The 2018 edition of the Jesus Kids Rally, an annual event organized by ICGC Horeb Temple every Boxing Day, December 26, witnessed a massive attendance of 5,480 children.
Unlike previous editions where the church held the rally on its premises around the West Hills Mall at Weija in Accra, the rally was taken to Senya Beraku in the Awutu Senya West District of the Central Region.
Head Pastor of ICGC Horeb Temple, Reverend Daniel Sowah, told citinewsroom.com that they had to take the event beyond the church’s premises, to reach out to more numbers instead of mainly the children of the church and others within the catchment area, who were the focus of the previous editions.
The event is mostly sponsored through the benevolent donations of church members, groups and private individuals.
“This started four years ago when God touched our hearts to evangelize to kids in our neighbourhood, so we started it on a small scale, giving kids food, and clothing, that’s a branded T-shirt just to put a smile on a child’s face during the Christmas season. Then we went to the next phase, but last year [2017], we got over 2,500 kids and Horeb Temple couldn’t contain it. So once I was praying, God put on my heart to move to another venue, and Senya Beraku came to mind.”
“The idea is to put a smile on a child’s face, and bring a child to the saving knowledge of Christ. We believe there’s a child in Senya Beraku who needs Christ, and that’s why we’re here. So we mobilized facilitators all over the place, it’s non-denominational, we brought all the churches in Senya Beraku together, and we trained facilitators, and we have gotten a lot of donations” he noted.
The rally, since 2014, has seen a sharp increase, as kids study the word of God and eat to their satisfaction. Thee kids were grouped into various classrooms at the venue, where they were they studied the word f God.
Whereas the 2017 edition at the church’s premises hosted a little over 2,500 kids, the 2018 edition at Senya Beraku officially recorded 5,480.
The 2018 event as usual could not have been successful without the influence of volunteers, numbering over 250 at this year’s event. They rendered services such as registration of the kids, cooking and serving of meals, teaching the kids the word of God, providing security, cleaning and general supervision of all activities of the day.
The kids were clothed in nicely designed Jesus Kids rally T-Shirts, were not only fed with food and drinks, but were fed the word of God.
Aside from the fun games such as bouncy castle, drama, choreography, musical chairs, skipping rope among others, they also received gifts such as toy watches, spectacles, and most of all Bibles, after being served lunch.
There was an alter call where some of the kids confessed Jesus as their Lord and personal saviour, and gave their lives to him.
This year’s event was not only executed by the ICGC Horeb Temple, as churches within the Senya Beraku community such as the Church of Pentecost, Divine Healers Church, Christ Apostolic Church, Methodist and the Catholic Church among others, supported the coordination.
The local ICGC Church in Senya Bereku also supported the event held on a D/A School park with the approval of the Ghana Education Service [GES].
Pastor Daniel Sowah explained that the church considers the event an evangelism tool for reaching out to children and drawing them to the saving knowledge of Christ.
According to him, children are important to the Kingdom of God and to nation building, explaining that children form the next generation, and hence efforts must be made to hone their skills and talent, whiles giving them the platform to express themselves and be confident.
He admonished churches to focus more on nurturing Children in God’s word in order to bring out a new generation of morally upright youth to save the country from corruption and other ills that threaten its development.
Pastor Daniel Sowah said “No kid is a bad boy or girl. They are all precious jewels to Jehovah”, urging parents and guardians to take note of their kids’ individual strengths and weaknesses, to help them transform into responsible adults with God at the centre of their lives.
He was hopeful that the event will grow to become a larger national event that will reach out to many more kids in the years to come.
He urged the kids to find God’s presence and his word useful at all times, and show respect to the elderly, avoid bad company and indecent language.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie|citinewsroom.com|Ghana
