Capernaum in Zimbabwe

-
A guest post by Nkosi Sampindi...

We have only had Capernaum ministry in Zimbabwe for almost a year now. It really has been both eye opening and life-changing specifically for my wife and myself. I first got the challenge to reach out to kids with disabilities in January 2014 when I was asked the question of "are you really going after ALL kids?" On reflecting on this I realized that although I've been in Young Life for a while I had not been deliberate about reaching out to any kids with disabilities and had also not encouraged members of my team to do so as well. Fast forward a year later, to today and my wife and I have connected with a lady who is a teacher called Esther Moyo at a special school called Riverside Collegiate for kids with mental disabilities or learning disorders and we have started doing contact work, club and sports at the school.

We learned early on that this was not going to be contact work and club as we were already used to because we needed to be more patient, but no less loving and open than we would with kids at our other schools were we did Young Life. I think spending time with these new friends has been an eye opener on the effects of true friendship in the life of a kid, I have seen kids that struggled to even communicate full sentences with other people learn to start communicating with us in song. We have watched kids that started off shy and a bit scared to talk or play now jump and dance during club. We have been truly blessed to have these new friends be part of our lives and have loved to see them grow in the past year and come to know the love of Christ. 

This past December we were able to host a day out for our Capernaum friends along with some of their family members and we had an amazing time singing, dancing, playing and learning about the purpose that Christ has for all of us. The biggest breakthrough for me was with some of our Campaigner kids who served as Buddies on this day who all express that they now had new insight about kids  with disabilities after having spent a day with some of them and I feel this is a step in the right direction for us.  We are still learning and praying for the Lord to help us as we encourage all our leaders to be deliberate about reaching out to kids with disabilities in all schools and neighborhoods and most especially praying for men and women with a clear call and heart for Capernaum Ministry to go into the more that 20 special schools that we have here in Bulawayo.



Nkosi is the Metro Director for Young Life in Zimbabwe.  He has been on YL staff for five years.  He and his wife Montana are expecting their first child this summer!  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas/Winter Club Game Ideas

-
Image
  Mixer Q-tip war: Split room in half with tape down the middle. Pass out straws and Q-tips (make sure you test that the Q-tips fit before hand). You will shoot the Q-tips across the line via placing the Q-tip in the straw and blowing. Keep this going for a while and then stop the music and pick a winning side (one with the least amount of Q-tips). 12 days of Christmas: divide the room up into 12 groups (numbers in group vary based on size of club) Each group is a day of the 12 days. Give them some time to think of a motion/dance move that represents their day. Then perform the whole song! Dice Doubles: Have prepared a gift (candy from dollar store goes over great!). Wrap it in MANY layers, including tape! Sit the group in a circle. If you have more than 20, it’s best for multiples circles to play the game. Place the wrapped gift, gloves, a Santa hat and dice in the center (from playing this game with Capernaum many times, I’ve actually learned that one dice with each side
Read more

Great Visual for Club Talk on Sin

-
Image
During club recently, Katey and her friends were talking about sin and the cross during their club talk. They created this great visual that ended up being so helpful for their friends to understand how sin effects us and how the cross offers us such a beautiful way to live instead! They had 5 boxes- one large box named “SIN”, one large box named “GOD”, one medium box named “ME”, one tiny box named “SIN” and one tiny box named “GOD”. They explained how God created us to live in perfect relationship with Him where we live in Him (put the “ME” box in the large “GOD” box) and where He lives in us (put the tiny “GOD” box in the medium “ME” box). Then, take everything out. They then explained how because of sin (with explanation of sin) it looks like this: put the tiny “SIN” box in the “ME” box and then put the “ME” box in the large “SIN” box. They explained how there is nothing that we can do on our own to get sin out of us and there is nothing we can do on our own to get ourselves out
Read more

Valentine's Day Club

-
Image
Mixer Couple Match-up: You will need stacks of two different colored sticky notes (let’s say one green stack and one pink). You will write couple pairs that your friends know on these. For example, on a green write Minnie Mouse and on pink Mickey Mouse. Place the pink on the backs of your friends and greens on the back of leaders/buddies…no cheating! Don’t let them see who is on their back. Once everyone is ready inform them that they are to find their “couple pair.” They will do this by walking around the room and having friends describe their character WITHOUT saying the name! Once you know who you are you can find your pair. The reason it’s important to have the buddies and leaders be the matches is so they can help their friends out! Once you find your match sit down! Game Heart Target: Place heart shaped paper on the floor, walls, or wherever you want. The person playing the game will be handed a balloon, not tied off! They will release the balloon trying to get it to land on one
Read more