3 Mar 2025, 00:00Deandra Pryce and Careen LawrenceMaidstone, Kent, England, United Kingdom
Maidstone SDA Church Hosts ‘Go Forward with Your Family’ Week of Revival
Maidstone Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church was blessed by Pastor Emannuel Asamoah who delivered a series for Family Life around the theme, Go Forward with Your Family. The series started on Sunday 15th February, ending on Sabbath 22nd February. The moderators for the week were Elder Patrick Mashiri, Bro Prosper Acquah, Bro Maxwell Owusu Ansah, Sis Joyce Rusike, Bro Romaine Codnor, and Elder Job Madembo. The theme song for the week was Lord Thy Word Abideth with the key text for the week was Joshua 24:15. The week was perfectly rounded up on Sabbath at the Shepway Youth and Community Centre. Special items shared throughout the week were from the Onuoha children, the Semakula children, the Dzingirayi children, Kaiden Jerman, the Brown family, the Madembo family and the Asamoah family.
From Sunday evening, with the theme being Family Puzzle, Pastor Asamoah, shared with us the changes of what ‘family’ has meant over the years. He then explained that ‘family’ is from the Latin derivative ‘familia’ which means household, and we were given an understanding of how the word ‘family’ has changed over the years, from the government’s need for accounting for individuals, to the UK having no legal definition of family.
Pastor Asamoah shared Genesis 1:26-27 to highlight to us God’s definition of family from which he took five principles to share with us through which we can biblically define family. The principles Pastor Asamoah shared with us was in the form of an acronym, PUDEC; Plurality, Unity, Independence/Interdependence, Equality and Creativity.
The hope Pastor Asamoah wants us to take away is, if you want to know who God is, look at how God wants our families to be. God created families to reveal Himself, and this is why He didn’t create the church or nations first, but instead, He created the family first. Pastor also shared that an attack on the family is an attack on God Himself, His image, theology attributes and His love.
From Monday evening, the theme was Ladies First. Pastor Asamoah took the time to share with us the neurological differences between men and women. Some of the noted differences were, men’s thinking being ordered sequencing and women’s thinking being random sequencing, men’s thoughts being rational while women’s thoughts being emotional.
With an insight into the neurological differences between men and women, Pastor Asamoah was then able to share with men, three things that they should do to put their wives first; 1 – give her time, 2 – compliment her and 3 – respect her. He also urged men to see their wives as endowed partners from God with the tools to help and support them if they have any problems. It was also important to note that marriage is a lifetime learning. Pastor Asamoah closed off Monday night’s session with “God created your wife as a manager. She manages, making things happen.”
From Tuesday night, Men from Mars, we were given eight things that women should understand about men, to be able to best support them. Some of the eight things pastor shared are as follows; men are proud, and their wives are to try to affirm that their husbands are doing their best to support the family, there needs to be a balance in the home between both parties when it comes to communication, and women are to take time in knowing their husbands, most of the challenges will fall away and we can then move towards creating a Happy Christian home.
From Wednesday night, Triggers and Temper: What Sparks the Fire, Pastor Asamoah shared with us ways the body reacts to conflict, such as stress, high blood pressure, increased heart rate and suppressed immune system. We were reminded of Romans 12:18 which says “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”, consolidating the notion that we are to avoid conflict. Pastor Asamoah reminded us that to resolve conflict, it is important that we communicate. Some conflict areas that may show up within relationships are due to things such as, generational difference, gender roles and family dynamics, economic stress and financial expectation and immigration challenges.
On the 5th night, Pastor Asamoah guided us along the theme, Chasing Expectations. Pastor shared with us that due to the society we are living in, we have become bad predictors of happiness. Though we have a lot of things, we don’t have many people around us. Despite the improvement in technology, we are unable to find happiness within them. Pastor reminded us of Jesus’ teaching, stating, if you want to be happy, you should not chase after happiness as “happiness is a by-product of something else”. Pastor also shared with us that there are three expectations for us to manage, the self-gap, the interpersonal gap and the intertemporal gap.
On the penultimate night of the series, the theme was ReBuilding Where to Start: Decision Time Am I Ready? Pastor Asamoah shared with us the Marital and Family Relationship Scale which moves between ‘nurturing’ and ‘troubled’, where individuals are either happy, harmonious, conventional or in conflict. We were encouraged to focus on leading, empowerment and turning pessimism into optimism. By focusing on these, were are able to focus on our parenting styles, and remembering that each member of our families “has the ability to progress and achieve something”
On our final day with Pastor Asamoah, the topic was That They May Know. Pastor introduced us to two Hebrew words, Mishpat meaning justice, relating to maintaining law and authority, and Tsedaqah, meaning righteousness, relating to being morally right. Having been given examples of where both words have been mentioned together, Mark 10:17 – 27, The Rich young Ruler, we were then able to see that everything that involved Jesus was tsedaqah. Having gone through the two Hebrew words with us, showing us examples of usage within scripture, Pastor reminded us that “God wants us to be true Christians first before we start to focus on our families.” Pastor Asamoah shared with us that God calls us to balance both justice and love, and a happy home is tsedaqah and mishpat working together in harmony.
It was a blessing having Pastor Asamoah lead us through our theme this week. Having been taken from through what family means, biblically, and being given a history into the neurological differences between men and women, we were able to understand with greater insight, how beautiful the family is in God’s eyes. The brethren of Maidstone Church were guided through the Christian Home with great insight from Pastor Asamoah.
Maidstone Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church was blessed by Pastor Emannuel Asamoah who delivered a series for Family Life around the theme, Go Forward with Your Family. The series started on Sunday 15th February, ending on Sabbath 22nd February. The moderators for the week were Elder Patrick Mashiri, Bro Prosper Acquah, Bro Maxwell Owusu Ansah, Sis Joyce Rusike, Bro Romaine Codnor, and Elder Job Madembo. The theme song for the week was Lord Thy Word Abideth with the key text for the week was Joshua 24:15. The week was perfectly rounded up on Sabbath at the Shepway Youth and Community Centre. Special items shared throughout the week were from the Onuoha children, the Semakula children, the Dzingirayi children, Kaiden Jerman, the Brown family, the Madembo family and the Asamoah family.
From Sunday evening, with the theme being Family Puzzle, Pastor Asamoah, shared with us the changes of what ‘family’ has meant over the years. He then explained that ‘family’ is from the Latin derivative ‘familia’ which means household, and we were given an understanding of how the word ‘family’ has changed over the years, from the government’s need for accounting for individuals, to the UK having no legal definition of family.
Pastor Asamoah shared Genesis 1:26-27 to highlight to us God’s definition of family from which he took five principles to share with us through which we can biblically define family. The principles Pastor Asamoah shared with us was in the form of an acronym, PUDEC; Plurality, Unity, Independence/Interdependence, Equality and Creativity.
The hope Pastor Asamoah wants us to take away is, if you want to know who God is, look at how God wants our families to be. God created families to reveal Himself, and this is why He didn’t create the church or nations first, but instead, He created the family first. Pastor also shared that an attack on the family is an attack on God Himself, His image, theology attributes and His love.
From Monday evening, the theme was Ladies First. Pastor Asamoah took the time to share with us the neurological differences between men and women. Some of the noted differences were, men’s thinking being ordered sequencing and women’s thinking being random sequencing, men’s thoughts being rational while women’s thoughts being emotional.
With an insight into the neurological differences between men and women, Pastor Asamoah was then able to share with men, three things that they should do to put their wives first; 1 – give her time, 2 – compliment her and 3 – respect her. He also urged men to see their wives as endowed partners from God with the tools to help and support them if they have any problems. It was also important to note that marriage is a lifetime learning. Pastor Asamoah closed off Monday night’s session with “God created your wife as a manager. She manages, making things happen.”
From Tuesday night, Men from Mars, we were given eight things that women should understand about men, to be able to best support them. Some of the eight things pastor shared are as follows; men are proud, and their wives are to try to affirm that their husbands are doing their best to support the family, there needs to be a balance in the home between both parties when it comes to communication, and women are to take time in knowing their husbands, most of the challenges will fall away and we can then move towards creating a Happy Christian home.
From Wednesday night, Triggers and Temper: What Sparks the Fire, Pastor Asamoah shared with us ways the body reacts to conflict, such as stress, high blood pressure, increased heart rate and suppressed immune system. We were reminded of Romans 12:18 which says “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”, consolidating the notion that we are to avoid conflict. Pastor Asamoah reminded us that to resolve conflict, it is important that we communicate. Some conflict areas that may show up within relationships are due to things such as, generational difference, gender roles and family dynamics, economic stress and financial expectation and immigration challenges.
On the 5th night, Pastor Asamoah guided us along the theme, Chasing Expectations. Pastor shared with us that due to the society we are living in, we have become bad predictors of happiness. Though we have a lot of things, we don’t have many people around us. Despite the improvement in technology, we are unable to find happiness within them. Pastor reminded us of Jesus’ teaching, stating, if you want to be happy, you should not chase after happiness as “happiness is a by-product of something else”. Pastor also shared with us that there are three expectations for us to manage, the self-gap, the interpersonal gap and the intertemporal gap.
On the penultimate night of the series, the theme was ReBuilding Where to Start: Decision Time Am I Ready? Pastor Asamoah shared with us the Marital and Family Relationship Scale which moves between ‘nurturing’ and ‘troubled’, where individuals are either happy, harmonious, conventional or in conflict. We were encouraged to focus on leading, empowerment and turning pessimism into optimism. By focusing on these, were are able to focus on our parenting styles, and remembering that each member of our families “has the ability to progress and achieve something”
On our final day with Pastor Asamoah, the topic was That They May Know. Pastor introduced us to two Hebrew words, Mishpat meaning justice, relating to maintaining law and authority, and Tsedaqah, meaning righteousness, relating to being morally right. Having been given examples of where both words have been mentioned together, Mark 10:17 – 27, The Rich young Ruler, we were then able to see that everything that involved Jesus was tsedaqah. Having gone through the two Hebrew words with us, showing us examples of usage within scripture, Pastor reminded us that “God wants us to be true Christians first before we start to focus on our families.” Pastor Asamoah shared with us that God calls us to balance both justice and love, and a happy home is tsedaqah and mishpat working together in harmony.
It was a blessing having Pastor Asamoah lead us through our theme this week. Having been taken from through what family means, biblically, and being given a history into the neurological differences between men and women, we were able to understand with greater insight, how beautiful the family is in God’s eyes. The brethren of Maidstone Church were guided through the Christian Home with great insight from Pastor Asamoah.
