God is opening more doors in Kenya and Mozambique for the message of Empower—including an important meeting with clergy we hope will bring our message to their congregations, potentially reaching hundreds of Kenyans.
Empower teams will be traveling to several locations in the next few weeks, and we would appreciate your prayer and financial support. Particularly in Kenya, the seminars will be quite large, which increases our costs.
Frank Tweheyo, our African Program Director, and his wife Phobice flew this week to Mozambique, where they’ve been asked by local leaders to put on a New Man, New Woman, New Life seminar.
Frank was in Mozambique several months ago, and has been invited back. From there, they will travel to Kenya, where they have an opportunity to speak to 100 clergy members—potentially bringing the message of equality and mutuality to thousands of church members.
Translation technology
In our ongoing effort to bring transformative truth to people in their own language, we’re trying something new for this trip. In Mozambique, they speak a form of Portuguese. We ran the study guide through Google Translate, and then sent it to Jose Luis Rodrigues, our organizer in Mozambique. A team there went over the guide, and made corrections to the computer-generated translation.
Susan Elliott, a member of the Tustin advisory team, formatted it and fixed a few other problems. Susan majored in Spanish – not the same language, but close enough that her expertise was helpful.
Frank and Phobice will discover first hand how successful technology is in helping us with language differences. Please pray for clarity, for our interpreters, and that the people receiving the message would understand and embrace it.
Reaching clergy in Nairobi
After the Mozambique. program, Frank and Phobice fly to Nairobi, Kenya. Back in January, an Empower team taught NMNW at St. Paul’s University. (read our trip report here)
Rev. Captain Jackmoris Wachira was one of the leaders who attended. An Anglican priest, he was enthused about the material and has asked us to facilitate a NMNW seminar at his church.
Rev. Canon Gideon Kwizera, the chaplain at Bishop Barham University College, will join Frank in facilitating a NMNW seminar for Rev. Jackmoris’ church June 3 – 4.
On June 8, Frank and Canon Gideon will have an opportunity to talk about Empower to the Bishop of Nairobi and over 100 clergy from the Nairobi Diocese.
“The Diocesan Bishop plus the over 100 Nairobi Clergy are very expectant to hear the talk. My prayer that their expectations will be met,” Rev. Jackmoris wrote to us. “This will most likely cause them to embrace the program and teach in the over 150 congregations.”
To have even a portion of these 150 parishes teaching our material is exciting but also a bit daunting. Please pray for this important seminar, and that the clergy hearing our message will indeed embrace it and want to teach it in their churches. Pray also for wisdom as we figure out the logistics of training so many leaders. Pray, again, for the effective translation of our materials as well. Nairobi is a very urban setting, making contextualization a challenge.
The next three days of the trip, Frank, joined by Rev. Paul Ololo from Bondo, Kenya, will present NMNW at St. Paul’s University to a group assembled by Rev. Dr. Zablon Bundi from throughout Kenya.
Please pray for successful seminars in all of these locations. Pray that participants would have open minds and hearts. Pray for the health and safety of our team. We’d love to have you partner with us both in prayer and financially. To donate, click here.
Pray for:
- clarity of translation of the materials
- Mozambique seminar on May 30
- Nairobi seminar at Rev. Jackmoris’ church June 2-4
- Nairobi presentation June 8 for 100 clergy from Kenya
- Travel safety and health
- Open hearts to the truth of God’s word
- God would multiply and bless our ministry
Thank you for your prayerful support!