Week 2 of The Family Series...

This week we answered the question "Why do we need the family?"  

Something new this week!  We decided to use a black board to write the words to fill in the blanks...

We started the morning by doing a quick review from last week, with last week's words on the board.

 Then we looked at the family as a place of learning; relational skills, character and values...

 The family is to be a shelter to endure the storms of life; changes, crises and identity...

 Family is even to be a playground! A place where we learn how to play and have fun...

The idea of family as shelter was especially poignant after the tragedy at Westgate Mall just this past Saturday...We are all too familiar with the results of a family which is not healthy...the children often become lost, confused and prey to people with evil intentions...

But, with God we can change all that...we can, as the church, under-gird families to be all that God ordained them to be...

Eliphine, Linet & Rose listen attentively

Dorothy, Nancy (a new member!) and Emily

Even though the teaching was long and not interactive, the ladies were attentive throughout - this is an important topic and I believe that, as leaders, they know how vital this is to the church and to the nation.

 We had two new ladies this week; Sarah and Nancy!

Denise, Nancy, Dorothy, Sarah (new member), Nancy and Emily

One of our regulars, Serah, shared a vision/dream which we believe was a message from the Lord, but then she began to embellish with rumors and opinions about the recent Westgate tragedy...Denise spent some time helping us all to pick out the Biblical truths and to 'weed' out the part that was from Serah's human understanding...

Denise challenging us to NOT repeat rumors

It was exciting to have two new ladies in our group today...especially since we believe God gave us this message to build up the family; in Kibera, in Nairobi, in Kenya and in the church.

After a break, we returned to 'our ladies' in Kibera!

Wow - it sure was good to re-connect with our lovely friends :)...Last week we started what will be a 12 week series on the Family.  We started the series with an Intro to the teaching and lots of getting caught up!

Denise greeting Susan, our first arrival of the day

Always - Praise & Worship to start the morning

 We decided to ask the question "What one significant event happened while we were apart?"

 Yikes!  Some of the ladies decided to tell, in detail, every event from the past two months!

Linet & Serah

Then we broke them into groups to answer six questions about the family: How do you define family? What are 3 of God's purposes for the family?  What is the role of a husband? What is the role of a wife?  What is the role of a parent?  What is the role of children?

We want to know how they see the family so that we can build on their perspectives and study from God's word what the Kingdom perspective is...

 Various answers included: Family is an institution where you get father, mother and children...

 Purposes for family include; bring fellowship, unity and maintenance of the family

 Roles of husbands; protector, provider, head.  Roles of wife; submit, helper, care for children/house. Role of children; obey God & parents, love parents, humility to elders, take care of parents in old age (my personal favorite!)

 Then one lady from each group read their answers (some of which I listed above)...

Susan has cataracts and struggles to see, but she did a great job as the spokesperson for her group.

 

 Dorothy read the list her group came up with...

Linet, Dorothy, Serah

 

Elida & Linet listening to Dorothy

On this day we covered "The Purpose of the Family: Introduction"...Josephine is a teacher/speaker so we are fortunate and blessed to have her translating for Denise.

 The handouts included blanks to fill in...

 I love the way they help each other...

 

 

 Josephine reading a passage in Genesis from her Swahili Bible...

Linet filling in the blanks

Nancy

Susan

Dorothy sharing a dream she had that she believes was prophetic

 Josephine translating into Swahili for those that are limited in their English...

 

Serah shared what she believes is an interpretation of Dorothy's dream...Dorothy confirmed that yes, what Serah shared rings true for her.

 We came together in prayer for each other based on what was shared plus additional requests.

 Singing worship songs is always part of our prayer time together...

 Josephine sensing the presence of the Holy Spirit...

 

 

 

 This was a sweet time of fellowship, sharing, praise & worship, and prayers...

Elida (who recently lost her son) being embrace by Dorothy

Denise looks happy :)

Susan & Linet...

Hugs all around!

It was so good to be together again - I had forgotten how much I missed these ladies until they all came together...we were few this past week, but hopefully the rest will be able to join us next week!