BY ASHLEY THABA Last week I wrote about a campaign we are doing in a small village. This campaign is happening because the leaders of that village of Rakops decided that they had had enough of unruly behaviour in their community. They are tired of hearing of gender-based violence, suicides, extra marital affairs, alcoholism and other social ills which stem from unhealthy unhappy families. Therefore, they spent eight months lobbying and preparing for our foundation, the healthy families foundation, to come and teach everyone in the village for 18 days. What it means to have stronger healthier families. The results are astounding! I teach 50 volunteers for two hours every morning on how to teach our marriage book. In the afternoon, those 50 go out and teach a group of 10-15 in every ward in the village. We are grateful to the government for printing 1000 books, participants have their own workbook. By doing these small discussion groups, we are able to comply with all COVID-19 protocols, train leaders, make groups easily accessible and start something in every ward that can continue even when we leave. The groups are growing like wildfire! Hundreds and hundreds of testimonies abound! The amazing thing is that new groups are forming. The police, who cannot come everyday, are going to start their group at the police station. Teachers started their own group to study the book after hours. Last night, we learnt that they are also planning to start a group with parents of students as they have realised that students from healthy homes perform better. Older people who cannot come to the groups have requested people to come to them and new groups are springing up every day. Revival of families is beautiful. We have come to teach a new way and little by little, more and more are embracing and sharing how much happier they already are. We are confident the same God of Joshua that I spoke of last week is your God. He wants to bless you. But for us to be blessed, we must turn away from anything that is dark and hurtful. We must choose to follow Him. You might say: “You don’t understand. I know my family is hurting. I know our choices are hurting us, but this is our culture. This is the way we do things here.” My prayer is that as a result of this campaign, many of us will say to our neighbours: “What we have been doing is hurting us. It won’t be easy to change our ways, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. If it is undesirable to you my neighbour, you choose how your family will live, but as for me and my house, we will choose to follow Jesus. We will choose love. We will choose faithfulness. We will choose peace. We will choose life.” Culture is determined by choices of many people. If enough begin to make choices which lead to healthy happy homes, you can change the culture. Like the Isrealites who only knew one way for 400 years, they were given a choice — and today I also ask you to make a choice. Will you continue in the way of your forefathers even when you know it doesn’t bring joy and peace to your home, or