A Christian Youth Leadership training in Kenya

For the past two years in Kenya, we have concentrated on reaching the unreached regions in Kenya, namely of Samburu County (equivalent to a state in the US.): Maralal, Wamba, Baraboi, and Archers. These are the rural, agrarian, and isolated places of Kenya—not the vacation spots or well-populated places.

Under Mark Juma‘s excellent leadership, we have led many Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry trainings in Samburu. We have reported on some of them in a previous newsletter. The fruit produced is nothing short of a miracle. We had no idea how powerful this would become. Now, the time has come to make further, indigenous inroads.

Multiplying Fruit in Churches and Schools

Each time we do JFYM training, Mark sets the stage for further training of youth leaders both in schools and in churches. As we identify and then gather those who have implemented JFYM, we are able to produce more Trainers of Trainers—we call them “TOTs.”

Mark and I had begun discussing months ago how to best multiply TOTs by giving them “on-the-job” leadership experience. First, we evaluated their JFYM implementation progress. Then we invited those selected to accompany Mark to a training. Beforehand, he assigns each potential TOT one of the six principles from JFYM, giving them all they need to prepare to lead their session. Then, in small groups, they all practice leading their session. On the second day, youth leaders come for the JFYM training from churches in the area—led by the new TOTs. That means that those new youth leaders are introduced to JFYM by their own trainers and in their own dialect. Afterward, the TOTs spent time evaluating each person’s presentation so all of them learned from each other. That’s exactly what happened—JFYM indigenous training was launched in Maralal!

Beyond the Training—the Miracle