We have carefully designed the following programmes to assist those who follow our teachings on marriage and family life
A: THE TREE OF LIFE TV (ToLTV)
Adam and Eve did not fall at the altar of prayer, fasting, or sacrifices, they fell for KNOWLEDGE! They ate from a tree of knowledge of good and evil. They had equal opportunity to eat the ToL but they chose the other. In this context, we believe that in order to restore man, KNOWLEDGE different from the one he has must be accepted by him. To accept the necessary knowledge, man must be taught the Truth of God.
Knowledge of good and evil powered by the Prince of the power of the air is not what you combat from the ground! Satan is a master over the air waves and has fed falsehood, lies and counterfeit information that is ravaging marriages today into the airwaves. To counter this, NAFW releases the knowledge of God into the airwaves to challenge and conquer the effect of satanic information in the minds of couples and individuals hoping to go into marital relationships
We have seen couples who have been in divorce courts for months waiting for the dissolution of their marriage reclaim their marriage based on the Truth of God’s Word shared and received by them. The ruling in a particular couple’s case was to be delivered three days after we counselled them over eight years ago. To the glory of God, they never went back to court after a single session and they are still together today testifying about God’s faithfulness.
ToLTV weekly streams online, life giving truths from the Word of God that restores, rebuilds, reinvigorates, and sustains lasting and enjoyable marital relationships. Erstwhile shaky relationships have received strength and nourishment to becoming rock-solid and formidable teams in marriage.
B: MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE EMPOWERMENT (PULSE & DYNAMIC JEWELS’ SEMINARS)
This programme was born from the understanding that it takes more than annual, bi-annual and/or quarterly marriage conferences and sporadic seminars to heal the marriage and family institution. This understanding came from the scripture below;
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2)
God planted the Tree of Life (ToL) in the MIDST of the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve fell. That was significant to the couple’s continued stay or departure from the Garden. We see the same ToL in the last Book of the Bible and the Lord opened our understanding. The ToL bears monthly FRUIT and its leaves are for the healing of nations. Based on scriptural understanding, the NAFW organises regular monthly seminars for couples in marital relationship (Pulse relationship seminars) and those women that are not in marital relationship (Dynamic Jewels Seminars). Based on monthly ‘fruit’ given by the Lord, structured and strategic interventions are designed to impart the following skills among participants;
Skill One:
· Self -management skills (understanding who you are)
· Thoughts management (mind-set change) skills
· Relationship management skills
Skill two:
· Relationship cultivation skills
· Home building skills
· Courtship management skills
· Choice/decision making skills
Skill three:
· Communication skills
· Parenting skills
· Extended family management skills
· Financial management skills
B: START-RITE: WORKSHOPS
This programme based on the scripture Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6), is designed to raise holistically sound youth that will rule their world. We believe that the family is a nurturing centre for raising tomorrow’s leaders. Our start-rite workshops are designed for parents, caregivers and schoolteachers to work together in giving sound training to children at home and at school. Children of all school ages are also work-shopped according to their age/grade. Content is tailored to assist children to acquire the following skills;
Skill one:
· Self-discovery skills
· Seed strategy: Time management skills
· Peer pressure management skills
` Skill two:
· Skills to understand and manage growth
· Identity crisis management skills
· Personal life vision development skills
Skill three:
· Growth Mastering Skills (GMS)
· School-life balancing skills
· Daily routine and responsibility management skills
C: CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE COUNSELLING TRAINING
If Adam had sought counsel from the Lord when Eve took and ate the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we may not be in this mess today! Counselling is God’s ‘rebooting tool’ with which He restarts a vibrant relationship with His children facing challenges in any area of life. Counsel is not a good advice, but God’s take (stand) on an issue. It is not a trial and error thing but a sound problem solving mechanism.
NAFW raises and trains Christian counsellors to use various counselling techniques in assisting people in domestic relationships to achieve desirable outcomes in their marriage and family life. There are elders and leaders in most churches that by default counsel others. Unfortunately, without adequate training, many of them have made a mess of the counselling process thereby ruining great opportunities to mend breaking relationships. We equip these categories of people in churches to assist the church in counselling individuals with diverse counselling needs without breaking their ranks with Church constituted authority and leadership. Church would be more effective if we had multitude of trained counsellors. There are cases where counselling has been used as strong evangelistic tools to bring the heart broken, hurting and wounded souls to Christ; because their family, friends and colleagues obtained soulish healing and help through God’s counsel from the Church.
The programme is founded on the scripture;
Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety (Prov. 11:14).
The main objective of the counselling training is to train participants on how to address the misalignment between God’s purposes for marriage and family life and the individual counselee’s realities in the institution of marriage. Participants are further trained to achieve the following skills
· Domestic relationship counselling skills
· Intra and interpersonal skills
· Effective listening skills
· Work-life balancing skills
· Creative vision skills
· Effective counsellor praying skills
· Skilful use of the Word in counselling
· Counselling with the Holy Spirit
D: WE WILL BUILD: OUR HOMES OUR LIVES
This is an on-going campaign against Domestic Violence (DV). DV does not just happen but builds up systematically without the couple’s observation. Just like the serpent sneaked into the Garden of Eden unawares with the intention of driving Adam and Eve out of their inheritance, so does DV. This campaign targets complacence towards the decay of the family institution with the main objective of ‘waking up’ couples to the prowling predator working to take their relationship. It is designed to be a highly interactive forum where participants share and receive information towards becoming ‘master home builders’. Questions are received and answers given as the Holy Spirit gives understanding. Participants to arise and build their homes is a programme launched on “Purple Ribbon” with a pledge!
E: COUNSELLORS QUARTERLY SEMINARS AND ANNUAL CONFERENCES: This platform brings all marriage counsellors trained by the NAFW into one venue towards sharing, updating and acquiring new tools for counselling effectiveness.
F: THE COUNSELLING APP
This app built from the scratch through counselling experiences gathered over the years by the founders of NAFW, Dr Isaac and Dr (Mrs) Ethel Abe is very useful. It assists prospective counselees in addressing their fears about counselling with respect to questions about confidentiality, need for counselling, usefulness, consequences of not seeking timeous counselling and avoidance of dependency on a counselor. The app is also designed to help individuals test themselves on fundamental and generic counselling matters.
G: OTHERS
In addition to all the programmes, we offer family, marital, and pre -marital counselling