Thank you for your prayers throughout my training time in northern Rwanda, friends. I just returned a couple days ago, and although I’m wiped out physically, I’m truly encouraged by what the Lord did.
This was Pathways workshop #3 (the Bible’s Whole Story) with this network in the northern Rwanda town of Musanze. I conducted the training alone, but had an excellent local coordinator with whom I stayed and who helped organize details, and who also served as my translator. Nicodeme, the coordinator, is the leader of pastoral training in the Evangelical Friends Church denomination.
In brief, I was greatly encouraged by this training and network. From the multiplication report to the participation to the leadership, many elements contributed in making this training and network one of our best in Africa.
For most of the training, there were 16-18 participants present. All of them are pastors. Most have been present for the previous two workshops. There were about 3-4 bishops present. 5-6 of the participants are from the Evangelical Friends Church denomination, Nicodeme’s denomination. The rest are from other denominations.
In the Whole Story workshop, we teach some important concepts, like the gradually unfolding (progressive) plan of God’s revelation through His Word, and the “shift” that oftentimes occurs in moving from the original message statement (for original readers) to the message for us today, particularly in Old Testament (Old Covenant) texts. Akin to this is the whole concept of movement from Old Covenant to New Covenant, from Law to Grace through Faith. We dedicate much time practicing these truths with various texts. Unsurprisingly, the participants wrestled with these concepts and we engaged in significant discussions over several texts trying to bring clarity.
The pastors enjoyed practicing a one sentence definition of the Whole Story of the Bible. Check out this 20 second video:
The influence of culture is another source the pastors must contend with as the cultural current of prosperity preaching, “works” focus, and a preoccupation with material blessings and possessions all are extremely prevalent, and these patterns were acutely observed in their preaching and thinking. The pastors admitted that breaking deeply engrained cultural patterns is difficult. This all underlines the vital importance of this workshop. I frequently heard from the pastors, “God will bless us physically if we believe and obey.” They argue (as do pastors all over Africa) from Mark 10 that Jesus tells Peter that a hundredfold blessings will be granted for any sacrifices made. I’m grateful for opportunities to open the Bible with our African brothers and help them discover a much fuller and truer perspective on these important issues.
I was truly so encouraged to hear the multiplication report from the pastors. A total of 186 other preachers, pastors, or church leaders are being trained in the region, both inside their churches and in other churches and denominations.
The network requires a fairly substantial subsidy from US trainers who come in order to provide food for the participants. I offered just over $300 which covered most of the costs. Nicodeme explained that the historical abundance of financial contributions from NGO’s in Rwanda following the genocide has tainted pastors so they expect Westerners to pay for all expenses. Breaking this mindset is challenging.
While there were certainly challenges, and the pastors struggled much with some of the new content in the workshop, the overall sentiment was noticeably more engaged, positive, teachable, responsible, and mature than my recent other trainings. Why did things seem to go so much better? There may have been several reasons:
- Quality of the coordinator, Nicodeme
- Quality of the master trainers
- Extra prayer coverage
- A month since my last training in Africa, offering me refreshment and perspective
- A deeper relationship and positive connection with my host Nicodeme and his family
In truth, it was probably a combination of these and other factors, including that the recent trainings in other locations experienced some unusual challenges. At any rate, I am sincerely grateful for this network and the good work God is doing in them. Following the training, I captured five video testimonies from participants where they expressed how Pathways has impacted them and their ministries. I hope to edit these in days to come and post them for your encouragement. The network unanimously agreed that they are committed to the Pathways program and will fulfill all expectations. Each participant stood to their feet in agreement that they would:
- Practice PW principles in their churches week by week;
- Pass on all previous trainings, including Whole Story, to other preachers, both inside and outside their church; and
- Prepare the pre-assignment prior to the beginning of the next workshop.
While I certainly don’t expect perfection, I am inclined to believe that continuing the plan toward all nine Pathways workshops is a good fit for this network. I continue to praise God for opportunities to serve His Church in Africa.
After the conclusion of the training, I spent an extra day with Nicodeme strategizing the future, and participated in an all-day “prayer meeting” with his church. I preached, we prayed, but dancing and singing was the main fare for the meeting. Enjoy this video: