Pastors' Training Program: Woliso, Ethiopia

Sorry for the delay in reporting on the launch of the Pastors' Training Program in Ethiopia. Immediately following the launch in Woliso, I flew back to Nairobi to finish the Romans Project translation work. For three full days I was frantically working to finish up with editing and sending recordings. The Lord allowed us to complete the 18 sessions of Romans in Luganda and Luo (Ugandan languages) as well as 20 sessions of the Gospel of Luke in Oromo (Ethiopia). Tigrinya (Ethiopia) still has 5 sessions of Romans to hand in. I am hoping to receive those in the next week or so.

Back to the Pastor's Training Program, I must admit that I was a little hesitant as to whether the launch in Ethiopia could be as good as it was in Kitale, Kenya. I was pleasantly surprised that it did go extremely well. Praise the Lord!

We had 29 pastors gather in Waliso, Ethiopia for 3 1/2 days of intense study. These men, along with the two leaders - Kebede and Beza, are incredibly dedicated to the work of the Gospel and eager to learn.

 The first night we started with a time of introduction. We asked them: 1) their names, 2) the length and mode of travel they took to the training site, 3) the number of congregations and members they have, and 4) if they had ever had formal Bible training. This was incredibly eye-opening. These 29 pastors had traveled anywhere from 1 hour on foot to 9 hours by walking and riding some sort of vehicle. The further ones first walked 2-3 hours on foot to reach a paved road where they could then take transportation to the training site. These are definitely "rural" pastors. Collectively these men are pastoring over 50 congregations with a total of over 6,200 members. Three of the pastors came later that evening and we neglected to record their full information. Of these pastors, the vast majority had no previous formal Bible training.

We covered the same subject in Woliso as we did in Kitale, Kenya: How to Study the Bible. One major difference about our training time in Woliso was that we needed translation for all the sessions. Teshale, a local pastor who had studied at a seminary in Nairobi and thus knew English, translated for Johnathan and me. Johnathan began each day teaching from Philippians and then I followed with instructions on how to study the Bible.

The pastors broke up into smaller groups and used Philippians as the text for practicing the skills. It proved to be a very successful model of training for them and by the end of our time they had made great strides in learning the steps of observation, interpretation, and application.

We began studies at 8:30 each morning and finished at 5:00 in the evening. (Ethiopian time, that would be 2:30 to 11:00 during the daylight hours.) We had a tea / coffee break mid-morning with strong Ethiopian coffee in small cups and black tea along with roasted grain for snacks. This was a great time to mingle with the student-pastors and do my best at learning their names and trying to learn their language - Oromo. Lunches and dinners were spent together as leaders / teachers. They were great times to enjoy fellowship and evaluate the day's progress.

Kebede and Beza, along with two more colleagues, will follow up these pastors each month until we meet again in February. They received the same assignments as those in Kitale and were encouraged to work both individually and in study groups between meeting times.

Kebede (left) and Eremias (right)

Beza

We traveled back to Addis Ababa on Saturday and had lunch with Eremias's boss, Girma, before flying back to Nairobi. Girma, who is over the church planting efforts for "Great Commission" (the name for Campus Crusade for Christ, or "Cru", in Ethiopia), was very pleased with the launch of the Pastors' Training Program. He explained to us that half of the pastors were chosen from one church planting center in the city of Ambo and half were from their work in Woliso. At present they have 34 church planting centers throughout Ethiopia and are on track to have 60 by September of 2016. Presently they are working with about 1,500 pastors and expect to double that by next year. It's not too difficult to grasp the immensity of the task before us, nor that we are barely scratching the surface of this great need.

PLEASE PRAY that God would allow us to focus on thoroughly training these 29 pastors this year. The temptation would be to rush the process because of the great need. But Ken, Eremias, Johnathan, and I believe that we should faithfully focus on equipping these men this year while at the same time fervently praying for God to raise up a team of men that next year we could train to be trainers of future groups. Please pray with us that God would cause a movement of multiplication to take place in order to train all these pastors.

One verse that guides my prayers for these pastors we are training through the Pastors' Training Program is 2 Timothy 2:15. "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth."

Pastors Training Program: Western Kenya

By God's grace, we've just launched the Pastors Training Program in western Kenya 12 kilometers outside of Kitale. It went incredibly well. There were approximately 24 pastors attending along with six women who are leaders of women's ministries in their churches. It is common that a pastor has several churches that he has helped to plant and thus oversees. They told me that among the pastors present they had over 50 churches, or congregations, represented and over 1,000 members in total. I hadn't even considered those possibilities when we first agreed to invite 24 pastors to take part in the training. God is blessing us above and beyond what I could have imagined.

We arrived Wednesday at noon to the training site (a compound named "California" which previously had been a school and now is the location of one of the churches) and started right away with introductions and lessons. We had expected to start Thursday morning, but were encouraged by the enthusiasm of all present and couldn't pass up the opportunity to get started. Saturday, 3 1/2 days later, we concluded our first course in the training program on "How to Study the Bible". This was the first formal training that most of the pastors had ever had on how to study the Bible. For three of the pastors, this was their first ever opportunity to receive training for ministry.

The four of us (Ken Onywoki - Kenya, Eremias Bekele - Ethiopia, Johnathan Todd - USA, and I) worked as a team in our training time. We marveled at how the Lord put this team together and how we were able to complement each other in the various aspects of training.

Johnathan began each day teaching a portion of Philippians chapter 1. Philippians was the textbook for learning the skills of observation, interpretation, and application. Johnathan not only fed the pastors from God's Word, but also gave them an example of how the fruits of their study would prepare them to preach God's Word.

While we agreed to teach in English, because most of them had been through a high school equivalent education, yet Ken would still often summarize sessions in Swahili. Ken is also very discerning as to the incorrect or unhealthy influences on pastors and their congregations here in Kenya and thus often addressed those issues and practices in connection with what we were learning from Philippians.

Eremias's strengths are in the area of encouraging people one-on-one and also keeping us on track with providing clear assignments and goals for the pastors to be working on during our training time. Eremias would spend time getting feedback from pastors during the break times and also made sure we provided very clear assignments for the pastors to work on before meeting again in February.

My primary role was teaching the steps of how to study the Bible. This is a course I have taught numerous times in the past and was able to modify for these rural pastors. Because the aim is to train these pastors, we formed study groups in which to practice these skills after receiving instruction. So, I would cover one or two aspects of how to observe, interpret, or apply a text and then they would break into their groups and work together on these skills. Then they would report back to the main group on their progress and we would confirm or correct them as needed. The pastors responded very well to this format and worked exceptionally hard at studying Philippians.

PLEASE PRAY that these pastors and six women would continue to work through their assignments during the next months to become competent in studying God's Word. They formed five regional groups at the end of our time that would enable them to  meet every other week for accountability and prayer. Each group appointed a leader that will maintain weekly contact with the members. Ken Onywoki will maintain weekly contact with each leader.

Their assignments are: 1) to study the entire book of Philippians using the methods we taught, 2) to preach what they learn from Philippians to their congregations, and 3) to begin reading through the entire Bible as a year-long assignment.

PLEASE PRAY that the time in God's Word would transform not only their own lives but also the lives of those in their congregations.

Pastors Training Program: The Launch

Tomorrow at 4:00am we (Ken Onywoki, Eremias Bekele, Johnathan Todd, and I) leave for the Nairobi airport to fly to Eldoret and then on to Kitale in western Kenya. We are launching the Pastors Training Program for both Kenya and Ethiopia. This is truly an exciting event for me.

Ken Onywoki

Eremias Bekele

Johnathan Todd

For the past two years while conducting Romans Project conferences and challenging pastors to read the book of Romans 20 times and write it out once, I have heard these same pastors ask one simple question, "What's next?" Over and over again I heard that question. Then in March 2015 while at a Romans Project country directors' meeting here in Nairobi, Ken and Eremias approached me one afternoon and said they had large numbers of pastors who were pleading for more training. Ken was in contact with 2,000 pastors in Kenya and Eremias with 1,500 in Ethiopia. They both asked me, "What can we do about this?"

That was the impetus God used to bring Ken, Eremias and me together to seek God in meeting this incredible need. Pastors living in rural Kenya and Ethiopia greatly desiring training and yet unable to obtain it. We spent a day in prayer and planning and came up with the Pastors Training Program.

The Church in Africa, generally speaking, is 100 miles wide and an inch deep. I've read that repeatedly and heard it time and again from my African brothers-in-Christ. In fact, Alex (one of the translators from Uganda - see earlier blog post) related that very statistic at dinner this evening. Are there groups seeking to address this need? Certainly there are, but Eremias and Ken have not been in contact with them. However over the past two years through the Romans Project, they have been in contact with me. So, we have joined together for the purpose of addressing the need of these pastors with whom they are in contact.

We wrote up a proposal in March 2015 to train 24 pastors in western Kenya and 30 pastors in Ethiopia during this year in the basic skills and knowledge needed for pastoring God's people. We plan to meet these two groups four times from now until August 2016. Each time we will spend three full days in training - imparting to these men not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. They will receive assignments to work on between our training times. We seek to train them in the skills of how to study the Bible, how to preach the Word, and how to apply the truths of God's Word to people in their congregations. We also want to help them understand the Bible's message as a whole and in its parts along with the major teachings of the Bible.

We presented our proposal for the Pastors Training Program to Grace Evangelical Church in Germantown, TN where Johnathan Todd is missions pastor. "Grace Evan" has supported the Brown's ministry for many years, and Johnathan came on a Romans Project trip a year and a half ago. They as a church had been looking for a ministry venture in Africa and the Lord brought us together for such a time as this.

I know it seems like we are barely making a dent in the need with this first year's pilot program, but we believe that if we start small and seek to personally impart the basics that pastors need for ministry, then perhaps God will bless our efforts. The basics of teaching others to feed on God's Word for themselves and then to feed others with God's Word can make a huge impact over time.

PLEASE PRAY with us and for us as we, by God's grace, launch this program to train pastors in rural Kenya and Ethiopia.

• Our training time in western Kenya will be from Thursday October 1 through Saturday October 3.
• Our time in Ethiopia, south of Addis Ababa an hour and a half, will be from Wednesday October 7 through Friday October 9.
• Travel days will be before and after those dates.
• Pray that the men will come ready to work hard at learning the skill of how to study the Bible. Johnathan Todd will also be taking the men through Paul's letter to the Philippians as an example of how to communicate the fruits of what they learn from their study.

Translation Work: The Finishing Stretch?

Here are all four translators from left to right: Yohannes (Ethiopia - Tigrinya), Edwin (Uganda - Luganda), Alex (Uganda - Luo), and Wakshuma (Ethiopia - Oromo).

The translation work is progressing, but not at the rate expected or planned. Edwin is pretty much on schedule to finish according to the original plan - Sunday October 4th. In order for the translation project of any given language to be complete, the translator has to submit his final session (Romans has 18 sessions) in time for me, minimally, to go through the first phase of editing. That first phase assures that they have translated every phrase of Scott's teaching and that it is aligned in such a way that I can clearly follow it - i.e. the best is to have a slight break between Scott's phrase or sentence and their translation of that portion.

As of now, I have Edwin's session 14 and Alex's session 9. I need to do the first phase editing of those sessions before I go to bed tonight as we (Ken Onywoki, Eremias Bekele, Johnathan Todd, and I) leave tomorrow around 3:30am to make our 6:00am flight from Nairobi to Eldoret, Kenya for the Pastors Training Program. (My next post will talk more about that.) On average I need roughly 1.5 to 2 hours to complete first phase editing for each session. That should still give me time to pack for my trip tomorrow, have dinner, and get a few hours of sleep.

What I am concerned about is that both Edwin and Alex have expressed interest in leaving to home on the original date of October 5th. When I get back on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 4th), I am pretty sure I will have time enough to finish editing Edwin's remaining 4 sessions, but I don't think there are enough hours to edit Alex's remaining 9 sessions - even if he were to have them all done. The Pastors Training Program team arrives back to Nairobi on Sunday afternoon and leaves again to Ethiopia Monday October 5th in the evening.

PLEASE PRAY that God would guide us in the translation and editing time schedule so that we can provide excellent recordings even if that means some need to sacrifice with less sleep (in my case) or with extending their stay a few extra days (in Alex's case).

As for Yohannes, he has already resigned himself to the fact that he needs to stay until the end of my time in Nairobi which is October 14. Yohannes is just now working on session 9, which leaves him two more weeks to finish the remaining 9 sessions. That should be a realistic time frame, but we would still covet your prayers for him in his translation efforts.

Finally, Wakshuma, who is an experienced translator and adept at using computers and recording programs, is doing fine. I have already done final editing on 6 sessions he has translated thus far and sent them off to Dave Martini at Southwest Bible Church in Beaverton, Oregon. Wakshuma is translating Scott's teaching on the Gospel of Luke and has 20 sessions in all to translate by October 13. One point of interest is that Scott taught the Gospel of Luke to my students in the Czech Republic numerous years ago and we are able to use those same recordings to translate into various African languages. Praise the Lord with me for this wonderful provision.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Edwin, Alex, and Yohannes often express thankfulness to God for the privilege to translate into their own languages the great truths of salvation from the book of Romans. They have been chosen because of their ability to translate and yet several days ago at breakfast I realized the challenges that these men face in this work.

Here are a few of the challenges we are facing. I hope they will help you pray for us.

Firstly, it is not a given that a person is skilled in both translation work and adept at using a computer or navigating through a unfamiliar recording program. The verbal skills needed for translation and the technical skills needed for recording do not always go hand-in-hand. There are challenges that the men are facing with the computers they are using and it is keeping me quite stretched and busy trying to solve all the "problems" that arise. I have had more computer problems this time than any other time. (Note: This evening while trying to write this blog post, I've had three different computer related issues to solve.)

Secondly, a challenge that arises from the first is that two of the men have lost large portions, if not all, of their translation work multiple times. Alex has had difficulties with every single session he's work on, and presently he is on session 05. As I write this portion of the blog entry, he is carrying his computer and external disk to me so I can try to retrieve more lost translation work. For anyone who has lost an email, school paper, etc. while working on a computer, it can be very discouraging. I am amazed that Alex, by God's grace, is continuing to persevere. I am thankful for his perseverance and sweet spirit, but at the same time I am not sure how he will be able to complete the Luo translation on time - by October 5th. We desperately need your prayer support for us in this area.

Thirdly, we had one day when the maintenance crew unexpectedly worked on the electricity outside my room while I was editing Edwin's translation. He was sitting next to me as I needed his help to align his translation with Scott's teaching - a common editing task. As we were working, the white box on my computer cord made a loud popping sound followed by a puff of smoke and a nasty smell. Yes, my computer cord was fried. We were able to replace it two days later with a "short" 4 hour trip to the "local" Apple store. We decided to pick up a surge protector on the same shopping trip just in case the maintenance crew worked on the electricity again.

Fourthly, just when I thought we were learning to manage all these challenges - computer questions, lost work, and other difficulties happening throughout the day - Wakshuma arrived from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to translate. It was great to see him, yet the news that his hard drive in his Macbook pro was damaged on his trip here was discouraging. I spent the afternoon trying to locate a place to repair his problem. I would normally turn to Ken Onywoki, the Romans Project (RP) director for Kenya, to help, but he is in Tanzania helping with an RP conference. Tomorrow on my way to the airport (I'm meeting up with Dave Martini and Gary Dozier during a layover as they travel back to the US from ministering in Rwanda with the Romans Project.) I will drop off Wakshuma and his computer at the only place in Nairobi that can fix his problem.

Lastly, Yohannes has been battling some kind of illness that started with symptoms of a head cold - coughing, headache, stuffiness - and progressed last night into being sick to his stomach and experiencing periods of chills and then sweating. Needless to say this has slowed him down in his translation efforts as well.

PLEASE PRAY that God would give us perseverance and joy in the face of all these challenges. I preached to our congregation in Celakovice and to the men here during our Sunday devotional about joy in ministry from Paul's letter to the Philippians. "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!" Philippians 4:4

Back to Africa Translating Romans

I'm back in Africa - Karen / Nairobi, Kenya to be specific - with another team of men translating Scott Gilchrist's teaching through the New Testament book of Romans. Scott is senior pastor at Southwest Bible Church (SBC) in Beaverton, Oregon. In May 2014 Dr. Rick Calenberg, International Director of the Romans Project, arranged for Scott to teach through Romans at a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to 250+ pastors. The conference was translated  into the Amharic language and thus started the translation efforts to provide those sermons from all 16 chapters of the book of Romans into numerous African languages of the countries where the Romans Project ministers. In addition to Amharic, we also have translated into Oromo, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, French, and Hausa.

I arrived on Sunday September 13 to the Resurrection Gardens outside of Nairobi in a region called Karen. This is a new facility for us and thus far seems to be suited well for our task. The compound where our facilities are located is huge and encompasses a large garden with several walking paths and numerous benches throughout offering people places to sit and pray. Our facilities are at the top of the hill near the gate and the translation team is spread out throughout the three towers of dorms.

The tower on the far left is where Edwin and Alex have their rooms. The rooms are equipped such that we can also do our translation and editing work right in our rooms. I'm on the ground floor in the middle tower and Yohannes is on the second floor of the tower on the right.

Edwin is from Uganda and translates in to the Luganda language.

Alex is also from Uganda and translates into the Luo language.

Yohannes is from Ethiopia and translates into the Tigrinya language. Yohannes is also the voice in Tigrinya for Jesus in the "Jesus Film" produced years ago by "Cru" (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ).

Our work got off to a slower start than expected as Alex's bus from Kampala, Uganda caused him to arrive at the Resurrection Gardens around 10 a.m. on Monday. We had orientation before lunch and then I issued the men computers throughout the afternoon. We worked through a few kinks with the computers and helped to familiarize them with the recording program.

As I write this first blog entry, Edwin has finished session 01 in Luganda and is well into session 02. Yohannes just submitted his session 01 in Tigrinya before lunch, and I still need to help Alex with a few last details for him to wrap up session 01 in Luo. I have fully edited Edwin's session 01 and sent it off to Dave Martini at SBC where Dave checks each recording and compiles them into folders to be added to mp3 players for distribution.

PLEASE PRAY that the men would get accustomed to the computer, recording program, and the mechanics of translating and recording. Edwin seems to have found his stride and I think that Yohannes is about there. I think Alex is still working to see things come together. The goal is to get all 18 teaching sessions translated - and edited - by October 4th or 5th. That's three weeks in all and thus means an average of 6 sessions per week.

Romans Project: A Week's Update

Last week was a whirlwind of activity for the Romans Project in East Africa. Dr. Rick Calenberg flew in to Nairobi Saturday March 14 and flew out on Saturday March 21. Sunday he was preaching at Ken's church in Kibera and then by Sunday evening we were welcoming all the East African Romans Project directors. We had our first ever East African directors conference with representatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Pictured below are those directors, two regional coordinators from Kenya, and the translators you have met in previous posts.

From left to right: Rick, Eremias, Allan, Gwalikughu, Ken, Apollo, Wakshuma, Albert (behind), Bonheur (in front), Dan, Marshall, Charles.

Monday and Tuesday we met morning and afternoon and then had time for fellowship in the evenings. It was wonderful hearing from each of the directors and coordinators how they came to faith in Christ and what ministries they are involved in. They also recounted their first meeting with Rick and challenge to join the Romans Project. Tuesday we heard again from each of the men, this time they gave us reports on the progress of the Romans Project this past year and what plans they have for this year. I asked each of them a few questions that helped me better understand their situations. One common thread was the necessity for having not only the teaching from Romans but also as many sermons on the mp3 player as possible in their own languages. Story after story underlined this reality. It was fitting that this conference was conducted at the very time and place we were hard at work to translate the teachings on Romans into five languages.

Wednesday I was back to editing the Oromo and Hausa translations while Rick took off to open up yet another country to the Romans Project, the country of Burundi. Bonheur, who finished translating into French and Kinyarwanda ahead of schedule, was able to accompany Rick in Burundi (it neighbors Rwanda) and be his personal translator. They conducted a Romans Project day conference in Bujumbura, the capital, with approximately 100 attendees, several who were from the Congo. Those of you who know Rick probably were just now thinking: "So, I guess Rick is going to travel to the Congo next and open it up for the Romans Project." You guessed correctly. Actually, his next trip is to open up Botswana and then he desires to go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo which shares a boarder with both Rwanda and Burundi, as well as other countries.

Friday Rick flew back to Nairobi and joined us at Subiaco center here in Karen. He had stories to share, and I was able to update him on talks I had had with Eremias (Ethiopia) and Ken (Kenya) concerning the need to give pastors further training. The three of us (Eremias, Ken, and I) are prayerfully considering avenues to meet this crucial need of providing pastors and church planters with more tools to effectively carry out ministry in their respective countries.

Saturday Rick and Ken conducted a Romans Project day conference in Nairobi that Ken and one of his coordinators had organized the past weeks. A couple of the country directors (Tanzania and Ethiopia) were able to observe first hand how these conferences work and see the teaching modeled so as to duplicate it in their own settings.

Rick flew back to the States Saturday night and the others left very early on Sunday morning. Ken drove everyone to the airport and back home to pick up his family, before  picking me up for church. I had the privilege of preaching yesterday and enjoyed seeing familiar faces. Both Ken and I were extremely exhausted from all the activities and returned to our respective "homes" to relax the rest of Sunday sleeping long into this morning.

Praise God with us for all that He accomplished through this past week. It was a whirlwind of a time filled with many blessings. May all glory, honor, and praise be to God!