Marriage and Parenting Workshop in Johannesburg

Marriage and parenting can be challenging.That is why couples and parents in Johannesburg, South Africa, recently welcomed the chance to learn from Jeff and Jennifer Rorabaugh and Frank and Beth Radcliff, who visited from the USA.

Both couples had a wealth of experience to share with their eager-to-learn audiences. The Radcliffs taught the younger marrieds and parents with younger children, while the Rorabaughs taught the older marrieds and those who have teens and older children. The couples used the scriptures and shared extensively from their own lives to make the lessons come alive with many practical examples.

Here are some of the responses from those who attended the class taught by the Frank and Beth Radcliff:

Rose: "Two key things stood out from the lesson - to have Christ-centred lives and to have Godly priorities. If l love God first, it will make a difference in how l love my partner. The other takeaway I got, was the need to have eternity-minded marriages. And that our marriages should display the gospel of God. All men should know that we are disciples by the love in our marriages."

Palesa: "In the marriage class, what really stood out for me is how what I do as a spouse is preparing me for my union with Christ in heaven (Revelation 19:6-9), and that I'm called to have a marriage that displays the gospel of God."

In their classes, Jeff and Jennifer Rorabaugh asked the question: Are you motivated by fear or faith? before launching into their teaching.

Here are a couple of responses:

Donovan: "Listening to Jeff and Jennifer I soon realised that the focus of my parenting had to shift from Rules to Relationships, to help my teen see God more and less of me."

Tsepo: "I was reminded that we need to keep learning about marriage and about each other, and that the fear of God needs to be the glue of our marriage because it is the ultimate testing ground. From the parenting class, I learnt that we should never stop learning, to aim to inspire and not pressure our kids and that you need to be sincere about tough topics - when you don't know something, say so and be willing to say 'let's study it out.'"

We are thankful to both couples who so generously shared from their lives. Now comes the harder part: to put it all into practice.

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