9th Edition of the Seventh - day Adventist children’s Festival in Abidjan.
The Children's Festival is an annual meeting organized by the ChildrenMinistries Department of the Seventh-Day Adventists Church Conference in Côte d’Ivoire. This year edition, the ninth was held at the “Forum Hall”, of The Houphöuet Boigny University of Abidjan, on Saturday, November 21, 2015, in a happy and cheerful atmosphere.
At 9 am, the children from the five districts of Abidjan, dressed in the uniform of the festival had taken their places in the hall which turned out to be small for the occasion.
More than a thousand children accompanied by their instructors and parents took part in the festival. The whole festival program included: the Sabbath School, the Divine service, the musical performances in the afternoon; everything was led out by the children.
The sermon was delivered by a 9-year-old girl. Initiated in 2006 by Mrs. Thérèse Fofana, Director of Family Life and Children Departments in the Conference, the children's festival has been very successful since then and has aroused the participation of all churches. To enable all churches to take part in the event, the organizers decided to group them by district.
At the end of the festival we interviewed the Director of the Children's Department and some participants. Here are their testimonies.
Mrs. Fofana Thérèse, Director of the Children’s Department of the Conference of Côte d'Ivoire.
The festival was initiated in 2006.The first edition was held in the Church of Marcory.
What are the objectives of the Festival?
The festival was initiated to enable children to come together to give thanks to God.
We organize it in the last month of the year to thank God who watched over them for a whole year. The festival also allows children to meet with others and to be acquainted. To take part in the festival, each child has to leave his place to meet with the other children.
How would you assess the Festival after 9 years of organization ?
I can say“Ebenezer”.
We started with 6 or 7 churches; Today at least 25 churches are participating in the festival. The festival is no longer confined to Abidjan. This year there were 6 festivals.
We have already organized festivals in Aboisso, Gagnoa and the festival in Abidjan that brings together the five districts.
On the coming November 28, the Daloa festival will be held, on December 5, the Divo district festival and on December 12 the Bouaké festival.
The festival is becoming increasingly important and children are happy to take part in the event.
I'm glad to see the children gathered in such large numbers to thank their Lord before the end of the year.
What is the theme of this year?
This year, the theme is "the return of Jesus Christ."
The main objective of the whole Church is Jesus' return.
On this earth, we suffer, but we know that Jesus made us a promise in John chapter 14, verses 1 to 3, and the one to go prepare a place in heaven will come back to take us.
He gave the signs of his return. We see that these signs are fulfilled day by day. We think he will be back very soon.
We must therefore prepare all children, all parents for the glorious return, because God is faithful; he never fails, what he says, he fulfills.
Do you have a message towards parents and children?
I want to tell parents to practice religion in every family.
Children imitate what the parents do.
If they practice the true religion, the children will follow.
The Bible says: " Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it"
That is to say, the Sabbath School guides, the Bible and other documents which tell the Bible stories must be provided by parents to their children.
I regret to see parents buying cartoon CDs, things that do not educate children who are waiting for the soon return of Jesus.
Jesus also said,"Feed my lambs." Feeding the lambs is giving them spiritual food.
And the best way to do so is to provide them with spiritual material.
My greatest desire is that each parent takes the spiritual education of his child seriously.
Is the educational material available?
Yes! The Sabbath School guides come each quarter, the Bible and spiritual books which tell the Bible stories are available at the library of the Conference.
One may say that the documents are expensive. But for the eternal life of children, parents must make sacrifices.
Moreover, parents should find time to look after their children.
Some parents leave home early in the morning without praying with their children.
They come back home at night when the children are sleeping.
They never pray with them.
Is this a proper way to feed?
I implore them to apply what the Lord said.
They must feed the lambs. This year instead of saying children's festival, we decided to say Christ's lambs festival for parents to know that children belong to the Lord and Savior Jesus-Christ. I would like to tell to children to listen to the parents, to sit and listen to the word of God, because parents can make a lot of sacrifices, but if they do nothing for their own, if they do not study their Bible, neither their guides, if they do not listen to the word of God, the parents’ effort will be in vain.
Gallo Eunice The preacher of the day
My name is Eunice Gallo. I was happy to preach and to be with friends and give God's message to them. My sermon was about the return of Jesus-Christ. Jesus promised to come to take us and gave us the signs of his return; false doctrines, signs in the sky, earthquakes, famines and diseases, growing immorality, political unrest, war and rumors of war,
the gospel to the whole world. All these signs are fulfilled around us, so let us prepare for the return of Jesus.
Pastor Tanoh Kacou Solomon, Head in charge of District 1 of Abidjan
I am happy to have been part of the 2015 Children’s festival program. I led the pastoral prayer. In the words of Proverbs 22 verse 6, the bible says:" Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" The festival is a good program, a framework that allows us to keep our children on the way to heaven. Education is not easy. The influence comes from everywhere. We need a framework to keep our children in the ways of heaven. The children's festival is a solution to that. At the organizational level, there are things to improve, but the festival is a very good thing for our children. It allows them to put into practice what they learn at home, in their Sabbath school classes and so, to show to their parents that the time they spend in their education is not vain.
You are speaking of improvement, what need to be improved?
Abidjan in its own has 5 districts. Bringing all these five districts in one place is a difficult thing to do. Abidjan could be divided into two or three parts for a better organization. We could also add other activities to the songs to allow children to express themselves in other areas and make the festival program more enticing.
Komenan Amoin Ange (a little girl from the district 5)
I am happy to participate in the festival because we all sang very well.
KraAdelin, parent
The festival allows children to know they are not alone, but they belong to a very big family, the Seventh-Day Adventists family. I would like to congratulate the instructors for the good job, because it is not easy to work with children. I think the podium was small and did not allow the children to perform properly.
GOGBE Pélagie, Instructor from the church of Abobo 1 (district 4)
This year the festival was well organized because we finished on the expected time, contrary to what happened the past years when we used to finish very late and so before finishing the performance, the room was empty .Everyone is happy, we go back home with peace in our minds.
The festival allows children to glorify our God and to show that they have something to give, children show to parents that they exist and need their attention and their supervision. It is a time of getting together again.
During the 13th Sabbaths, children make presentations at their local church, but the festival is a biggest framework for them to commune with children of other districts of Abidjan. The children are happy to participate.
Zézé Bahi, church elder
The festival is a good framework for the children forexpressing themselves.But I think the time is not enough for these children to better express themselves. During the assessment meeting, we will suggest to the organizers to do the festival on a Sunday. The children will then have a full day to express themselves. We could then add other activities like a children's preaching competition,...more songs.