Celebrating Families: A model for reconciliation

Tags：

• Christian Witness
• Chad

“My people are destroyed because they lack knowledge,” what is said in the Bible in Hosea 4:6 is still happening today in Chad, a country in central Africa, where the rights of many children are neglected by their parents, including servants of God. Do they do it out of ignorance or out of convenience? We will never know enough, even if this question is central. The question of children's rights is neither a desecration nor a sacrilege because God loves children. The Lord Jesus Christ says in the Gospel of Mark: “Let the little children come to me” (Mark 10:14). In Ngourkosso, Chad, a servant of God seems to have understood his responsibility in the development of children.

Pastor Nadjitam Benoit, who is in his forties, is the coordinator of the churches in Benoye, Ngourkosso. After 15 years of practical ministry, he undertook a training of facilitators on the Celebrating Families (CFC) project model in 2018. This training marked a new beginning in his life. Now his vision of the world has changed. Paradigms inherited from traditions make him constantly question everything he accepts without explanation. Thus, in his own family, a new perspective opens up for his children who have never had a birthday celebration.

Thanks to values derived from the CFC training, he slaughters a chicken to celebrate his children's birthdays; an occasion that allows the whole family to give thanks to God and to share joy together. This practice of offering a symbolic meal builds in his children’s minds the conviction that they are valued, because the day of their birth no longer goes unnoticed.

In the exercise of his pastoral ministry, especially in the area of helping to restore relationships, the pastor has achieved enormous results. The CFC project model training from which he has benefited has changed his approach to helping couples nearing separation. It helped many couples who were on the verge of throwing in the towel and even those who were living in marital tension. In his family, the children are constantly sharing their difficulties with him and living in harmony, unlike before.

Pastor Benoit did not hold back words of gratitude when sharing his story. By learning knowledge from World Vision and making it his own, he has experienced a remarkable transformation in the course of his life, his ministry and his immediate environment.