Help with Food
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second-best time is now."
-Old Proverb
The statement above could apply to spreading the message of Christ. Star of Hope has made a great effort to incorporate the Gospel into almost everything they do. For instance, they have established Awana clubs in Kenya, Ghana, and Haiti in recent years. In case you're unfamiliar with the Awana program, here's a brief overview from their website.
Awana provides a program that teaches kids and their families about the Gospel. Their reliable and adaptable program helps you develop leaders and teach kids to follow Christ throughout their lives. The program and activities are available to children from the age of two to eighteen.
In the United States, Awana clubs are preparing for their evening meetings during this time of year. In our project countries, however, the Awana program is integrated into the school day so that every child can participate without having to attend another activity. Our schools also welcome other children from the neighborhood to attend Awana events. This allows those children to learn and enables teachers to become acquainted with the health and living conditions of children who don't attend school.
Kenya
We were honored to host another AWANA training. The event was attended by 456 children from our Mikindani and Jimba schools. The event was also attended by our school teachers, Sunday school teachers, and facilitators, Pastor Joseph and Samuel Karisa from the AWANA
Foundation. We broke the training into the three segments of the Awana program...
Council Time - Leaders learn how to tell Bible stories to the children and then explain the lessons learned from those stories. This session aims to teach the clubbers the nature and character of God, His plan for salvation through Jesus Christ, and how to live a Christian life.
Game Time - This is the children's favorite activity. Here teachers were trained to use games to make teaching the word of God is fun and interesting.
The small group time this example is from Haiti
Small Group Time - Connecting children with God and promoting fellowship between the children and their teachers. The children and teachers were divided into small groups of 6-8 and given activities to perform as a team. This approach helps the teachers to identify children with learning difficulties so they can help them understand God's teachings. This small group time also allows the leaders to identify students who might need a little extra help with their home life or regular studies as well.
After the training sessions, all participants went on a lunch break. The children enjoyed a special meal and a soft drink with their teachers.
This image has been filtered.
Kansas, USA
One church in the USA used its Vacation Bible School offering to support the Awana program in Ghana. In addition to bills and checks, they gave over 35 lbs of coins (also helping the coin shortage). They were able to raise nearly $2000 for Awana uniforms, snacks, and media equipment. Star of Hope USA sent a "Hello" picture to Ghana so the children could see who raised the money for them. The children in Ghana were thrilled to see all the smiling faces.
Ghana
Star of Hope Ghana received the funds from Kansas, and Awana purchases were quickly made. For game time, the children in Ghana can now divide into teams according to their uniform color. They also now have a snack fund and money to order a microphone and sound system to be heard by more people.
We may be physically far from the people in these other countries, but we can still significantly impact their lives and eternal destiny. So please keep Star of Hope in mind for any missions you are involved in.
Warm greetings,
Mark Presson
Star of Hope CEO
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