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The Reunion Weekend
Held on Saturday the 9th to Sunday the 10th July 2011 at Bethany
The purpose of the event
The main purpose of the ‘Reunion weekend’ was to bring all the Bethany leavers (Children who have gone through Bethany) together, back home for them to feel part of the family and interact with each other again. Also, another reason was for Bethany to know what each one of them was up to with their lives and how they were coping with the outside world which Bethany has been preparing them for. This was also a chance for Bethany to solicit support from the Bethany leavers in order to maintain the development of Bethany.
However, most importantly it was a chance for Bethany to offer support to these young people in whatever they were doing.
Who attended the Event?
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Rehema Kasimu
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Mwita Marwa
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China Paulo
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Peter Chezela
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Jesca Juma
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Tabaji Chezela
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Joyce John
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Emmanuel Bujiku
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Angelina Cosmas
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Labani Daniel
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Immakulatha Robert
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Ramadhani Thobias
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Hollo Bahati
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Kwekwe Shibandiko
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Neema Bahati
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Frank Wilibard
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Sumai Makoye
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Romard Joseph
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Pendo Malele
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Kulwa Malomele
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Eva Joseph
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Dotto Malomele
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Saturday the 9th July 2011 – Programme
A few of the Bethany leavers who live far away from Bethany including Rehema and China arrived at Bethany on Friday evening, however most of them arrived on Saturday at between 10 - 11o’clock in the morning as anticipated.
By noon everybody who was intending on coming was finally arriving. Graham, Sheila, Daniel, Eliada and the volunteers took all those who had arrived into the dining hall and talked to them to make them feel welcome.
Games/sports
After lunch we had time for games and sports. The purpose of these games was to help the Bethany leavers to be able to interact with the young children at Bethany and again feel part of wherever was happening at Bethany.
Bingo
The five girls, Emma, Jesca, Sophia, Fatuma, Minza and the volunteers acted as stewards in supervising the games ensuring that everybody was taking part and playing well. The first game we did was BINGO; we had to split all the children from old to young in teams of ten which was almost impossible. We had two or three Bethany leavers in each. This game went really well and the children seemed to enjoy it.
Tug of war – This was recommended by one of the volunteers and the children really enjoyed it and there was a lot of laughter.
After the children finished playing tug of war, they had a 20 minute break and then they had to choose what they wanted to do from the things listed below. It was encouraged that everybody did something so that there wasn’t anyone left wandering with nothing to do.
Choice of games from: Football, Netball, Debate (held by Emma and Jesca), (Rounders by Sophia and Jonathan) and Nursery Rhymes and games for the young children.
The older boys had a football match (Bethany boys Vs Bethany leavers). Similarly, the order girls also had a Netball match which they all seemed to enjoy.
Evening
In the evening after dinner, we had the prayer meeting as usual and then after that Graham talked for a while about how those children who have left Bethany were once young and immature just like the children who are currently at Bethany. Thus, we watched a short video of them when they were still young and at Bethany. I am sure most of them were really surprised about how much they have grown in such a short time. It was interesting and it brought a lot of laughter, joy and a little embarrassment amongst the children and especially the Bethany leavers.
After watching the short video, we watched an inspirational film called ‘Pay it forward’ which really talks about how we should go on helping people who are in need without expecting anything in return. It had a very good message particularly for the Bethany leavers; however it was probably difficulty for them to understand because of the English language since their English has not improved as much as that of the children at Bethany.
Sunday the 10th July 2011 – Programme
On Sunday morning at 8:30 we had the Sunday service. Graham preached on the parable of the sheep and the goats. He tried to reinforce the idea that no matter what we believe if our actions do not demonstrate Jesus’ love for each other then it is all a waste of time.
Talk-Speech
After the Service Graham, Sheila and Daniel had a talk with all the Bethany leavers. This was intended to encourage them and ask them about what they think of the ‘Reunion weekend’ idea. In this meeting Graham also apologised on behalf of Bethany about the mistakes Bethany have made which might have affected their future in any way. He also reinforced the idea that Bethany will still make more mistakes in the future, however it hopes not to repeat the same mistakes.
In order to encourage them to keep on supporting each other and also Bethany, Graham gave some of the Bethany leavers a poster with all the Bethany children on it for different reasons. The people who received a poster were:
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Rehema Kasimu
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For fulfilling her promise
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Peter Chezela
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For being generous
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China Paulo
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For doing what she said she would do
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Graham also talked about ways of supporting Bethany. It was originally thought that if each leaver would pay 10% of their monthly salary this would be really wonderful. However, in reality the pay for many was so low and the living expenses were so high that many leavers found they could not do this and so decided that if they couldn’t afford 10% then they wouldn’t contribute anything. Also some of the boys did not have regular jobs and so their income fluctuated
Graham explained that we would therefore abandon this expectation and ask leavers to contribute whatever they could afford. He also explained that he had printed some sponsorship forms so that the leavers could sponsor one or more children.
Sheila also briefly talked about cultural values and how girls in particular should protect themselves from danger. She said it was important that girls made sure that they found somebody who was going to really care for them. She also told the boys to not follow cultural values and treat women as typical African men do. This seemed to sink in, whether they will act upon it or not, it is completely up to them. Daniel also talked briefly to just reinforce what Graham and Sheila had already talked about. Graham and Sheila finished by saying “thank you” to the Bethany leavers and how pleased they were to see a lot of them attending such a memorable event.
Meal time - Celebration Feast
Everybody was really looking forward to this moment especially the bottle of soda (one each). The food was delicious and I am sure everybody enjoyed it. The atmosphere was fantastic, seeing everybody in the dining hall, sitting and eating as a family, it brought back very happy memories to everyone.
THE END
After the meal, most of the Bethany leavers went back to Eliada and signed up to sponsor one or more of the Bethany children. This was very encouraging seeing how they were prepared to do that for each other showed that Bethany has making progress in helping our leavers to take some responsibility for Bethany. After this, everybody was then saying their farewells and wishing each other a happy future!!!!!!!!
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