Today our African teaching team of seven began a training for 180 pastors and church leaders in a remote region of Mozambique. The five-day course is taking place under the shade of a huge Mukina tree– with temperatures reaching 107 degrees F (42 C).
The photo above reminds us of The People’s Seminary’s origins in Honduras– where courses took place under huge mango trees. We even called it “Universidad Bajo Los Mangos” (photo below).
Then and now we were impacted by Scriptures like Luke 4:42, telling how Jesus left towns and went into the wilderness, where the crowds searched for him. Jesus taught ordinary people outdoors, where they spent most of their time– on mountains, along the road, by the seashore. This inspires us.
In Honduras we trained and sent out local people as trainers– something which we are now also doing in Africa.
Why Africa? We never imagined that we would leave Central America at the height of our work there. But the political climate in the 80s made it impossible for us to stay. Then there was a huge exodus of Hondurans in search of work in the US. At the same time the African harvest became plentiful, and the workers are…still few.
What a joy to hear reports of people who eagerly attend our five-day module 1 training: “Identity, Liberation, Healing, and Mission.”
Pastor Uritta, one of our teachers from Zimbabwe (pictured with a black purse) reports:
“We had a good number of audience who were so engaged in the teachings and were participating in the discussions contributing and asking questions. We desire to see leaders gain knowledge, being healed and being transformed so that they lead healthy churches.”
Six of our teachers made their way to Malawi and now Mozambique from three countries. Boyd and Christopher took the two-day bus journey from Ndola, Zambia. Richard, Elizabeth and Uritta came by bus from Gueru, Zimbabwe. Colleen came the furthest by plane from Cape Town. There they joined our hosts Kelvin and team to offer the first week of training in Malawi.
Last week 200 pastors and church leaders met under tents in a rural village to receive the teaching over five days. Uritta, who taught on healing from father and mother wounds, ministry protocol, and praying for healing and deliverance writes:
“The seminar was impactful and inspiring. I was so overjoyed seeing people’s lives touched and impacted. The atmosphere was great and the team spirit was amazing.The team members were excellent in their presentations which l learned so much from and grew spiritually, deepening my faith as well.”
The People’s Seminary provided a 200-page manual translated from English into Chichewa for each participant (pictured with Kelvin below).
We are shocked and saddened to hear that most of these pastors do not have a Bible in their language (or any language). In our last training in Malawi we were able to purchase and distribute 200 Bibles to the participants. We would like to be able to purchase 380 Chichewa language Bibles from the Malawi Bible Society at $10 each to distribute to these new course participants in Malawi and Mozambique.
In the meantime we continue to teach with the manuals, using Bibliodramas– inviting response and praying for people during ministry times.
Elizabeth teaching with Mozambican translator
We are now preparing to offer our Certificate in Holistic Liberation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, and to offer Module 2 in Lesotho, Benin, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique in 2026.
We welcome contributions towards Bibles or course expenses 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.
Please hold our African trainers and the course participants in your prayers this week as they travel long distances daily and teach in sweltering heat.
Consider signing up for a self-paced Certificate in Holistic Liberation, which involves watching weekly videos, following a manual and meeting online on the first Monday of each month (10:00-11:30am PST) with participants from around the world (scholarships available). Check it out and sign up here.
Check out my podcast “Disciple: Word, Spirit, Justice, Witness” on Apple or Spotify.