It Takes a Church
Jubilee Centre August 25th, 2009
There is an old African proverb that has been making the rounds for many years: “It takes a village to raise a child.” Its message is clear: The whole village is in this together, to raise a child with care, love and compassion so that traditions and morals that set the course for the future of our families for generations to come are preserved.
Today, this village has been ravaged by HIV/AIDS, malaria, polluted water, child sexual abuse, early child marriages and is filled with child headed homes, child mortality, poverty and environmental degradation. Today the village cannot raise a child. The village is full of elderly grandparents who are tired, wearily and perplexed with overwhelming problems. The village education is value-free, sex is on the take with free birth control pills, and traditions and morals have been replaced with modern principles that say there is no right or wrong but only preferences.
But for several years, God has been building another kind of village in the world. This village is experiencing phenomenal growth in Africa. But this village is simply not doing enough to build a community in which children will live life to the full, play, learn and grow. This village has the power to complement the lessons and values children learn at home. This village has been given a message of hope in Christ and has the power to help a child develop a lifestyle of honesty, integrity, and love for neighbour, purity and leadership. This village is called the Church. Jesus the head of this church says, “… I will build my church and the gates 
of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matt.16: 18). God has given divine authority to the church to provide leadership in our communities wherever we are found and has assured us that the church will succeed ultimately.
Insert Photo: Willow Creek Community Church
In light of the phenomenal growth of the church in Africa and the hope it is bringing in many places of devastations, we need a new proverb. How about: “It takes a church to raise a child”? Our children are at risk. The government has not invented a program, a piece of legislation, or a department that can give hope to a lonely child heading a home, that can teach a sexually abused child to stay pure from sexual immorality, that can help a hungry child to love his rich neighbour. We know as church the responsibility of raising a child lies upon the shoulders of parents. But when a child who has no parents is reached for Christ and by God’s grace he stumbles into your church you have a responsibility to help that child become all that Christ intended him or her to be irrespective of his background.
The church is our only hope to do something about Zambia’s slipping morals. As Jubilee Centre we are convinced that bringing lasting hope will start by bringing lasting change in our 4 to 14 years old children. Hope for a better Zambia lies in infusing godly values in our children. That is why Jubilee Centre has teamed up with Willow Creek Church of USA and AWANA Zambia to give you skills and knowledge that you as church will start raising children that shall one day provide leadership from a firm foundation that Jesus is Lord.
Lawrence Temfwe
(Extracts from official opening speech given at AWANA training for Sunday School teachers in Ndola from 23 to 28 August 2009).
i usually stick to natural birth control methods because i am a christian, natural birth control has no side effects too..,-