Siaya Diocese, Kenya, Training of Trainers

We have just completed our first "Training of Trainers" seminar. The seminar was in Siaya Diocese of Kenya Mennonite Church, northwest of Kisumu. We met at Majiwa Mennonite Church. It is an unusual, 8 sided building, with the sanctuary in the center and classrooms around the outside. This church also operates a pre-school for local children to prepare them for entering elementary school.

Standing with some of the leaders who attended the Training of Trainers seminar, Majiwa Mennonite Church in the background

There were 10 regular attenders, including bishop Moses Otieno. The purpose of this seminar is to prepare pastors and other leaders to lead training groups in basic leadership training. Many of the lay leaders, and some of the pastors, had no training in Bible knowledge and leadership skills, yet they have been placed  in leadership positions because there is no one else to lead the new church fellowships. The trainers are those who have had some training in the past and have experience as a church leader.
The seminar introduced them to the concepts of training and to the curriculum they will be using, which are 1) life of Christ and 2) Mennonite history and faith. They were especially interested in the lessons on Mennonite history and faith. We heard comments such as, "Now we know what the name 'Mennonite' means," and "we have never heard that before."

Meeting with future leadership training "trainers"

At the end, we asked them to describe the training group they will be starting, and they described groups to be held in 10 locations, with possible attendance of 6 in each group to 40 in each group. They have a lot of vision and enthusiasm to start their groups. For us, this represents answered prayer. But we continue to pray that they will follow through and the training program will prepare many for church leadership.

Fishing boat on Lake Victoria, near Homa Bay, Kenya

On the way back to Tanzania, we took a shortcut that includes a 45 minute ferry ride across part of Lake Victoria west of Kisumu. It was a pleasant ride and a chance to relax before continuing the journey on to Tanzania. Again impressed with the natural and cultural beauty of East Africa.

Transition

We are trying to move into a different phase of our work. Since we arrived near the end of September, we have been visiting the Mennonite church locations, talking with bishops and pastors, listening to their vision, and trying to distill what we are hearing into a leadership training plan that will strengthen the churches. That was the first phase and we decided to use the first months, to the end of 2012, for that. Now we have done it. So we are moving from the exploration phase into the implementation phase, and trying to adjust our thinking in that direction.
In summary, the plan we are proposing is to prepare local pastors to lead training seminars for their lay leaders. We are committed to work in the background in a "capacity building" role so the program will not depend on us or other persons and resources from outside donors. In the past, when missionaries left, too often their programs also stopped eventually, because they depended too much on outside expertise and funds. We were told, "We want a program so that, when you leave, we can carry it on." So one of our priorities is to keep it as simple and "grass-roots" as possible.
The Mennonite churches have vision for evangelism and church planting, but they lack people with training to put in leadership in the new churches. So that is the need we are focusing on first. Some of the subjects they would like to focus on are Mennonite history and faith, discipleship, Bible study methods.
We will begin with "training of trainers" workshops for the pastors, and we are scheduling them in the various dioceses (the Mennonite churches in East Africa is organized in dioceses, each led by a bishop). The focus is on basic, entry-level Bible study with training in discipleship and leadership. As we have presented the plan to the leaders, they have all said, "this is what we need." We will begin with the first of these, in a sort of pilot program, on January 21 in Kenya, with others to follow in February.
So we feel like we are about to begin what we came to do, even though we are still working to develop materials. Books and printed materials are too expensive for many of the people in rural areas, so we are developing most of our own materials, using the Bible as the main textbook. Recently, we have been thinking about the need to provide materials in Swahili, especially Anabaptist-oriented, and we are considering a special project to develop a translation team to make some of the key books and materials available. On our recent trip we had a request for a Swahili translation of the "Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective" by a pastor who has read it, and that started us thinking. Several times we heard concern that the younger leaders are borrowing from other traditions and denominations, and therefore a need for more awareness of our own tradition.
There is a spiritual struggle as well. Some of the churches face a need for revival, to move beyond a focus on organization to working and walking with God in the power of the Holy Spirit. So as you pray, think of the training programs and those who will benefit from them, pray also for the present church leaders, for sensitivity to God's Spirit.

Morogoro

Morogoro is a small city a couple hours drive west of Dar es Salaam. The Mennonite church in Morogoro is in the process of building their place of worship, as many buildings are built in Tanzania. The first Mennonites in Morogoro were from northwestern Tanzania where the Mennonite church started in the 1930's, and had moved to Morogoro for jobs. That is the way many of the Mennonite churches started in the cities throughout Tanzania, and even today, many of the churches in the cities are mostly people with roots in northwestern Tanzania.

Morogoro Mennonite Church

When the Mennonites  were given a plot of ground several years ago, they put their building plans on hold and built to serve the local community instead. They built a computer lab to offer classes to local youth, a classroom where they offered sewing classes, and a preschool. They soon discovered church attendance was increasing with the increase coming from the local area.
Later, they began to build their building, which is now under roof, but not yet completed. The pastor, Michael Rubingu, is native to the local area and relates well with the community.

Children playing on the grounds of the church-sponsored pre-school

We also enjoyed the hospitality of cousin Mary Hershberger and her husband, Dave Kraybill. Dave is on the staff of Sokoine University, through an arrangement with Ohio State University, where is a professor of agriculture.

Pastor Michael Rubingu, his wife, Gloria Bontrager, Dave Kraybill in front of the church

Christmas in Dar

We are in Dar es Salaam, the largest city and capital of Tanzania. Actually, several years ago they tried to move the capital to another city, Dodoma, but that was only partially successful. Dodoma is the official capital, though. And it is warm here, current temperature at 6 pm is about 91 degrees. It feels good to stay in our hotel room, which is air conditioned. As I am writing this, I hear the Muslim call to prayer. 

Last week we were at the Mennonite workers retreat at a conference center just outside Nairobi, in Kenya. It was good to meet others working with MCC, mostly, and a few with EMM. We had a speaker who talked about transition and transformation. Life is always changing, even when we like the way things are now. He made a comment that "being touched by God is not the same as being transformed by God. Transformation is a process that comes from a lifetime of obedience." 

Overall we are doing well, being received well everywhere we go. It helps that we have previous experience and many that we did not know before have heard our names and seem able to trust us. Since we came in September, we have been mostly traveling around visiting the various church locations and talking with the bishops and pastors about their leadership training needs. We have one more bishop to go, in the city of Dodoma, where we will be next weekend. Then we will get back "home" around January 2, near the town of Musoma. In mid-January we will begin training seminars to begin to implement the program we have been developing and proposing. That will be done in each of the Mennonite dioceses in both Kenya and Tanzania, so we have plenty to fill our schedules for the next several months. The training seminars will be 3-4 day events mostly with local pastors, who will be encouraged to begin having training sessions with their leaders and congregations. 

Christmas here is not so commercialized but there is a little of that. Still, we have been able to avoid most of that, having a mostly quiet day. It has been refreshing to focus on the true meaning of Christmas without the distractions that so often come with the season. This morning we attended church with the Mennonite pastor, in whose home Beth stayed when she was in Tanzania with the EMU semester abroad program in about 2000. It was good to meet them and thank them for providing hospitality for Beth. 

God bless all of you through the Christmas season and in the New Year.

Serengeti

Elephant family crossing the road

Serengeti National Park is always an inspiring experience. It is the vast openness of the plains, the variety and numbers of animals, roaming free in their natural environment. Serengeti is always changing, never the same, depending on the rains, which affects the growth of the grasses and where the animals are.

Herds of zebra, always on the move

Giraffe, always graceful, curious, friendly

From the rim of Ngorongoro Crater, looking into the crater

We drove through Serengeti last weekend - it is on the main road from Musoma to Arusha. It takes us through Serengeti, through the barren area of Olduvai Gorge, where some of the earliest human fossils were discovered, then up and over Ngorongoro Crater, then down into Arusha. I began to wonder, is this what the Garden of Eden was like? Not hard to imagine it. I never really tried to imagine how big the Garden of Eden was. The road we traveled was about 100 miles in the park, which can take 3 hours total if you drive the 50 km/hr speed limit and stop occasionally to view animals.

Mwanza Pastors Meeting

We are attending the annual meeting of pastors of Mwanza Diocese today. Mwanza is the second-largest city in Tanzania, located at the south end of Lake Victoria, a scenic area. Many of the towns and villages outside the cities do not have churches. So the Diocese is taking seriously the challenge to do evangelism and form faith communities in these rural areas.
This is the first we have presented our proposal to a group of pastors. Overall the plan has been received well, but we took some time to answer questions they had. This is a different approach in some ways from the TEE (Theological Education by Extension) that we did in the 1980's. The earlier program depended heavily on teachers and funding from overseas for travel and books, and that resulted in the program stopping when missionaries were no longer involved. So it is a bit difficult for some to visualize how it will be possible without that assistance, without books, and using people who are not trained teachers.
Our proposal is to train local pastors to be instructors, so they will have only their local group and it does not involve extensive travel or additional salary. We plan to use the Bible as the primary textbook and provide them with outlines, so few books need to be purchased. The proposal also focuses on training in character for leadership and for the tasks of leadership, rather than focusing mainly on intellectual learning. So the leaders will be mentors, not only teachers. This is entry-level training, and some will then go on to further training. But the need is there and we hear it everywhere we go, that the lay leaders usually have no training, and their leadership suffers as a result. Some are afraid the training will be too elementary, but we are trying to work within the economic and educational realities.
Keep Mwanza Diocese in your prayer in their efforts to develop churches in rural areas. Pray also for us as we are developing the curriculum and helping them implement a training program.

Bishop Albert Randa, second from right, with some of his leaders in front of  Mwanza Mennonite Church

December update

We have spent the past 3 weeks or so at our home in Nyabange, just outside Musoma, TZ. There have been some house repairs, generally taking things at a slower pace, but also getting curriculum together for the training workshops we will be giving. This week we begin traveling again and will be on the road for about a month. Our travels will include Mwanza, Arusha, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Dodoma, and Tabora.
Sunday, December 2, we worshiped with the Rwamlimi Mennonite congregation, just outside Musoma town. We were invited by a former neighbor  Rhoda Koreni. The church has been meeting for many years, but they are just now getting around to building their building. For years, they met in a local school, but recently needed to move. The building has foundation and wall, but the roof is not yet on. Still, they meet there, with tarps stretched over poles to give some shade.
One of the challenges we see is church buildings. Some of the materials they can make themselves, such as burning bricks, but purchasing cement, and then the lumber and corrugated metal for the roof, are more of a problem. But it happens, through fundraisers and just keeping at it, little by little. At least, when they are finished it is paid for.
We continue to hear about the need for training for church leaders. In Lake Diocese, which is based in Musoma, we were told that about half of the ordained pastors have no training in Bible or leadership, and among lay pastors, the number is even higher. Most of them have completed only primary school, that is usually grade 7, so the educational level in general is lower. We also read that the literacy rate in Tanzania has actually decreased over the past 20 years, from about 95% in 1980 to about 78% today. Not sure what the reasons for that might be.
We are proposing a locally-based training program in which the local pastor or some other leader is the main trainer. Since many of them have some had some biblical studies, we will rely on them to train their lay leaders at a basic level. We say this will be a "primary school for leadership training" and those who are able can move on to more advanced training later. Even at the most basic level, it will be more than most of them have had. So far our proposal has been received well and there seems to be some urgency to get the program started. The question we often hear is, "When can you come and get us started?" So we are putting together a schedule beginning in January to hold "Training of Trainers" workshops in the dioceses.