Following my time training pastors in Tanzania, I hopped over to Kenya, and was met by Bishop Daniel Osoi. Daniel is a humble man whom God has used mightily to bring many people to the Lord. Now he oversees a cluster of 30+ churches in his region south of Nairobi, and works closely with denominational leaders representing several hundred churches.

While I was there, Daniel and I shared our hearts together about the need for pastors in Africa to receive Bible training. He communicated to me their situation, where the vast majority of their pastors have no Bible training whatsoever. As I described our three-year Pathway program, designed to train trainers of pastors who pass the Bible training on to many others, he was so excited he could barely contain himself.

He began dreaming of all the other denominational leaders he wanted to include, so the training could spread through their denominations as well. We discussed the strategy, vision, purpose, and the expectations for Pathway to successfully be launched, including financial sacrifices that would need to be made. To all of this, Daniel and his leaders enthusiastically affirmed their commitment, including personal expense.

The setting of the training could not have been more different than the noisy, crowded, active setting of Buguruni in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Bissil is a small, rural town of about 10,000 and the option to stay in a very comfortable guesthouse in the bush near the town is an enticement for certain pastors from the US who enjoy quiet.

A couple times I went for runs down the main road which actually goes nonstop from Cairo, Egypt all the way down to Johannesburg, South Africa!

I did two days of training with a group of about 40 potential trainers, and they were thoroughly convinced of and enthusiastically embraced the need for Pathways training.

We met in the main church in town, and worked through our Pre-Training material, exposing them to an introduction of Careful Bible Study by examining the book of Philippians. Daniel said what we offer exceeded his hopes, and he affirmed that many pastors approached him committing themselves to the training and to reproducing it. 

I am looking forward to returning to these dear people who are so hungry for Bible training. Hopefully I’ll be able to find US pastors interested in joining me! Pressing on, Eric