The awesome Psalm 113 read to the church by Nancy Odwallo marked the beginning of a great two-hour session dubbed Dedication Sunday at University Of Nairobi’s C.C.U Hall for the six regions of the Nairobi’s Central Churches.

Excitement filled the air as disciples from Metro, Campus, West, North, Campus and Teens regions gathered at the venue to dedicate various aspects of their lives to God. The morning’s misty weather quickly turned sunny adding a splash of joy to the whole occasion. Inspiring singing followed, thereafter the Scripture reading setting the mood for a great morning dedicated to asking for God’s intervention in the areas of giving, marriage, parenting, special needs, youth ministry and the singles.

Richard Chege from the North Region shared the communion message from the book of I Corinthians 15: 1-5 and Luke 24: 25-27. With his wife Margaret by his side and helping him with the Scripture-reading, Richard encouraged the Church to stand firm in their faith and not be shaken by new teachings that have popped up. Richard, who has been a disciple for six years, shared how he had struggled when one of the people he had looked up to fell away. “It raised a lot of doubts in my mind about whether what we were doing is the right thing. But after looking at the Scriptures I am convinced about the validity of our testimony,” he told the highly attentive congregation. He added,” We must all strive to take the scriptures seriously because it is the truth.”

James Mwang’ombe from the campus ministry encouraged the youth to take seriously their calling from God to take up leadership. Reading from the book of I Timothy 4:12-16, Mwang’ombe who led the dedication for the youth ministry, said God is looking up to them to lead in the areas of purity, speech, faith and life. “We are not the leaders of tomorrow as the politicians keep telling us. God expects us to lead now,” he said.

That powerful encouragement was followed by an equally powerful prayer session for the youth ministry. Then it was the turn of the dedication for the singles ministry led by Sylvester Ogolla and Anita Mtwaiti. Reading from the book of 1 Corinthians 1:4, Sylvester said it was great to be single in the Kingdom of God. He said God expects single men and women to rise up and do awesome things for him. “We see in the bible that some of those people who did great things were single. Paul, Timothy , Joseph and our Lord Jesus Christ were all single men used powerfully by God,” he said.

Oscar and Mary Ondatto, who are deacons in the church, led dedication for all marriages in the church. Reading from Ephesians 5:22-23, Oscar encouraged the men and women to strive to live the kind of lives that are pleasing to the Lord. “Wives must respect their husbands who are expected to love them just as Christ loved the church,” he said.

Anthony and Mary Mwanza (pictured left), just one day after celebrating their 11th wedding anniversary, dedicated the parenting aspect of the Church with powerful quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and Mark 10:13-16.

Anthony challenged parents to strive and store up God’s word in their own hearts so that they in turn can share it with their children. He also called on parents to carve out enough time in their busy schedule to be with the children. “In our daily schedule do we get time for our children?” he challenged. The Mwanzas have three children.

Reading from Psalm 34:1-20, William and Victoria Auki led the dedication for special needs. They urged those going through tough situations like mourning for loved ones, financial challenges or health challenges to trust in God through such situations. Auki said challenges are meant to help us get closer to God. “We must strive to be righteous even as we go through different challenges in our lives knowing that God has allowed it to happen,” he said.

Co-lead evangelist, Steve Mukenya, wrapped it all up with a challenge to all disciples to examine their lives and make the necessary changes in their lives. “It is not just a time to pray and go home. We must now examine our lives and identify areas that we need to change. Are you going to be a better husband? A better father? We must do things differently,” Steve said as he read from the Psalm 116:14.

In his dedication for the giving by the church, Steve, asked disciples to be devoted to giving to God. Quoting from 2Samuel 24:24-25 he said the church must learn to give sacrificially. ”To advance God’s kingdom it will cost us something. We must no longer run away from the sacrifices but must indeed court them,” he urged. He regretted that our giving has gone down with less than Sh.250,000 given in the month of August.

Steve said the Church must strive to be self-sufficient given that we have been around for 15 years. “We must be proud of ourselves and strive to stand on our own two feet. We cannot always be helped but its time to use our talent to advance God’s kingdom,” he said while reading from Mathew 25. Steve capped his message with a challenge to disciples to budget their finances so as to be able to give regular contribution. He suggested that disciples could also form joint contribution groups to assist in raising their special contributions.

Steve further explained that plans for buying of the land to build a church must be fast-tracked and we all must be willing to do what it takes to bring it to fruition.

A delighted Joseph Otieno from the Gachie ministry said afterwards the service had touched every aspect of the disciples’ lives. “Everybody was attended to. It was really great,” he said. Hilda Nakhwanga from Metro region said the service helped her to be in touch with her needs. “It was very nice and helped me to be in touch with my needs as a woman,” she said. Benson Onyoni, who was visiting, termed it fantastic.

And so with that ended an awesome, inspiring and life changing day. We all look forward to God doing amazing things in our lives in the coming months.

(Pictures featured here are from a previous service at the same venue)