I have just returned from a truly amazing two-week training time in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From the moment I landed on the ground at midnight Saturday night January 17 until I departed on January 30, the time was non-stop filled with ministry and significant kingdom growth. I preached in different churches both Sundays, saw people come to Christ, trained a group of church planters who will be targeting unreached parts of Tanzania from 8am – 5pm each day, then had one-on-one meetings with students well into the evening. It was a robust, intense, gratifying, and exhausting time of ministry, and I am truly grateful for your prayers.

This network in Dar is a part of the Tyrannus Bible School program, based in Egypt, which has about 12 church planter training schools in Africa and is beginning to launch schools in Asia as well. They work perfectly for me since they eagerly desire me to teach hermeneutical Bible study skills (i.e. Pathways) and also equip church planters to work among the unreached, which is my second area of focus. Keeper and Mary are an Egyptian couple who coordinated the network, and we built strong and healthy connections and they are eager for me to return next year.

Week one was a hybrid of key Pathways principles from our first four workshops. Week two was an in-depth study of the book of Ephesians, practicing Pathways principles and exploring relevant applications for church planters. The participants demonstrated significant growth in their Bible study and preaching skills during the two weeks. The location could not have been better – we trained, ate, and lived on the same compound. The leadership has strict guidelines, for example phones are only allowed for one hour at night, so distractions were minimal and participants were highly engaged. Students write out every word of the New Testament, have weekly memorizing assignments, and a regimented schedule from sunrise to bedtime. Along the way I was able to connect the group with Tanzanian pastor friends of mine living in Dar so they will be able to do ministry together in months to come.

In between the two weeks of classroom training, we all traveled a couple hours away to Mlandizi where I had connected the coordinators with my friend Pastor Michael Titus. We did a kids program for the community, outreach into the community, showed the Jesus Film, and then I preached the next morning for the opening of Michael’s church. The community is mostly Muslim, and God blessed efforts so we saw several come to Christ, all praise to God!

Testimonies –

• Ibrahim – The most vital growth area was learning the Pathways principles. I found the Bible hard to understand before Pathways, but now things are much better and easier to understand.
• Daudi – Previously when I prepared to preach, I used to read a chapter from the Bible and just take one idea from it and jump to the next place I was heading in the Bible. Now I am ready to preach because I can understand many things in each passage. Now I delight in studying God‘s Word verse by verse. Initially, when Eric said that we need to have a different view of revelation than is commonly understood in Africa, I was quite concerned. (i.e. – I must preach a “new” word from the Lord.) But then I came to understand that God gave us revelation through His Word, which is important and available, and this is what I want to preach.
• Bomani – I enjoyed learning how to look for the author’s emphasis, which was very difficult to understand initially. Repetitions in the passage helped show me what the author’s emphasis was. Also, figuring out a statement that captures the main idea of the passage was very helpful.
• Innocent – I am eager to teach others the principles that I have learned, for example, moving from the original message to the message for today. This was so helpful. Now I am a committed verse-by-verse preacher.
• Petro – When we first started, I found the Pathways study so difficult. I have never heard these principles, and have never seen or heard verse-by-verse, line-by-line study or preaching. We are taught to pull a thought here and there from various places. But as we moved along these weeks, we learned the importance of going line-by-line, section-by-section, and now I have changed and want to teach others these principles too.

In summary, this was one of the best, most productive, intense, and beneficial trainings I’ve done in Africa. I was truly encouraged by how the Lord worked through the time. Your prayers and partnership are truly appreciated. To God be the glory.