It Wasn't What I Expected!

"It wasn't what I expected." Dr. Silavwe was praising Abby's approach and content when he said these words at the end of the first day of training in Lusaka, but as the week unfolded it wasn't what we expected either. It was better!

Whenever you gather leaders from far (hundreds of miles) and near, you expect it will take 2-3 days to become comfortable enough with one another to have significant discussions and meaningful applications of our training. But this wasn't the case. The first day, the class members were wide open and meaningful interactive learning began to take place immediately. In the subsequent days of training, we manged to cover an amazing amount of ground. More importantly, we were able to apply the principles we were teaching to specific situations and opportunities and, as a consequence, all of us learned a great deal from one another. What a joy!

In five days, we covered Understanding the Bible, The Wounded Healer, Family & Ministry Systems, Missionary God, Vision in Ministry, A Biblical View of Worship, Church Planting Basics, How to Use the Global Study Bible, and Being, Becoming and Doing!

The students were amazing people, eager to learn and had a deep passion for multiplying the Gospel in their communities. It will be interesting to hear about how they apply what they learned in the coming months and years.

As the week ended, we were able to give each student an IMC Training Manual which we self-publish. It contains detailed outlines of everything we taught this week and much more!

We also gave each student a Global Study Bible. This amazing Bible, published by Crossway (now out of print), is intended for Majority World Christians and contains helps and articles applicable to their world. The students literally broke into cheers when we surprised them with the Bibles because a tool like this is so very difficult to afford in Zambia. Thanks to donors at Global Training Network and Centre Presbyterian Church (Mooresville, NC) we were able to bless the students with this outstanding study tool!

Last, but certainly not least, Dr. and Mrs. Silavwe and the Eternal Glory Church members were very gracious hosts and the meeting place, food, lodging and schedule were all conducive to learning and growing together. All in all, it was a great week!