Last week, Empower Africa Director Frank Tweheyo visited Lusaka, Zambia at the invitation of a local ministry that had organized a retreat of Christian leaders from Zambia and Malawi. He agreed to come and teach on Transformational Leadership if he was allowed to give a “vision cast” for the New Man, New Woman, New Life training. What happened when he did was extraordinary. Here is his report.
On Friday, April 21, I took significant time of the day to walk about 50 bishops, pastors and leaders (some of whom were couples) through an in-depth overview of the NMNWNL program.
It should be noted that Zambia has one of the highest percentages of divorce on the African continent. Almost every family you meet is affected. Many pastors who attended the retreat were divorced and some of them remarried. Pastor Chama, one of the participants, estimated that there were 30,000 divorces in the country last year. Zambia’s population is about 19 million people.
Malawi (where we have been working for some time now) has a problem of early marriages. One of the participant couples, pastors from Malawi, told us that the wife, Emmanuella, was married off at the age of 16. She told us it is common for girls as young as 14 to be married off (without their input or consent) in Malawi.
Domestic violence is also rampant in Zambia. In some communities, even the Church supports violence within a marriage, because it is simply a part of the culture. When dowry is paid, a woman becomes her husband’s property, and the man may do whatever he wants to his wife.
I have to humbly report that the response to the Vision Cast was so explosive that the participants wanted me to come back and teach the entire seminar as soon as possible. Many pastors were astonished to learn things about the Bible they had never heard.
This group included many leaders who had gone through Bible schools and seminaries. However, the participants were surprised when I taught on Genesis 3, that man was in the garden when woman was being tempted (see Genesis 3:6). Almost all believed that man and woman were cursed in the garden and were surprised to learn this is not true. Re-reading the Bible with them left many participants with mouths wide open in surprise!
Another area of interest was on submission and headship in Paul and Ephesians. Of course, like all who read the Bible using lenses of culture, many thought that submission means that the woman must always be subject to the man. Understanding submission by means of “middle voice” in Greek made women sing a victory song, “Oyo Lesa Aliwama Sana Sana!” (Translation: That The Lord is so, so good!)
We agreed that I would come back in October this year to present the full seminar. About 17 pastors and Bishops registered to be present, and they promised to mobilize others for the same.
We are looking forward to October.