Spiritual Growth

One of the big challenges that faced me as I began this role with CARE for AIDS was the need to standardize the services that we offer to all of our clients in different centers across the board.  Spiritual counseling was an especially tricky subject - how could we make sure that each of our individual spiritual counselors would offer the same kind and quality of spiritual teaching and encouragement to the clients?  At least part of an answer to this problem has arrived in the form of a partnership with the Kenya Bible League.  Over the past six months, each of our centers has met with their local Bible League office and worked out a plan for all of the clients to receive a workbook called "Steps to Victory" when they enter the CARE for AIDS program.  The spiritual counselors help them form into small groups of about 5 clients, and during the week they meet together to read through the fundamental aspects of a Christian faith and answer questions based on scripture references in the workbook.  Then, they meet together with the spiritual counselor to check their answers and review what they've learned.

After completing the Steps to Victory workbook, the groups are given a second workbook titled "Bearing Fruit," which focuses on how to live out a Christian life and share the gospel with other people.  When they successfully complete this book with good grades, they are awarded a certificate and a Bible written in Swahili, English, or their local language.  This process is producing great results with the clients.  They really enjoy the challenge of the workbooks, meeting together in a group, and reviewing their answers each way.  This method allows us to ensure that each client has a foundational understanding of scripture before we hand them a Bible, and this fact combined with the personal time investment that they put in means that they will value and use the Bible more than they might otherwise.  Kenyans also LOVE certificates, so that aspect definitely can't be overlooked! 

It's amazing to see clients so excited about receiving their Bibles, workbooks, and certificates, and it truly does create enthusiasm for the Word.  Just last week, a client from the Banana center brought two of her HIV-positive friends to see Moses, the spiritual counselor in the center.  The client had walked her friends through the "Steps to Victory" book, and they both told Moses that they wanted to accept Christ that day and sign up for the waiting list for the next group of clients at Banana.  This "spiritual multiplication" is so encouraging - praise God for how he is using these clients to reach out and make a difference in the lives of the people around them and for the empowering effect this has on people who used to view their lives as worthless!