Everyone in the group is given a chance to lead in the area they are good at – Lydia Chola-Waiyaki

My name is Lydia Chola-Waiyaki. I am the author of a book titled ‘A Journey with Christ’ and also authored a teen book and a series of children’s books. My first book began as a diary that I was keeping. The stories in this diary were most amazing as the Lord had been visiting my young son and nephew through dreams and visions. They had experienced heaven, they saw the streets of gold, the pearly gates, the throne room of God, the beautiful mansions in heaven and they saw the other miserable side of a burning hell. Everyone wanted to hear these true stories and I was at the center of it. My calling was to evangelize. My calling was to tell people that Jesus is real and so is heaven for those who will believe in Him. I was basically influencing anyone and of any age who wanted to hear about God and the Bible being His Word. I quickly realized that after you publish a book, people begin to see you as a leader as you talk to them about your book. This is what turned me into an Associate Pastor because as I interacted with the people, they started to come to me for prayers, deliverance, encouragement and counselling. By this time, I had a deep love for Jesus, people and a burden for the lost souls. The Lord had placed in me the ability to empathize with hurting people and had enabled me to have great communication skills something that I had acquired during my working years. I had many opportunities to minister in churches, schools and home fellowships and this gave me a unique understanding into God’s word and how to relate it to the people both young and old. God has bestowed to me a special wisdom to respond to little children because I wanted to relate to them what the Lord had taught my own little ones.

CLC Kenya has played a very crucial role in my leadership journey as an author. Firstly, my children’s book was given recognition and awarded in the young category. As an author I was able to get feedback from my readers and this kind of feedback was useful in improving my way of relating and communicating with them.

Secondly, CLC have also helped in improving my writing by organizing feedback sessions from the Panel of Judges. I personally got to learn where my strengths in the book were and where I could do better not just for this specific book but for the rest of my writing journey. As a follow up, CLC prepared a YouTube video for the Book Review which was so well done and I am still sharing with others as it is a tool for progressing my book.

Thirdly, CLC have brought African Authors together by creating an Authors collaboration network giving them a forum to interact and exchange ideas in order to propel Christian literature. This platform is remarkable and has assisted me in learning with others as I understand their leadership styles and ways of achieving more in this journey of authorship.

CLC have organized monthly training sessions for the authors. Topics covered are crucial in not only sharpening my skills but also propelling me to be my best and an outstanding leader. Some of the topics we have covered include podcasting, audio books, blogging, E-books and other topics to be covered will be leadership, book programs and online influence. I have gained a lot of confidence since the training as they are outstanding and professionally done.

Again, I appreciate the work CLC has done in organizing all authors into the different category of groups. Within the groups we are able to focus on growing in our abilities and sharpening one another’s skills. Everyone in the group is given a chance to lead in the area they are good at. For example, those that are big on social media are able to pull the ones that are lagging behind etc.