Empower’s Africa Program Director Frank Michael Tweheyo, alongside Empower Minister Purity Njagi, recently led a Master Class for Dr. Zablon Bundi, of 16 participants, drawn from two NMNWNL seminars held earlier this year.
The training was held at the African Prime Leadership Training Institute, in Ndenderu, Kiambu County, near Nairobi.
The Master Class is for those who have been through New Man, New Woman, New Life previously. It takes participants through a deeper dive into the content with the goal of supporting their efforts to teach the material to others. Here is Frank’s report, edited for length and clarity.
In late November, we had an exciting master Class at the Africa Prime Leadership Training Institute.
The Training was opened by Canon Juliet Bundi, the wife of Dr. Bundi, both as a host (representing her husband, Dr. Bundi, who was on an impromptu journey to South Africa) as well as a participant. She reminded the participants about God’s original intention of creating humans, male and female, in His image, to complete each other in the family and in the world.
Canon Juliet also reiterated her desire to lead couples’ seminars and continue counseling couples.
Asked what had blessed them in the seminar and what they did with the material after the NMNWNL training, participants had this to say:
Esther: She was blessed by Mathew 6:33, which reminds us of the redemption from the curse on the ground, and the shift from sorrowful toil back to tending. She has since, as a result, started an NGO called ” The Life of the Lilies” in which she has started teaching women through the NMNWNL manual. She has started seeing great results in mindset change among women and many are inviting her to teach them.
Betty and Sam: Sam had attended the first seminar, then brought his wife to the second and stayed through with her. They both attended the master class and told us that after their experience with Empower training, they started working together through the book on their own. They discussed cultural misconceptions (the wife is not a lesser being etc.) and decided to put what they learned into practice. They started doing business together. They practiced mutual submission and as said before, opened a joint account (which is very counter-cultural in the patriarchal setting of their culture). They have started using their example in the church and community gatherings as they help many couples to follow suit.
Sarah Wanjiku: After going through the seminar, she realized the true meaning of her name, Wanjiku (“the one who brings prosperity”). Rather than believing the cultural depiction of women as lesser human beings, she chose to believe in God for who she is, and is helping so many women, especially using her profession as a financial consultant. She now helps them to be financially empowered.
Naomi: Naomi was blessed by the truth she received about submission, as being mutual and not one-sided. She is using the same truth to help many families who have problems around her community using the same truth she learned. Naomi wants to see God in everything as a vessel of honor, and she is helping victims of abusive marriage in her extended family. She gave the overview sermon appropriately. She thanks God for the transformation she has already seen in her husband because recently he woke up and poured a cup of tea for her, something she had not seen for the last 26 years of marriage! (Such seemingly small changes are of great significance.)
Anne: The story of the garden, the fall and redemption, helped her to understand the bible and everything fell into place. She is now better equipped to teach people around her how to be the ideal, back to God’s original intention of oneness.
Esther: Jesus to the Pharisees; ” You err because you do not know scriptures or the power of God.” Esther told us she understood that the cultural misconceptions, seemingly supported by the bible, are the result of not properly understanding the Word of God, especially the three-part story of Creation, Fall and Redemption. The training also helped her to understand the concept of the “Curse,” especially that the woman was not cursed, as she’d been taught in her church. Esther “taught” her husband through the manual and they both are reaching out to as many as possible the concepts of the NMNWNL.
Anne Njagi: “Children are a gift from God and not a commandment” was especially meaningful to her. Also, she was happy to learn that in redemption, we are no longer under sorrowful toil but back to tending the garden. She was also happy to learn that women are not inferior beings, and she is using the knowledge to help many women back home.
Moses: Moses was happy to learn that both men and women are equal in the eyes of God, and that the woman was not cursed. He was also happy to learn about mutual submission.
Rose: She was so happy to learn about the concept of Ha’adam, mutual submission and Ezer Kenegdo. She is using her time to help both men and women back home to understand these biblical truths. Rose specifically pointed out the fact that mothers-in-law and other in-laws have been so hard on young married women, including physically beating them. She specifically pointed out that she had been a victim of such inhuman treatment. Having been through the NMNWNL training, now many young couples (especially young married women) come to her for help.
Sam and Betty (a couple of over 15 years in marriage): The training reinforced their desire for financial nakedness (i.e. transparency, “naked and unashamed”) and they now operate a joint account! They feel freer in their marriage and financial trust of each other. What a testimony it was!
Caroline: She told us she had visited Nakuru City (about three hours drive from Nairobi, and a place known for brewing illicit alcohol and the resulting societal chaos that brings), and taught alcoholics and drug addicts about the NMNWNL concepts. The change in their lives led the Nakuru County leaders to involve her in other rehabilitation initiatives. Already, six of the drunkards and addicts have changed and are involved in reaching out to others on the streets. Another stirring and inspiring testimony!
Caroline now has a desire to start a center where young men and women on the streets can come and find a “home away from home.”
The class was very lively and understood the Master class concepts of “The Philosophy behind the NMNWNL” especially being “unconscious competent,” the Framework for Understanding Gender in the Bible, the corrective verses and statements (advanced studies) as well as hosting and facilitating the seminar.
Many of them pledged to take the material further into their sermons, as well as church groups for women, youth, men and so on. Many participants are eager to host and/or facilitate the NMNWNL seminar.
Overall, this seminar caused all of us to praise God for all the ways he has used the Empower training materials to transform lives!
