Four Fourteen Window

Doing Children's CHE activities in a Nairobi slum.

Have you ever heard of the “4/14 Window?” This term plays on the 10/40 Window, which is used to refer to the area of the world that generally has the least development and most poverty but least exposure to the Gospel. But instead the 4/14 Window refers to the ages during which children learn the most and are fundamentally formed for the rest of their lives. Thinking about the importance of this time in a person’s life emphasizes the need of working with young people and giving them the physical and spiritual tools of CHE from a young age. We’ve spent a good amount of time in our training looking at how to apply the key ideas of CHE to children’s programs. It turns out that children enjoy learning through the CHE methods of stories, activities, questions, and problem solving, just like adults. A Children’s CHE program can then include fun activities that lead into doing other learning or action with the core CHE concepts of community ownership/development, prevention, spiritual and physical integration, and multiplication.

Since children are often open and receptive at young ages, some CHE workers even start working in a community by focusing on young school age children. When they learn something new, they are quick to bring it home and tell their parents, are bold about raising awareness in their communities, and sometimes talk more honesty about the problems the adults have. This past weekend we visited a partly developed slum in Kenya with a church that started from a CHE worker doing after school activities with the children. As the parents started interacting with the CHE worker, they brought up more problems and one thing he kept suggesting to them is that they find a church and walk with Jesus. After a while the parents started telling him that he had become the community’s pastor and they would come if he’d worship with them. Three years later they have sent him to a new community to plant a church while they take over all the responsibilities of their 20 member fellowship (+40 kids).

-- El Padre