EVANGELIST HEREN ANTHONY
My husband and I have been struggling to raise our children in a good way, but I had personally given up. I remember finally saying, “I can't do it any more. I leave my boys to Satan because they have chosen to do the wrong things.”
After I attended ICM’s Effective Parenting in a Defective World seminar my perspective has changed completely. When I got home I called all my children together. I knelt down before them and asked them to forgive me for what I did to them. I cried a lot and they cried too. We ended up praying for God's guidance as we turned the page to begin a new and better relationship with our children.
My husband, a non-believer, told me, “Please…every time those people (ICM) come to teach any seminar, make sure you attend and then you come home and teach me what you learned. I will pay whichever is needed for you to attend.”
BISHOP & MRS. MARTIN MWAKALOBO
Leads the Emmaus Church in the entire country of Tanzania
We have been parents for many years. Some of our children are already married, while others are still living with us. We have never said ‘sorry’ to our children, even when we knew for sure that we had wronged them.
But after attending CLI training, Effective Parenting in a Defective World, we changed that. We learned that we as the parents also have to apologize to our children once we know we have done something that is not good to them.
After the training, we organized a function. We called all of our children, married and non-married, together and we asked them for their forgiveness for the things we did wrong to them. They were very happy to hear us confess.
One son said, “Dad, seventeen years ago you did ‘this and this to me’, and you never accepted or admitted it was your mistake. Instead you oppressed me. It has pained me so much that I still remember it till this day. But now I'm forgiving you and I will remember it no more.”
My wife and I made a commitment that every time ICM brings training, we will make sure we are there with all our pastors.
MRS. JOYCE KEIZA
CLI Conference in Mbeya, Tanzania
My husband and I love our children so much we believed it was best for them to stay close to us; afraid if they did not, they might have to face a hard life because of their financial position. Even when they get married, we never expected them to leave home or separate from us. We told them to bring their wives to our home and we would live together.
My husband died few years ago. My three sons, their wives and children, live with me in my house. Until I attended Biblical Portrait of a Marriage seminar, I never knew that this might not be God's best for them. I am praying to God to give me wisdom to teach them that when a man and woman get married they are to leave their father and mother. What I have been doing is not right. I pray they can have their own homes where they LEAVE their parents and CLEAVE to one another.
PASTOR RICHARD
From Sumbawanga, center for witchcraft in Tanzania
I am a father of two children – a girl and a boy. My first-born was a girl. I was very sad when I knew that the baby who was born was a girl. I wanted boys only. I did not love her. The girl came to know… “My dad does not love me.”
Few years later I got a second-born child – a boy. I loved him very much. The more I enjoyed him, the more I ignored the girl. My daughter would tell me, “your son need this and that, or your son has done so and so.” She never considered herself my daughter.
I thank God for the seminar Effective Parenting in a Defective World. The Lord has spoken to me through this learning. I have asked God for forgiveness for rejecting my child. This evening I'm going to ask my daughter for forgiveness. I promise before the Lord that I will love her as I love the boy. God help me to do more.
Could it be a good time right now to take a few more minutes and reflect on where God is at work in your family? Let's thank Him for your children, your spouse, your mom and dad; marvel at how God has worked on you through them. God wants to strengthen relationships – yours as well as your spiritual brothers and sisters in Tanzania!
