Graduation Ceremony

On Saturday 30th October, Mwandi Mission Centre had its graduation ceremony.

The 10 students returned to the Mission Centre for their graduation after 4 months hard work and study, a balanced combination of the practical and theoretical.

It was a warm and meaningful occasion, a special day for the students and for all present. It was a well-deserved celebration; the culmination of 4 months of hard work and devotion. It was a day to be joyful and happy for what the Lord had done amongst them and for what each individual student had achieved. We sang and danced.

We are proud of these young men and women and send them back to their congregations with our love and prayers and with those of many others world-wide.

The students were reminded that this was the beginning of something new and great in their lives after they had responded to the call to service. Engagement and involvement were paramount, because of their faith, kneeling before their communities in humility and with compassion, to support the weak and vulnerable, to seek the lost, to be company to the lonely and to welcome the stranger - all in the Lord’s transforming love.

What projects can generate income and improve the quality of life of those living in their villages? What are they, as believers, going to do about the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in their communities? What new patterns of worship, learning and teaching can they now bring to their Churches?  All these are needed responses to the challenges of witnessing in their local areas.

This incarnational work that they would be undertaking is a reflection of the work of God in Christ in the Church and in the world. God in Christ is amongst us and sharing our life, so he may redeem and change us. No part of this world is untouchable because no-one and nowhere is untouchable to God. However awful humans make parts of the world, the world is still God’s and we as God’s people need to minister with wisdom. To do this work of love and worship we need to use our minds to think, our hands to work and our hearts to pray.

Why do you need to do all this? Because God has called each one of us here to be expressions of his love and to be his Body, a Church in Mission 

These were just thoughts that jotted down in a spirit of love, joy and fellowship not a formal speech, just a pouring out of what was on my heart to friends and fellow servants of God.

After the presentation of certificates, Lemmy Milupi replied on behalf of the students, thanking all present and absent friends for their support. This was echoed in the closing speech by the Dean Pastor Percy Kawana Muleba. The students knelt and were prayed for by all the Pastors and Elders present. With a final song and dance, followed by the benediction, we retired to a celebration lunch of chicken rice and coleslaw and a time of further fellowship.