Salama, friends. I have just returned from giving our seventh workshop to our pastor trainers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I was joined by Uriah Donaldson, a young seminary student and businessman who assisted me in the training. As usual, it is a complete joy to be with these dear brothers with whom I have been working for the past 4-6 years. During this time, I have witnessed them improve much in their handling of the Word and skill in preaching.

In this seventh workshop, we offer the last of our new training tools in the Bible Pathway, as we study how any giving passage fits into the larger biblical context of the God’s redemptive plan stretching from Genesis to Revelation. We deal with issues such as an overview of what is found in each book of the Bible, how to move from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant (from Law and works to grace through faith in Christ), how to interpret Old Testament passages in light of New Testament writings, and how to preach Christ from the Old Testament. It was a great joy to wrestle with these challenging subjects, centered on a variety of passages, as we dug into the text and grew in our understanding. The pastors worked on many exercises, engaged in discussions, offered short messages on various passages, and of course we always enjoyed praying together, worshipping together and encouraging each other in following Christ.

The group was fairly small, yet there is much character and depth in each trainer, and I am encouraged to hear that each one of them is actively passing the training along to many other pastors. It appears that as a group they are multiplying the trainings to 423 other pastors throughout Tanzania. At one point, Pastor Greyson said, “Eric, you have given us a new way to study the Bible. Before, we read one line and then got a message and started to preach, and shout. Now we know there is a better way.” Amen!

The group is committed to continuing on with the training through the final two workshops in September and then December. Please pray for these pastors to faithfully use what they have learned and teach it to many others. Pressing on, Eric