Our team of faithful Empower ministers are preparing for summer travel to bring hope and healing to families across the globe. Please consider supporting them in prayer, and financially if God leads.
Whether the topic is healing from trauma or what the Bible says about men and women, Empower seminars bring biblical truth with immensely practical applications.
Participants in New Man, New Woman, New Life come away changed—their marriages are stronger, their families are healthier, they grow in their relationships with one another and with God. They understand the beauty of mutuality, respect and equality as God intended. These positive changes ripple out to the local church and community.
Likewise, participants in our Healing from Trauma and Created to Belong come away transformed. They understand the implications of their own trauma, and the wounds of those they care for. They grow emotionally and spiritually, and are equipped with practical tools for taking care of themselves and others. What a wonderful thing to invest in.
Our teams are traveling to Malawi and Rwanda this summer. Here are the details:
Empower Ministers Linda Ikeda, RN MFT and Sue Kerrigan, RN will be going to Africa in July to work in two countries. In Mzuzu, Malawi, Linda and Sue will teach Women’s Health and Anatomy (click here to read about this immensely impactful sex education seminar), Created to Belong, and Healing from Trauma for the first time in this part of the country.
They have been invited by Pastor Arnold Mphulupupu Phiri, Empower’s Malawi Director. Empower’s work is well established in the southern part of Malawi around Blantyre, but this trip will start the work in this new area, about 375 miles away. They will be in Malawi from July 5 – July 13.
From July 14 – 22, Linda and Sue will be teaching in Byumba, Rwanda, where they first presented the material last year. The Anglican Diocese has invited them back to teach the same three classes to new and returning students. The returning students will have the opportunity to review the material and to ask questions related to their experiences with the material in the past year.
A key part of our model is “train the trainer.” We encourage participants to share what they have learned with others. In Rwanda, Linda and Sue will also have a chance to ascertain how many students have taught the material to others since their visit last year.
Empower Minister Sally Bryant will also be traveling to Blantyre, Malawi. She departs July 21. She is also partnering with Arnold Phiri. She will be facilitating a New Man, New Woman, New Life seminar in Luchenza, near Mulanje. This village is close to the Malawi-Mozambique border.
Arnold reports church leaders in this village “are bound by cultural and religious practices that hinder the women in some churches they don’t allow women to preach and also cultural practices that take a woman as a property.”
After that, Sally will be conducting a Train the Teacher workshop, hopefully with Suzi Powers. There is no preschool in this area (Luchenza). They have tried and failed to get one. The villagers approached Arnold for the training so they can start pre-K schools.
On August 1-3, Sally will conduct another Train the Teacher seminar at King Solomon Academy, at the invitation of Headmaster Arsene Nikurunziz.
Empower Minister Wayne Pelly will return to Kigali, Rwanda and Mzuzu, Malawi from mid-August through early September for Empower, where he and Empower Africa Director will lead several trainings together. In Kigali, they plan to present a New Man, New Woman, New Life seminar, and will return again as presenters at the EFOGE (Ecclesia Foundation for Gender Education) conference. In Mzuzu, they will facilitate two Master Classes (with the same groups who did NMNW last year), which involves participants reporting their experiences applying the teachings during the past year.
Wayne will present a paper on The Whole Counsel of God. Read his intriguing and insightful paper on our resource page here.
Please pray for our teams and, if God leads, support them with a gift today. We will have further reports from each team following their trips. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more stories about how your support is changing lives!