Program Report Equip! 2023

Recent Events

Background

Equip! was designed to develop and raise Christian workers and leaders whose perspectives differ from the typical worldview of their peers. The program set out to shape, refine and sharpen these perspectives by encouraging deeper engagement with God’s Word and His truths, by facilitating close interaction with older Christians and their families, and by providing practical experience, both during and after their three-month residence. Then they would be released to their separate vocations with the charge to make the greatest possible impact on their community for its wholesome good, and for God’s glory.

The 2023 inaugural Equip! Program was accommodated at the facilities of Camp Moriah School of Discipleship in West Nyakach, Kisumu, Kenya. It ran for three months from September to November. Hereafter, the students will be placed in partner or other suitable organisations for practical work and life experience.

The distinctiveness of the program lies in its admitting young disciples trained at Moriah or in a like discipleship course, equipping them for effective service and ministry work, and placing them in institutions that provide as far as possible facility for practical outworking of their training.

Camp Moriah began as a discipleship school to raise Christian disciples, initially among the children of Mathare Valley slums, through a 6-month residential program that admits high school graduates.

The Moriah program has greatly enriched its students, many of whom are at the forefront in Christian initiatives and in their churches and communities. However, there has been a noted need for these young disciples to receive more rigorous instruction and training to equip them for service in their churches, communities, and in their colleges and college Christian unions. It is this need that birthed the vision of Equip!

The Program

Equip! began on 2nd September 2023. The program covered a number of key areas of growth, including The Clarity of God’s Call, Discipleship Dynamics, Opportunities for Service, Personal Organisation, among others.

Equip! 2023 was attended by 12 delegates, of whom only one was a lady! All but one were Moriah alumni of different years.

The course was certainly impactful – even to us! There was among the delegates a discernible gradual mental shift and mind-set change towards many issues of life. 

School Ministry

Opportunities opened for preaching and teaching in local churches and neighbouring primary and secondary schools, and we hope to build on these contacts in the coming years. We entrusted the organisation and running of primary school ministry entirely to the delegates, while we frequently accompanied them to inviting high schools and churches. It was refreshing to see them put into practice the very lessons they had learnt, and to hear them challenge and motivate their younger brothers and sisters in the schools, clearly explaining the gospel to them, lifting them up, and encouraging them in their studies and towards right living.

Discipleship Training Program (DTP)

Near the end of the three-month course, a week-long youth camp (the DTP) – the first ever – was organised. It afforded the delegates a platform in which to implement practically what they had been taught. The DTP was arranged for local teens aged 13 to 17.

Moriah had long desired to hold such a camp, and we are grateful that the first such camp was arranged during the Equip! program. We invited young people from the local schools and churches that we had visited during school and local church ministry.

We had planned the camp for 35 students; we had 50! It was a great success. The young people were stirred for God, challenged, and many of them became believers. Indeed, it seemed that even before the delegates had completed their training the impact of their ministry was already being felt in the community.

Our fervent prayer is that it will please God that through Equip!, a life-transforming light will be lit all over this community, and which will shine forth across the country and beyond.

Plans for the Future

Proposal Writing 

At some point we required the delegates to start reflecting prayerfully on their vocations and ministry callings, and to write down these reflections. We had separate sessions to present a formal and professional format of drawing up a proposal. Many of the proposals that they prepared reflect careful deliberation and clearly demonstrate divine inspiration. We pray that God will enable the delegates implement these thoughts, and that we will also be careful to keep encouraging them along those paths.

Work Experience and Follow-Up 

The Equip! delegates will be placed in partner organisations for 6 months of work experience. During these 6 months they will be expected to put into practice in their respective areas of interest or work those principles that they have learnt.

Successes and Challenges

The Successes

Some of the successes are highlighted as follows:

1) As already noted, it was most encouraging to observe the delegates gradually transform and begin to shift their mind-set. We were excited to see them receive and make deeper commitments to truth. One time as we walked together from church in the company of other congregants, one of the congregants related how she had heard sung at a church meeting a supposed gospel song, which on her singing it we could tell contained all hype and no edification. It was refreshingly one of the delegates who pointed out to the lady that that was no gospel song!

2) It helped that nearly all the delegates were alumni of Moriah, especially since the 2023 Equip! was inaugural. We were able to bond quickly and move on with few teething problems. The students were themselves able to blend in well with each other. In the end, the program ran the more smoothly perhaps as a result, and there was minimal friction or antagonism.

3) All but one of the facilitators contacted were available to come. For the one who could not come and another who was not able to stay long enough to handle all the week-long sessions, we found equally suitable replacements, from outside and from within our ranks. We were all greatly challenged by the facilitators, all older Christians with solid testimonies and a wealth of insights. We are sure the majority of them will be repeat facilitators.

4) Although food prices exploded suddenly – owing likely to the local dollar crunch and soaring fuel prices – God provided guidance to source for much better prices of much better-quality produce, and to buy them in bulk and capitalise on the economies of scale.

5) We had the delegates organise themselves into groups and allocate duties to themselves, especially cleaning and cooking work. We also prepared a time schedule to which we all submitted, including a consistent time for meals. This meant that everyone was able to share fairly equally in the burden of the work at the school, eliminating any cost of engaging outside help. In addition, by keeping a daily schedule there was little interference with class time or other programs.

6) From the outset we determined to give more leeway to the students, allowing them more privileges and relaxing their usual restrictions. We generally referred to them as delegates and not students, and they were allowed their mobile phones throughout their stay. In any case, they were already more mature than the typical Moriah student. We believe this decision accelerated their growth and maturity.

The Challenges 

We also experienced a few challenges as follows:

1) The wise decision to give the students greater autonomy also proved to have a downside. Whenever there was exhibited a level of immaturity warranting more stringent restrictions, it became difficult and unnatural to enforce such restrictions or impose any very serious disciplinary measures.

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 was another major challenge. Moriah has only one motorcycle while Jairus had another. But these could not transport all the food from the market, nor all the students who needed to go to school ministry every now and then. We relied heavily on expensive taxis. Nevertheless, there was plenty of grace and much favour from the transport providers we engaged from time to time.

5) As the two of us were the only staff, we constantly had our hands quite full. We expect that a number of the delegates will be stirred to help as future staff.

In all, there was a lot of grace for the work, in spite of the challenges that were there. We celebrate the successes and look to God for continued grace to meet the challenges.

Conclusion

We are grateful for a quite successful program. We are excited to have poured ourselves into the lives of young people, and to have been privileged to witness growth and transformation, as well as well as shifting worldviews and setting perspectives. We commend the delegates to God’s care and guidance and pray for the grace to keep connecting with them and to follow-up on their progress.

We thank BHW for your partnership, without which it would have been quite impossible or at best overwhelmingly difficult to run this program. None of the delegates could afford by themselves to stay here for a week, let alone for the three months and even longer for a few of them who were compelled to stay out the year.

We also want to thank the leadership of Mathare Community Outreach for their love, care and support. They believed in this program and have been of help in every way that we called on them to do so.

We hope that we will firm up the structures that we put in place. We also trust God for helping hands. We pray that this program will impact many: the delegates who come, their society, the communities to which God calls them, the nation and even beyond.