One day to start a 10 months program with fathers, working on serious problems and issues from the roots up!

We were blessed with the opportunity to provide a special day event for the men/fathers in one of our sponsored villages. The event’s purpose was to address the issues we’re having in the families we serve, like domestic violence, physical abuse, and the general lack of intentional fathering. This event day is just the beginning of a 10 months program for men/fathers in collaboration with Adam Ministry, one of our KDEC church ministries.

The day started with some games as an ice breaker and then we had 2 teaching sessions.

The first was about the emotional needs for children ages 0 to 7 and how their character is affected if these needs aren’t met. This session’s goal was to help fathers understand that how they father their children from young ages can lead to long-term issues and problems—for them to understand where some of these problems they see in their older children are truly coming from how they are raised at young ages.

The second session was about the wrong or distorted patterns of thinking. Our goal was to dig deeper into cultural or generation wrong actions that continue and never get broken. The day ended with a support group—a time of sharing with one another and opening up as fathers after hearing these teachings.

Our Ministry Director, Sameeh Malek, was able to join in with one of these groups. He shares his experience, which included many surprises for him from the other men and even for himself:

“Yesterday I had the opportunity and was blessed by taking part in a small support group of men. It was really good and unexpected listening to these men sharing deep. The majority of the men are illiterate and working in very humble jobs. The duration of the support group wasn’t very long but it had a big impact on me. Everyone did “check in feelings” which was something new to them, then we started to share, and I shared myself.

My impression of the group was that we’re all under the same weaknesses as fathers and men–we all have the same challenges and needs. We’re all under the same stress despite the differences in background, culture, education and economic level. We’re all under the same suffering because we’re all humans, all sinners. I feel that there’s a very deep part of me that experienced a completely new insight in my heart and mind. The 45 min I spent in this group with people that are different than me in lots of aspects made me realize and understand that we are all the same in many ways. We all need God’s help in our lives.”