 Konvension 2023 Beyond all limits. Great. It is now my pleasure to introduce to us our convention chair. Our convention chair is Sister Ruth Obara. Sister Ruth Obara is an organizational development consultant and a transformative leader and a serious follower of Christ. She's a mother, she's a wife, she is married and has two, three great children. She's a curious, she likes to describe herself as a curious student of awareness and alignment. She's passionate about unlocking the potential of the African continent through its people. She works as a talent and organizational development consultant and coach. She has worked with organizations that facilitated the development of high performance personnel and team competencies, designing and structuring leadership, learning journeys and culture, alignment and development. She has actually won an award for where she has helped in working as an executive producer for the East Africa HR Summit for seven years. And then an annual premiere, this is an annual premiere event for HR professionals in the region where she has won the award. And she is the immediate former managing partner at Sierra Africa a niche learning and development organization. She is also a co-founder and director of Busea Chicken Limited and she is currently working on a transformative leadership development module contextualized for Africa and academically she holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA in strategic management from the University of Nairobi. A round of applause as our convention chair comes. Thank you. Young professionals 2023. I can't hear you. Young professionals 2023. And beyond all limits. Good morning. Hallelujah. How many of us are visitors to Nairobi Central SDA Church? You haven't been to Nairobi Central SDA Church or you're not a member of Nairobi Central SDA Church. Nairobi Central, what do you say? Welcome our guests. Hey, we have a way we welcome, get involved. So you're very welcome to Nairobi Central SDA Church. Our motto, our rally call this year is get involved beyond all limits. And so allow me to take this opportunity to welcome you to this event. Thank you so much for being here. And as we consider this morning, allow me to thank and invite our most excellent invited guests that are here. Thank you for making the time. We apologize we are running a bit late but we are expecting that we will catch up as the day goes by. My pastor, thank you so much for praying and allowing us to start this meeting. Thank you very much. We would like to, as Victor is helping us with that technology has a way of playing it out but we are armed and equipped for the day so we are considering the theme of beyond all limits and as you're invited here it tells us that you're resonating with the theme that we have today and you're curious about how do I get involved as a young professional beyond all limits. And so as you sit here with us today it is our hope that you are going to actually start asking yourself what does it mean to get involved beyond all limits? For us to get involved beyond all limits we'll have to know what are our current limits? What is it? Where have we been as people? Where are we sitting? Where are we stopping? How do we go beyond all limits? And most importantly why should we go beyond all limits? And so today we not only have the theme beyond all limits but as a church, the host of the AYPs of this church we have been given a word of revelation about how and why we should get involved beyond all limits and the word that we are considering as our theme is found in the book of John anyone who has their Bible the book of John verse chapter 15 verse 16 and as you sit with us that is the anchor that is the reason why we are saying we want to go beyond all limits and in the book of John chapter 15 verse 16 my Bible says you did not choose me is the new king James Vashon you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you great we are here that you did not choose me but I chose you and I appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit fruit that will last and so that whatever you ask in my name the father will give you those are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that is that why we want to go beyond all limits because we realize that we have been chosen we did not go choosing ourselves that when we acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that in itself is a choosing that He has given us and He has given us a mission when we look at the rallying call of the AYP of this church they are taking their rallying call from the book of fast Peter 4 verse 10 to 11 those are scriptures that you want to keep and Colossians chapter 3 verse 23 to 24 and those say if anyone know that each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms if anyone speaks they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God if anyone serves they should do so with the strength that God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ to Him be glory and power forever and ever Colossians the book of Colossians says whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord not for human masters since you know that you would receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward it is the Lord Christ you are serving so as we ponder this then we ask ourselves how then do we start going beyond all limits and today remember what is the truth that the Lord has sent us with in the three books we have sent that the good news is that we are chosen that we did not even choose out of grace we have been chosen that we are appointed that we have a mission that we are blessed we are custodians of God's manifold grace that we may serve that we are faithful stewards of grace that God is revealing His grace to others through us who actually have been chosen and therefore we shall seek to be transformed because we have a higher master and that master I call him Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour I do not know what you call that master but we no longer are now looking at who we are what we do as doing it unto human beings we are having a higher master who has equipped us and called us in this day you have come because the AYPs have listened to this call and have decided that we would like to go beyond all limits and how do they start there they are starting on a journey we are saying that let's not narrow our perspective let's expand the perspective of our focus and ask ourselves how we start going beyond all limits today this morning we are bringing to you that when we say we want to go beyond all limits another language for us to use is to say we would like to pursue excellence but we would like to pursue excellence in view of the divine heritage that we have in view of the divine anchors that we have we are seeking and choosing from today to pursue excellence and therefore we are going to start thinking as you sit here today my invitation is that as you listen to the very esteemed professionals that have gone before many of us starts thinking through what are your dreams what are your aspirations as a young professional what has your faith in Jesus Christ got to do with it what does it mean to you to actually have the Lord Jesus Christ on your side not only as your equipo and friend but also as the one you are serving so think through your dreams think through your aspirations some of us may have had the opportunity to actually do how many of us do new year resolutions anyone with a list of new year resolutions ah you stopped doing them who are doing them when were you age when did you stop doing them as you go through this day expand your perspective start thinking about how do your dreams resonate with this call and the truth that we are here what is it you are hearing echoing in the voices of the speakers who are here today in what you need to do as a young professional and we are going to look at it and say at any one given time start thinking about when we are pursuing excellence we are not just looking at it from one perspective the professional we want to look at it and we are asking ourselves what is going beyond all limits mean where are we at as family members as friends all of us belong to a family not very least the family of Christ that is here today all of us have friends all of us are learners some of us I am a learner I got to be given a new responsibility the other day in the church and I am just learning how that is supposed to be done so we are all learners all of us are workers we are young professionals so in your profession start thinking about that as well associate member we are members of this church you belong to a professional association so when you start looking at all these roles that you have how where are you and how do you need to go beyond all limits and it is important that as you do that you get a glimpse of the vision the big picture what is the big picture because when we get a glimpse of what the big picture is then we start aligning ourselves a glimpse of the big picture we call it vision and the word of God says that where there is no vision there is no revelation of God and His word the people are unrestrained it means we then just live life without a plan we go all sorts of directions and all sorts of wins but we have the privilege of a revelation as a church that we go beyond all limits because we have a call in the book of John 15 verse 16 so start thinking about a vision which direction would you like your life to go think about Esther we know Esther in the Bible she was just a young woman being a queen preparing to be this queen but then when she got a glimpse of the vision God had for her we now know that everything changed when we get a glimpse of the vision the direction God wants us to go then we actually get into action we action ourselves and that is the performance system we now channel ourselves and you can use the story of Esther to actually look at the performance that now she required think about performance is success is a process going beyond all limits requires us to align and to actually get into action and we want to think about it through our physical life how do you need to go beyond limits what are the goals you now put together we want to think about it through our mental learning and education we want to think about it through professional we are here today the young professionals have started us on that journey today we want to think about it through our financials we want to think about it through money and wealth creation we want to think about going beyond all limits and establish beyond all limits goals in our social and emotional life our relationships with ourselves with our family and our others we want to think about it in our spiritual work we are doing all this so that we can let the light of Christ shine in us so that other people who do not know Christ when they see even just a glimpse of how your physical life is organized they can be attracted to that God that you believe in we are doing this so that when people see how we relate with them even whether it's family or other people they are attracted to this master that we have Jesus Christ so we want to center our lives set your goals how do you want to grow in the knowledge of God how do you want your character to develop in view of the truth that we have we are pursuing excellence beyond all limits and how do you want to serve how do you want to serve what are the gifts that you have that you're going to actually order so that you can bring out the best in you in all these areas and finally you want to make sure you have a support system and the AYP is a support system and they have started off and when we are talking about support we are looking at why is council we are looking at accountability we are looking at in perspiration we are looking at mentoring and coaching do you have a mentor do you have a coach and the AYP is doing all these things for us so get connected to the AYP of this church because they are going to be mentors to support us to actually achieve those goals hello AYP 2023 and beyond all limits and so it is my humbling responsibility now to share with you how the day is going to flow today we have received our opening prayer and opening song we have received a welcome this morning and just shortly I'm going to invite my pastor pastap JP Mayua to actually come and give us a word of devotion and declare this convention officially opened after that we are going to have our keynote presentation from my elder elder kidenda and its transformational leadership immediately after that we are going to actually have round tables where you share with us some thoughts we will structure those questions for you and then we will start with our first panel which is building business of integrity we will take a break then at lunchtime and we will have the afternoon program faithful public service so allow me to please welcome my pastor pastap JP Mayua and pastap JP Mayua is an accomplished professional yes he is an accomplished professional because he loves the Lord and serves as the ordained minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and so today he is going to give us a word and inspire us what the Lord has revealed to him to share with us and he is currently serving as the youth director of the East Kenya Union conference he served as immediate former youth director of Central Kenya conference and served as a senior pastor of Nairobi Central SDH church so this church is his home church he is home and he is inspired and humbled that you would come and the dream for young people will come to pass in this church for over 25 years and has many turn seen very many people turn their eyes to Jesus he is married to Sarah and they both have 4 children and an additional one who came the other day retirement one I believe pastor he has served in many districts before Nairobi Central new life Nairobi new life many place in the USA laser hill in Rungai Kiamuni in Nakuru and Karangata Nairobi he also served as the executive secretary and vice president of administration at the Central Kenya conference he has preached in the US in Canada in Uganda in Rwanda and South Africa for camp meetings and evangelistic campaigns he holds an MA from the Adventist University of Africa and a BA from the University of East Africa Baraton he is currently a PhD candidate at KU nothing should stop you our pastor is a PhD candidate he is a learner he is pursuing excellence nothing should stop you now it's my humbling opinion moment to invite pastor JP please come and share the word of God that you have been given with your children