Over the past six months The People’s Seminary has been able to train more people than ever– due to African trainer teams we’ve been sending out to impoverished communities eager to learn.
As part of our second teaching session we look closely with course participants at God’s creating of humans in Genesis 1:26-28. We regularly talk about the meaning of the first imperatives addressed to humans: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over…” It always surprises people to learn that in the Greek Version of these verses, the verbs used for “be fruitful” and “multiply,” auxano and plethuno are not about literal, biological procreation when used in the New Testament.
Auxano (grow, increase) describes the Word of God (Acts 12:24; 19:20), the Gospel (Col 1:6), the knowledge of God (Col 1:10) and the “grace and knowledge of God” (2 Pt 3:18) increasing. Plethuno (increase, multiply) describes the number of disciples (Acts 6:7) churches (Acts 9:31) the Word of God (Acts 12:24) and “seed for sowing” (2 Cor 9:10) “grace and peace” (1 Pt 1:2; 2 Pt 1:2) and mercy, peace and love (Jude 2) increasing. Living in alignment with God’s imperatives in Genesis 1 is not about making babies, but making disciples who can carry to liberating Gospel to the ends of the earth. Everyone can do this, whether they have kids or remain single.
We are seeing an unprecedented multiplication of leaders and CHL trainings– which we’ve now offered in 24 countries. I returned July 31 from two weeks of teaching in Benin, West Africa. There we offered the French version of our full, two-module Certificate in Holistic Liberation (CHL) to 65 pastors and church leaders.
Accompanying me were couples from Benin, Congo, and Gabon, together with Jean from Switzerland, and veteran TPS trainer Viviane from Mauritius (all are pictured above with matching grey outfits). Our objective in teaching with a team of nine was to equip French-speaking trainers so we can offer more Certificates in Francophone Africa.
Segbegnon and Djidjoho Gnonhossou are both professors whom I met when they taught for Seattle Pacific University. Both from Benin, they organized and hosted the CHL, with a deliberate goal of raising up national trainers who can offer the Certificate across Benin and in neighboring counties.
Pastors Oddon and Agathe (pictured below) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hosted our CHL in Kinshas in March and June. They are now preparing to offer the training over the next few years in seven sites across the DRC.
Uritta, Elizabeth, Richard, Elias, Makabi, Moses & Kelvin- Malawi team
While our team were teaching in Porto Novo, Benin, our People’s Seminary teaching team from Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Malawi were simultaneously teaching module 1 to 300 pastors and leaders in Lilongwe, Malawi. While we taught module 2 in Cotonou, Benin, this same team was teaching module 1 to 285 pastors in Monkey Bay, Malawi. Finally this past week the team completed module 1 with 150 pastors in Nchalo, Malawi.
I’ve been amazed to hear how seriously the Malawians are taking the training. We heard from our team that many participants walked as far as ten kilometers each day, each way to attend the five-day course. Other came from further away by bycycle. One of our teachers from Zimabawe, Uritta writes of Malawi:
“Participants were receptive to God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit and showed hunger for more. They have also shared many encouraging testimonies of what God is doing in their lives through the teachings. One pastor said that in Bible trainings they have attended before, they have never come across such powerful, meaningful, impactful and full-of-God’s-revelation teachings. He went on to say if all the pastors who have received this training are going to apply the teachings to their lives and churches, indeed their area would be transformed and liberated.”
“Another pastor shared that, before attending the training, they had been mixing the worship of God with traditional practices without fully understanding that it was wrong,” writes Uritta. “After receiving the teachings, he said he now understands the importance of resisting idolatry and expressed his commitment to turn away from every ungodly practice and to serve God faithfully because he now knows the truth and has knowledge from Scripture. It was so touching and uplifting to see how many have travelled long distances just to attend, showing great hunger and eagerness to learn God’s Word.”
Uritta teaching
Uritta continues. “Seeing God change lives in Malawi through this training has laid a heavy burden on my heart for the people of my own country. As I witness healings, joy and listen to the testimonies to see the hunger for God’s Word, I’ve found myself praying that many more people back home in Zimbabwe would have the opportunity to receive this biblical training. I believe that many lives, families and communities would experience healing, freedom and transformation if they were exposed to these teachings. I pray that God will open doors for this training to come to my country so that many more people can grow in the knowledge of His Word and walk in truth. It would really soothe my heart if you bring the training to Zimbabwe Dr Bob.”
The People’s Seminary covers our team’s travel and lodging expenses, one meal per day for participants, manuals and modest honorariums. The host community invites the people, provides the venue, worship leading and does all the meal preparation and local transport.
We were suprised to learn that many of the 739 pastors who went through our training in Malawi did not own a Bible in their Chichewa language.
We are now preparing to offer two new Certificate in Holistic Liberation in Zambia and one in Armenia for Middle-Eastern participants this September. In November we travel to Cameroon to complete a trainng there, and on to Gabon to start a new CHL.
We welcome your partnership in being fruitful and multiplying leaders and trainings in Africa and beyond. Contributions towards course expenses or Bibles can be given online here, or through sending a check to Tierra Nueva (Attn: The People’s Seminary), PO Box 410, Burlington, WA 98233, USA.
UK donations can be given through our account at Stewardship. Click here to set up your sign-in details.
Check out links to my most podcast “Disciple: Word, Spirit, Justice, Mission” below. Also take note of the new editions of Guerrilla Gospel and Guerrilla Bible Studies, now entitled Liberating Gospel and Liberating Bible Studies, available here.
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