Friday Night Youth Night

Please allow me to write today wearing 2 hats. The first is my pastor hat. The second is my parent hat. I imagine those of you with both careers and families also are in the habit of hat changing.

As a pastor I have come to love the people and city of Kigali. However, there are areas in Kigali that I have great concern about. One is our youth. To be honest, Kigali is dull city on weekends and I don't see much positive activity for our youth to do. My grandmother used to speak repeatedly about the dangers of idleness. When we have little positive activities to do we tend to gravitate towards the ones that actually become quite harmful. It seems to me that for youth in Kigali there are few options for the weekends once studies are over and there is no one at home to visit.

Thus we at CCR want to provide an answer to a need of the city of Kigali by beginning a Friday Evening Youth Night at our Facility. Each Friday at 4:30 we will offer some activity to entertain and inspire the youth of our city. This week we will start with a Christian Concert by Extra Mile. We will also hold one on 28 March with Sam Rowland (for more information see www.samrowland.org). Future activities will include movies, dramas, games, debates, and any other activity we are able to create that will entertain and inspire young people in Kigali.

If you are a parent I invite you to send your teenage children. If you are a youth I invite you to come.

Now as I wear my parent hat, I want my children to mature in an environment of faith and community. I recognize that I can't provide all they need for their nurture. Thus I entrust their education to schools and teachers. I also entrust their spiritual care to churches and pastors. However, I want to know what is happening and make sure my voice is heard. Thus at school I volunteer and serve on several committees. It keeps me busy, but also places me in a place of influence. Thus as we begin at CCR a Friday Youth Night I will have the same habit. I'll entrust my children's nurture to a few others, but I'll still stay involved. I hope if you have teenage children you will also join me in community involvement.

Our new Youth Pastor is Moses Mbabaabali. His e-mail is mose299s@yahoo.co.uk if you want to contact him. I will help Moses many Friday nights as a concerned parent. Supervising youth is not an easy task and I know he needs some mature people to help. I will sell sodas for the concert this Friday. If you would like to join me by the CCR Coffee Shop I'd love the help and opportunity to get to know you better.

So as both a parent and a pastor CCR's new Friday Night Youth Night is an important event. I hope to see many of you with us this Friday at 4:30.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave