Ayo Mary Laurent, A Royal with a Royal Inheritance In Christ and Ministry

Family and Ministry. Photo by Luis Quintero (pexels)

In Deuteronomy 8:6-7, the Scriptures commanded parents to teach diligently our children the way of the Lord. This is ultimate in Christian upbringing.

“6. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7. For the Lord, your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills”

Family is the principal plan of God’s for the happiness and growth of His children. 

The fact that God Himself established families from the onset of creation and shows us various examples of strong families. It also teaches us how to have a loving, happy, and successful family. God made it very clear that families are fundamental when he created Adam and Eve. The Bible calls them “man and . . . wife” (Genesis 2:25), and the first commandment  He gave them was to "...be fruitful and multiply...", meaning to children ( Genesis 1:28).

According to a study, Christian upbringing contributed towards a number of positive outcomes as well, such greater happiness, more volunteering in the community, a greater sense of mission and purpose, and higher levels of forgiveness

God promises blessings for your children when they know and obey gospel truths: “If your sons will keep My covenant, And My testimony which I shall teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forevermore.” (Psalm 132:12).

For Christian parents, the main objective is to establish and develop in their children’s early receptive years, so they will consistently have the hunger and desire to wholly seek God as their Father. That is the ultimate goal.

Family and Ministry

The personal example set by parents is of the utmost importance! Children must see the real God through their parents.. children’s’ knowledge of God is predominately by their parents’ example. "go into all the world and preach the Gospel" (Mark 16:15). Christ made it clear that "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8).

Every Christian parent wants their children to grow up to love God and His Word. We know the immersed benefits that God’s law will bring to Ministry and children, both now and in the life to come—a firm and fulfilling life now, and in due course, eternal life in God’s family at Jesus Christ’s return.

Ayo Mary Laurent, Photo by Pereza Zang

In Nigeria, Ayo Mary Laurent, whose family background as a ministerial one, her late dad, was a Senior Evangelist of The Celestial Church of Christ, the mum, a Minister of God, and her grandmother Elderly Princess Florence Oni is the Chairperson of the very renown Cherubim and Seraphim prayer movement, white garment church with Headquarters in Osun state Nigeria is an example of Christian upbringing and ministry.

She is today, a devout Christian, an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and an anointed evangelist from the Zion International School of Evangelism. There is no richer inheritance that parents can give their children than to see, hear, and experience the fullness of the blessings that come from choosing obedience and fulfillment in God. 

Parents who are in ministry and devote the time and the commitment—showing genuine love and interest in their children—will receive a reward that will bless them, and their children, to the end of their days! "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them" (Psalm 127: 3–5).

Children stepping in parent’s tracks, taking the mantle of leadership on the great commission is of great joy to parents and Hosts of heaven.

Sudan Agrees with Rebels to Remove Islam as State Religion

Lieutenant general Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of Sudan holds up a pen before signing a peace deal with rebel groups on August 31.

Peace deals include bold pledges on religious freedom. But much work remains for the transitional government after three decades under Bashir’s strict sharia.

In signing successive peace deals with entrenched rebel movements last week, Sudan drew upon the legacy of Thomas Jefferson.

“The constitution should be based on the principle of ‘separation of religion and state,’” read the text of an agreement between the North African nation’s joint military-civilian transitional council and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM–N).

“The state shall not establish an official religion.”

The declaration of principles further cements Sudan’s efforts to undo the 30-year system of strict sharia law under President Omar al-Bashir, during which Islam was the religion of the state.

The agreement was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, four days after a more inclusive peace deal was signed with a coalition of rebel groups in the Sudan Revolutionary Front in Juba, South Sudan.

The Juba agreement established a national commission for religious freedom, which guarantees the rights of Christian communities in Sudan’s southern regions.

Sudan’s population of 45 million is roughly 91 percent Muslim and 6 percent, Christian. Open Doors ranks Sudan at No. 7 among the 50 nations where it is hardest to be a Christian.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) interpreted the agreement even more widely: to protect the rights of all Sudanese people to practice their religion of choice.

With a stronghold in the southern Nuba Mountains within the South Kordofan region, an area with a significant Christian population, the SPLM–N held out of the initial peace deal specifically because it did not guarantee the separation of religion and state.

“There are no equal citizenship rights, there’s no distribution of wealth, there’s no equal development in the country,” one rebel leader told South Sudan in Focus.

“There’s no equality between black and Arab, and Muslim and Christian.”

But now including most of the major rebel movements in the western Darfur region and the Sudanese south, the democratic transition can continue with national unity.

Following months of popular protests, Sudan’s military overthrew Bashir in April 2019. An interim constitution—which notably omitted reference to sharia law as the primary source of legislation—was signed in August 2019, establishing a ceasefire and a six-month window to achieve peace.

Negotiations began in late 2019, and the February 2020 deadline was extended.

Autonomy is granted to the southern regions of the Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Darfur, which had been split into five regions, will be reunified under its own governor with a special revenue-sharing agreement.

Rebel parties will receive 35 percent of government ministries, and 75 seats in the upcoming 300-member transitional parliament. Individual militants will be incorporated into the national army.

Sudan is currently led by an 11-member Sovereign Council, with one member a Coptic Christian. Currently headed by a military figure, a civilian will take the helm halfway through the three-year transition ending in 2022, with new elections.

Since the conflict erupted in Darfur in 2003, about 300,000 were killed with 2.7 million displaced from their homes. Thousands more were killed in the south since fighting began in 2011.

The civilian prime minister has already implemented significant changes.

In September 2019, Sudan and the United Nations agreed to open human rights offices in marginalized areas with significant religious minorities.

In December 2019, the public order law—used to punish individuals, especially women, in non-conformity with sharia law—was repealed.

And in July 2020, the Miscellaneous Amendments Act repealed the apostasy law, ended flogging for blasphemy, banned female genital mutilation (FGM), and permitted non-Muslims to drink alcohol.

The government additionally disbanded church councils used to control Christian congregations, declared Christmas a national holiday, and stated it is working on a uniform law for all religious worship.

But there is still much to do.

USCIRF noted that promised compensation claims for churches destroyed or confiscated during Bashir’s reign have been held up by bureaucracy. It called for full repeal of the blasphemy law, which still stipulates six-month imprisonment. And much work is necessary to reform remaining Islamist imprints in the judiciary and Ministry of Education.

Despite earlier hopes, Christianity will not be introduced for the first time in the national school curriculum. One pastor has complained that compulsory Islamic education sometimes results in the forced conversion of Christians to Islam.

And following the July repeal of sharia-based measures, thousands of Sudanese rallied against the “apostasy government.”

Sudan has witnessed several failed peace deals in the past, and significant hurdles toward full religious freedom remain.

But Christian leaders are hopeful.

“People here prefer to be cautious,” said Tombe Trille, Catholic bishop of El Obeid, capital of northern Kordofan, to the Vatican’s news agency. “But it is very important that a signature has finally been reached.

“We are all very happy.”

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