Thursday last week, 8 th April was a significant day for both Family Media and Daystar University. Family Media team, led by the CEO – Leo Slingerland, arrived at Daystar's Athi River campus in time for the University's Chapel service. The team was on a mission to deliver a simple but critical message: “The spirit of service to the society” – serving like Christ would have done if He were here on earth. This was a timely message especially coming when the Easter mood was still alive. John 13:5 says that Jesus poured water in a basin to wash His disciples' feet as a sign of servant leadership. This was the theme of both speakers – Leo and Pastor Buri – during the chapel service.
In his message, Leo called upon the students, most of who major in communication studies, to place service to God and community before money and other earthily values. Drawing from his own experience, he pointed out that serving God is not always easy and monetary rewards may not be that big. It calls for sacrifice but has its rewards too; for what service can you offer fellow men that is superior to leading them to Christ and eternal life? He also welcomed the students to seek out opportunities to serve in Family Media. This was an invitation that many of them took seriously, judging by the number of enquiries our team received afterwards.
Family Media had invited Pastor Edward Buri, the Youth Pastor at PCEA St. Andrew's Church, to share a message on “Servanthood Service”. In a brief but loaded sermon, Buri underlined the importance of a positive attitude towards service. The punch line of his message was “service is not about the ‘place' where you are serving but the ‘spirit you have' where you are serving”.
The objective of the visit was to connect with the students and staff of the university which is renowned for communication studies. Leo encouraged the students to voluntarily offer services to others as a sign of discipleship. The Family Media team together with Pastor Edward led by example and planted trees in the university's expansive compound. This not only served to mark the day but was also an opportune step in conserving the environment during the current rainy season. After the tree planting exercise, the students had an opportunity to interact with the Family Media team and ask questions as well as express their views.
We would like to thank Dr. Kituyi – DVC, Mrs. Kinoti – University Chaplain, the students – who freely interacted with our team, and other members of staff, for their warm welcome and hospitality. We cannot also forget the many email addresses we got. May God bless the Daystar community and may their star shine!
And may we all embrace the spirit of serving the world – not for money but freely and from the bottom of our hearts – and for the Lord.
