With parents running away from their parenting roles, leaving children to technology and peers, there is a need to revive Sunday Schools in churches to minister spiritual and physical relations and ensure the children grow up with the right moral and spiritual values, norms and practices.
Communities, schools and parents have been urged to develop and bridge the communication gap, talk, not reprimand, and give commands which scare children away from them, but look for good attributes to build on from them.
The call was made by the regional manager International Development Institute (IDI) Uganda, Christine Okalang, while closing the training of Sunday School teachers at Malamu Centre Kamuli recently.
Quoting Proverbs 22:6, on training up children on the way they should go and not depart from it, Okalang urged the teachers to make Sunday Schools attractive, vibrant and relevant to the children in order to nurture them into the morally and spiritually upright citizens.
“Let us revive Sunday Schools to draw children to the Lord because parents have abandoned them. Go prepare children, nurture them to live prayerful lives, for the spirit of God leads and lifts them over,” she called.
Richard Muwanguzi, the lead trainer from Kingdom Glory Faith Ministries Mbale, said the call to ignite the children’s passion, deepen their knowledge and understanding of God and inspire them into the Kingdom is now.
“Satan attacks through drugs, sex, and violence, making us spiritually blind, sick, hungry, abused, and enslaved, and it is our duty to empower, reveal, and lead the children to Christ , make them believe and be saved to enter the Kingdom of God,” he called.
Kamuli District Education Officer, Joseph Waibi, commended IDI Uganda for retooling the Sunday school teachers and requested them to incorporate the nursery school teachers too in order to build up an all-round child. He underscored the role of spiritual growth in enforcing discipline, honesty and hard work in the children.
“IDI Uganda has and is doing good work in our schools, not only limited to physical hunger but now tackling spiritual hunger too, and its child-focused community transformation model is bringing sanity, harmony, parenting revival and, above all, leading to increased school enrolment, retention and completion,” the DEO pointed out.
Waibi, however, called for school religious hour talks in schools once a week to boost discipline, counselling and guidance.
