Some Pictures From Our Recent Training Trips To Asia & Africa

Home Again

We are home and adjusting to both the time change and the weather change. The last two days were hot and humid in Kenya, but we arrived back home on Saturday night to a slight snow and then a high of 20 on Monday. On the Thursday before we left Africa, it rained hard for about 15 minutes or so early in the morning. When it rains there it does not cool off at all, it just adds a lot of humidity. That was the hottest day of training I have ever had. It felt like teaching in a sauna. Even the Africans were slowed by the temps, although they said it was just moderately hot to them.  

The time there was generally encouraging. The last series of presentations was excellent. The realities of the situation make for less progress than what we would like, but we can see the Lord working. Many of the trainees are making great strides, but one is not getting it all. It is sad to see that he just does not have the education or ability to grow very much in understanding what he reads. The ladies struggled with the women as well, many were illiterate and all nearly functionally illiterate. We are not sure that our material will ever work well for them. At the same time the progress with our training group since the beginning is substantial.  The report is that the whole denomination has really grown as well. It moves us deeply to see such profound and permanent change taking place. We spent some time studying some passages of scripture on the topic of marriage at the workshop. Our Kenyan brothers are eager to apply the Word to their lives but face immense challenges in light of their cultural models. I was reflecting on that and realize that complete transformation is not to be expected in our lives. More likely we will see bigger changes in successive generations as steps of progress are made in understanding and applying the Word in our broken cultural settings. I am happy to be a part of that progress in Kenya and other places around the world, including in my own life. Mike and I commented on how much we learned about Psalms in our study with the Kenyans and how much better we are going to be in understanding that portion of the Word in the future. God continues to work on the trainers as well as the trainees.

We have a little time off before our next overseas trip to India in February. That gives some time for catching up here at home and working on future workshop curriculum, planning, recruiting and US training. We would appreciate your continued prayers for us even when we are home and the work is not as exciting. The days continue to be long and the work at times can be grinding, but the time we put in enables us to do our work when we are overseas. Thank you for your continued interest. We would love to hear from you from time to time. May God bless you this Christmas season.  

Al

Training goes well despite challenges

We had a great day today teaching on the Psalms. This has never been a strength for me, but I have really been enjoying learning about the Psalms and teaching about them. I had the added pleasure today of learning as I taught. Sometimes the Lord really surprises us. I am being refreshed by my own teaching and by my good friend and partner Mike as he teaches. He is such a godly man and an extraordinary teacher. Often we add into what each other is teaching. We have a lot of fun doing teaching together.

I was about 1 and 1/2 hours late to the training because I was meeting with the man from Ethiopia. What a joy that was! He is a good humble servant who shares many of our concerns and passions. We are praying for how we might work together in the future. 

Mike taught in my absence but we got a late start. We taught all day and ran out of time to do the electives on marriage. The pastors were concerned and wanted to start earlier so we could get to that subject. We will do our best to do that tomorrow. They are really hanging in there in spite of the heat but don't seem to be sleeping well as their quarters are even hotter than ours.

It has been a challenge for Edie and Suzanne. The women here are not well educated and are having a hard time catching the training. They also don't seem as motivated as the men. Tomorrow one woman who helps with the translation will  be missing. Edie and Suzanne are so wonderful, working hard and keeping a good attitude with all the challenges. They are heroes to me, so willing to be challenged, stretched, and face hardships, and soldier on with smiles on their faces. They are gems and one of them belongs to me. Thank you Lord!

 

Al

From Uganda to Kenya

We are now in Kenya, on the coast. We have had no internet service until yesterday so I had no way of writing. I finally bought a modem to use here yesterday. When we got back to the hotel we found that indeed they had internet but had not told us. Two girls from Italy had kept the modem in their room. So, now I have two ways to get online.  

Our last two days in Uganda went well. The trainers are all leaders from various organizations so we have real hopes that the training will expand through 5 or 6 different organizations and denominations across Uganda. They seem really motivated to pass the training on. We were very pleased with the progress that they made in learning the material. Some were very bright, with advanced degrees, so it was easier to train them. Many expressed a real change in their understanding of what it means to preach the Word and felt that their preaching and teaching would never be the same.  

I personally did not feel that I connected with the group very well. I was not there the first two days and only taught a couple of sessions on the last two. But the other team members did great. I found out that the job God wanted me to do on that part of this trip was to encourage and help one of the other team members with some major challenges they are facing. As I said before, ministry is always interesting.

We are now in Malindi, arriving on Saturday afternoon. It is much hotter here than it was in Uganda and we are paying the price in our training. Our hotel is very nice and inexpensive, but without air conditioning. It sometimes gets down to 85 by morning and we are thankful for ceiling fans. Everybody is sleeping ok.  

We travelled to a remote village church on Sunday where I preached to about 7 women and 20 or so children. It is always a bit challenging to prepare for this kind of preaching, not knowing what kind of congregation we will find. I  had a couple of options ready, but when I found out the situation at the church I chose a third option on the way. Years of preaching experience comes in handy at times.

I was anxious to see and to reconnect with the brethren here after not having been here for 8 months. The last workshop in August was conducted by others and I had not been here since April. I wanted to see if they were making progress. I was so happy to see that they are thoroughly committed to preaching the Word and are working hard to become more skilled. One poor pastor has hired a tutor to help him learn to read better so he can study more effectively. They gave me such a warm welcome that it was like coming home to family. What a joy. Many of them are still struggling to catch on to all we are teaching. They have such limited education, but they are all making progress for which we thank God.  

One surprise that we found here was that a man from the other side of Nairobi came to watch our training. It turns out that he is an Ethiopian who is church planting in an unchurched area of Kenya. He happened onto our information when he was on the internet. He asked me by email if he could attend to observe, and I agreed. I thought he knew where we were meeting but he did not. He hunted for us on Monday and almost went home. He finally reached me by email and I was able help him come see us today. He is a fine brother who is committed to the same principles that we are but has not been able to find the right training process until he found us. He said today was historic for him and wants us to come help him start the training on the other side of Kenya among many different denominations. The Lord is amazing. I meet with him for awhile tomorrow as Mike trains, to talk about what we might do together.  

Today was very hot and challenging. It gets up to around 90 every day with high humidity and we train the men in a room with open windows but little air movement and no fans. We are drained by the end of the day. Mike and I take a liter of water each and drink it all and want more by the end of the day. I never see the Kenyans drink at all. I do not know how they do it. We get back to the hotel about 6 and take a quick shower, no hot water, and rinse off. Then we head out to find supper. By the time we are back around 8:30 we are mostly beat. I find it easier to get up early to prepare for that day's training than trying to do it the night before.  

Edie and Suzanne are doing very well in spite of all the heat. They are training ladies out in the yard under a huge tree. It is much cooler there with a good breeze. But there are other challenges. A calf came by and bellowed at them, a herd of goats surrounded them, and ants kept falling from the tree onto them. This is Africa at its best. The ladies are not as well educated and the learning is a bit slower with them than the men, but they also are making progress.

We all are saying that the days are long and hot, and that this job is physically, mentally and spiritually challenging, often beyond our capability. But the Lord is with us and we would not trade what we do for anything in the world. Through us the Lord is training pastors and wives to study and teach the Word of God accurately, often for the first time in their lives. We were talking and realized that in the past month or so we have trained trainers, who will train over two thousand pastors. They in turn will teach the Word much more effectively to over 100,000 believers. And, we are just getting started. How can you top that? Not in this life, not in my book. Thanks for your help in praying, encouraging and giving. We could not do it without you. 

Al

Flexibility & Faith

The last two days In Uganda have been interesting. As I say that I am reminded of something Pastor John Newton said many years ago. It went something like this: "I never know what a knock at the study door will bring. It may be an opportunity to repent or to minister to some one's soul. In either case it will be interesting." Ministry can be exciting and rewarding, and sometimes difficult and confusing, but it is always interesting! That has been the case here. Edie, Suzanne and I have been conducting meetings in a small isolated rural church. This was supposed to be a ministry to women but for whatever reason it became a general conference for everyone in the area, including pastors. I felt it necessary to take two days off from the training of pastors in Iganga to attend and work with the ladies in this village church. Mike and Eric have been covering the pastor training in my absence. On the first day, only 3 men and about 8 women showed up. I sat there thinking, "What in the world am I doing here?" But the Lord quickly reminded me that I am nothing special and that He is in charge of what He wants me to do. I decided that if He wants me to help Edie and Suzanne teach this little group instead of training pastors for two days, my job is to say, "Yes, Lord" and to do so with joy. As it turns out, as the day progressed more and more trickled in and we finally had almost 60 people, including several pastors there.  

This was all last minute for me. Edie and Suzanne have been trying to prepare for weeks but it was difficult because the situation seemed to be constantly changing. I came on board just before we left and had no prep time. But I have a fair amount of material that I can pull up on short notice so it was not so hard on me. I began preparing around 5 in the morning of the day we were to train. When we got there we had to adjust even that. As the Lord would have it, the driver left with all of Edie's prep and notes in the car, including her bible. That was hard for her but she quickly got that settled with the Lord. It is pretty threatening for her to have to teach without great preparation and detailed notes. But she pulled a few notes together as I taught and was able to remember all the passages she meant to use. Her talk was unbelievably good considering the situation. Suzanne is simply amazing. For her first trip to Africa she looks like a veteran, connecting well with the women, children and even the men so well. All this instability didn't seem to faze her at all. She came up with some of the most amazing and creative ice breakers for the group that really fit with what we were teaching. And she came up with the ideas on the spur of the moment, and in spite of the huge cultural differences, the people loved what she came up with. It added just the right amount of fun to the conference. All our teaching seemed to fold together well almost like we had planned it out ahead of time instead of creating it on the spot. It was obvious that Someone else was doing the planning.  

One interesting side note was that one of the pastors attending had heard me teach last April in Iganga. And, another pastor had heard me teach last year in Mbale. They were surprised and excited to connect with me again. One of them ended up doing some translation for me which was a great help. Another little ingredient was added to make the first day even more interesting as I battled intestinal problems from something I ate the night before. Nothing like a 3x3 squatty back behind the church to add to a sense of adventure. All in all we were astounded at how well the first day went.

The second day we were supposed to talk to married couples about marriage. We had it all planned out to have me start the day for a couple of hours and then for the ladies to fill in the rest of the day and have me close. But, it rained and we got a late start and very few people showed up. There was only one or two couples there so my teaching on marriage wouldn't work. So, we readjusted on the spot again and the ladies started with two talks on Hannah and then I added in some thoughts that connected what they had done with what we had taught on the day before. Again, you would have thought we planned the whole thing out ahead of time. Gradually more people came and then just before lunch the whole group arrived.  

After lunch I taught on marriage from Genesis one and what I taught was in stark contrast to African culture. But the previous day's teaching had prepared them to consider what God was saying and then to ask, "How am I different from that? How does God want me to change? And, what steps am I going to take to start to change?" After the first hour it was such a joy to see a group of about 10 men, several of them pastors, and a couple of women talking together excitedly about what I had taught and how they needed to change. It made me wonder if I had taught something so confrontational in America, would our people have responded so enthusiastically seeking to grow and change? It really turned out to be another miracle day.

We now look back on the two days we spent with God's people in this little rural church. I cannot say why God had this all happen as He did. I do not know what the lasting results will be. But I do know that Edie, Suzanne and I were all forced to change to be a little more obedient, a little more trusting and a little more useful to our Lord. If that is all that God intended, that is not a bad result.

Al