Our time together at Friends Theological College (FTC) felt truly held by Spirit, including our fellowship over meals and worship together. Nineteen Friends attended and seventeen completed the training to receive a certificate as a Godly Play/Faith & Play storyteller. Phrases that I heard over and over during the time included: “Thank you for this chance.” “Be blessed.” “Karibu” (Swahili: welcome). “Asante sana” (Swahili: thank you very much). “You are welcome.” This last one was not a response to “thank you” — it was an affirmation: you are welcome here. By the end of my time in Kenya, the phrase “thank you for this chance” aptly expressed my feelings about the experience.
Gratitude needs to be shared for the advance organizing done by members of Quaker Religious Education Collaborative East Africa — Agnetta Injairu (Malava) and Henry Shivachi (Kaimosi) — and Marian Baker (Weare Meeting, NH), whose support was invaluable to all of us as a training community. We were also blessed to have Dr. Robert Wafula, Principal of FTC, join us during more than one session and bring his perspective as an educator and theologian to the conversations.
These seasoned religious educators were keen to try new things, engage with all the stories, and wonder deeply together about theological questions.
While I am still processing the experience and the many notes in my journal, there was an enormous amount shared and learned in community during these days. The invitation to return to FTC (I was there in 2019 to co-lead a conference for East African Sunday School teachers) had waited for many years until it felt possible to undertake. Meeting several of the 2019 participants again was amazing, and the group as a whole became deeply connected over the four days of work together. As we do at any “Playing in the Light” training, we worked with stories from both the Bible (Godly Play stories) and Quaker faith/practice witness (Faith & Play stories). While storytelling was a shared language, there were some challenges I had not anticipated in my preparations. Many participants were more comfortable working in Swahili than English, particularly with story scripts. (Most of these Friends are tri-lingual, using Swahili, English, and a local dialect.) The Godly Play approach to children’s ministry, which is child-centered and discovery based, is relational in a different way (centering mentorship and accompaniment), than the teacher-learner model of Sunday School in Kenya, that uses call-and-response tools to reinforce learning and nurture community.
Our conversations included how to find a “middle path” that had integrity for the Godly Play approach while also honoring the style of teaching/learning used in Kenya — a country that deeply values education. Some ways to walk the proposed “middle path” together included encouragement to a participant who was reluctant about sharing a story (a required practicum during the training) to share their story in Swahili — I’ve done this in the US with participants for whom English is their second language, and it also makes the bigger point that when children hear stories they do not need to understand every word for the story to be “for them.” We heard the first two parts of “Faces of Easter” in Swahili, and it was beautiful. Another participant, one of the most soft-spoken people I’ve ever met, had to contend with telling their story over the din of a late-afternoon thunderstorm. As their voice grew louder by necessity, and then filled with confidence, I felt the presence of God holding us in that moment of empowerment. We all clapped with joy when they finished. At the certificate ceremony at the end of the training, I shared a blessing: “You are storytellers, peacemakers, and the part that has not been written, yet.”
Another purpose of the time at FTC was to support work on writing stories about Quakerism and Quaker figures in Kenya in the manner of Godly Play/Faith & Play. Some of the research for this began in 2019 with the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative’s Africa Archives work, and there will be a story writing conference in November 2025 at FTC. I brought with me guidance about creating stories in the manner of F&P, as well as guidance about making story materials — recognizing the difference in resources to do this in Kenya. Friends engaged in energized conversation about how to make materials, and during the session about creating Kenyan stories there was amazing progress made. One group brainstormed, “What do we want our children to know about being a Kenyan Quaker?” and named the importance of Kaimosi and its “Hill of Vision” as a place of origin. Another group worked on what a meeting for worship story would look like in a Kenyan context (programmed worship). As I told them, this is a story we need in our children’s programs in the US (and everywhere) to understand the whole picture of our World Quaker Family. A third group set to brainstorming and researching Kenyan Friends whose faith and witness could be shared in a story.
In March 2008, Godly Play founder Jerome Berryman shared a blessing for the first edition of Faith & Play Stories. He wrote: “Godly Play seems to go where it goes, like light. If it is of God, then who knows . . .” Now it has gone to Friends in Kenya, along with our Quaker stories, and again, who knows — but the parable of the sower tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like the seeds falling on all sorts of ground, and we are called to have faith in where it takes root. I feel certain that some of the seeds lavishly shared in conversations, stories, and worship during our time together in Kaimosi have fallen on earth where they will grow and find their way to flourish.
Melinda Wenner Bradley
Director of Communication and Training
Licensed Godly Play Trainer
I also write this report with deep gratitude to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Travel and Witness Granting Group. Several times in Kenya, I mentioned to Friends there that my ability to make this trip and share ministry with them was because of the support of my yearly meeting. The grant supported both my travel costs and the rental of the chapel at FTC for the training.