiveness and am the happiest mother that God has restored, Equip ilifanya nikaanza kunona pia na nikawa more beautiful (It was at Equip that I began adding weight and also become more beautiful.)’
We had notable successes:
1) Clearly changed lives among the delegates and a commitment to continue in faith.
2) Successfully organising the farm and the increased produce of greens, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes, thereby reducing our costs, but also providing fresher, more nutritious, food.
3) The fruitfulness of the DTP camp is always a blessing.
We also experienced a few challenges as follows:
1) The fact that we had such a diversity meant that we were not very certain if we could move on to the meat of teaching before tackling the elementary truths of the Christian faith. We now think that even had we been sure, beginning with foundational teaching is still important. We are incorporating at the beginning of the next Equip a training called Misingi – Foundations in Swahili – developed locally.
2) It often proved difficult coordinating with the Moriah staff that were already on the ground, especially because the two programs though related are different, but shared the facilities.
3) Food prices soared suddenly during the program, and often at every market visit there was a new price for the foodstuffs that we bought. We mitigated this by buying most of the food in bulk.
4) Transport remains a challenge. We are trusting the Lord to provide a vehicle for the work, personally owned or ministry owned, whichever the Lord gives, however for the moment we may need to increase the budget allocated for transport.
5) We have not managed to have 100% transition of our delegates into partner organisations for the work experience. What is available to the students cannot sustain them, and the majority of the organisations are not able to take them in due to budgetary constraints. We have encouraged our students to seek opportunities for service wherever they go, and to apply there those things which they have learnt here. Reports of their doings have been most encouraging.
6) The frequent blackouts have proved a challenge since we have some of the lessons online. This also threaten our buying food in bulk whenever there is no electricity then we would risk the food going bad.
We are grateful to God for grace.
We still recommend for Herma to get an assistant to effectively meet the growing needs of the program and address the unique challenges that come with it.
We are keen to develop a full-fledge library as a discipleship tool. We have managed to purchase some wonderful books, and we hope to increase them into a proper library with some good shelves for the books. We want to encourage a culture of reading among the students.
We have had a serious challenge of power blackouts, which especially disrupts the online sessions we have created, and sometimes prevents them going on altogether. We think that a suitable alternative or supplement to the local power supply would be appropriate. We are doing our research as well as consulting widely on the best and the most practical alternative.
We thank God for the burden that he has given us for young people becoming Disciple makers for His kingdom purposes.
We are also grateful to God for the connection that he has orchestrated with Bright Hope World, and that through this many lives are being touched and transformed for His glory. We bless the Lord for this as we continue to serve Him among the young people and as we bring up labourers to His vineyard.
In His service,
Herma and Jairus