Chichester Harbour fundraising successful
Thanks to the 22 people who joined our fundraising walk on the south coast to raise funds for volunteer training in Nigeria; and for everyone who supported them financially.
Between us we raised over £2,500 for the three-day refresher training programme planned for volunteers in the second half of 2021.
Smaller AGM due to unrest and Covid
Grace & Light members have recommitted to supporting our work in Nigeria
Covid has had a significant impact on our work in Nigeria over the last 18 months including on our annual general meeting at the end of May.
Fifty people had registered for the meeting in Jos, but Covid restrictions along with local insurgency meant just 24 people could be accommodated in a much scaled down review of the past 12 months.
Nasarawa churches open their doors to Grace & Light
Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ opens its doors in Nasarawa to Grace & Light volunteer teams.
More than 500 pastors attending the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ’s annual national conference in Nasarawa State listened to our messages about social righteousness and sexual and gender-based violence.
Villagers embrace the challenge to change behaviours
Local people overwhelmed the sexual and gender-based workshop Grace & Light held in their Plateau State village at the end of April.
The five day workshop was planned for different audiences each day with a maximum of 30 people per day and were fully booked in advance.
However, the men who attended the second day went home and told their wives they should attend also. The next day we increased places by 50 per cent and still turned wives away.
Teenage girls learn to resist sexual predators
Thousands of teenage girls have better understanding of how to deal with sexual predators following talks at Girls Brigade camps over Easter.
Grace & Light’s Jos volunteer team spoke at three different Girls Brigade camps, each with 1,000 girls, giving an interactive presentation followed by counselling for anyone who was being sexually abused.
COCIN congregations confront sex and gender-based violence issues
COCIN churches in Plateau State are opening their doors to Grace & Light’s sexual and gender-based violence workshop that challenges congregations to live God-centred lives.
Ninety-six people attended the first of these workshops in Zagun, a town in Bassa local government area, between 19-21 March.
The first day participants explored issues of sexual and gender-based violence in their communities, the second day they looked at work and corruption issues and the third day was focused on how to put their new understanding and commitments into practice.
First school visit in six months
A glimmer of hope as the first school opens its doors to social righteousness ministry for students.
School visits have been rare since Covid struck Nigeria in early 2020. Last year our Jos, Yola and Jalingo volunteer teams visited just eight schools with six of the visits between January and March. Then two visits in November and nothing again until March this year.
Learning to live lives that honour God
Across Nigeria whole families are in church each Sunday for cultural reasons, it is expected of them. They worship joyfully, listen to sermons about how God loves them, then return to lives that do not reflect what they have sung and heard.
“During our Sunday visits we hear again and again people saying they do not know why they are in church, especially young people,” said Grace & Light international coordinator Tassie Ghata. “They are Christian in name only, they have no idea about how to live lives that honour God, or even that they are supposed to.”
