One year ago, the truth hit Felkin. His life, especially his marriage, will never be the same, thanks to Empower. At a New Man, New Woman, New Life seminar last year, he was convicted that his marriage of 45 years followed the culture, but not God. The truth of the Bible was a bright light that shone into his mind and heart, and then, into his life.
He went home from last year’s seminar in Kigali, Rwanda, and told his wife, Steria, what he had learned. He was so serious about the changes he wanted to make that in July, Felkin and Steria renewed their marriage vows, pledging both fidelity and equality.
“I want to prove to my children, family and the whole community that now I and my wife are equal,” Felkin said. “It is now that I have married her.” Steria was of course delighted at the changes in their relationship as well. This year, she attended the training with Felkin, and they shared this victorious testimony.
This is just one of the many highlights of our recent training in Kigali and Mzuzu. Your faithful support makes these stories possible. Thank you for giving generously to this life-changing work. (You can support us at any time, just click here to reach our secure giving page.)
Empower Africa Director Frank Michael Tweheyo and Empower Minister Wayne Pelly facilitated this recent training, which began in Mzuzu, with a Master Class for people from a wide variety of independent churches. They have been to this area several times before, this time returning for a Master Class. They also once again presented at the EFOGE conference.
In Mzuzu, they facilitated two Master Classes (with the same groups who did NMNW last year), which includes participants reporting their experiences applying the teachings since the previous seminar. Pastor Blackson, a local pastor, has been teaching the material all around the area, and brought several people for the Master Class.
Frank reports: “We have previously worked with churches like Christ Gospel Church led by Pastor Francis Mutabazi. Other trainings were coordinated by International Justice Mission Kigali Field office, which had several times invited Empower to train various church leaders from different denominations. We have several testimonies from these trainings including one with IJM when a man was convicted by the Holy Spirit about the way he treated his employees. He had to leave the seminar to go and apologize to them. He paid their salary in arrears and some more, and came back to testify.”
Stories like these are what makes returning to teach a Master Class so gratifying for our team. They hear amazing testimonies, and take the participants even deeper in the teaching so that they can continue to pass along what they have learned.
Frank also noted that after a past seminar at Francis’s church, another group of pastors went back to their homes and started challenging men in their community meetings to stop mistreating their wives in the name of culture. This was a huge contribution toward community transformation! And here at Empower, that is an important goal: to transform families so that entire communities can be changed for the better!
Rev. Domnic Misolo of EFOGE, who was holding an EFOGE conference in conjunction with CBE in Kigali, requested Frank and Wayne to hold the NMNWNL seminar before his conference. He has noted several times that our system of small groups help people to understand more of gender injustices and the Bible more than his lecture method at the conference, so Wayne and Frank have held several trainings before in Bondo-Kenya, Dar-es-salaam Tanzania and Kampala-Uganda.
Rev. Philbert Kalisa, the founder of REACH, a post-genocide reconciliation and healing ministry, and the director of Kiberinka Cultural Center, where we held the training, hosted the event.
Philbert put together a high caliber group of participants, a sizable number of which were graduates of Gender Studies, several of them at Masters-degree level, and many of whom were involved in gender-related activities. Others were pastors, some of whom are refugees from the troubled neighboring country of Burundi. Among them was Bishop Leopold, who Oversees over 400 Foursquare churches in East and Central African Region.
Some other participants were university students and recent graduates, economists, an agronomist, one accountant, one person involved in peace-building in Rwanda, and others from several traditional and independent churches. The group was about 33 in all.
Since this was a highly educated group, Frank reports that the discussions were highly academic. However, as usual, many participants, even those who have been preaching and leading for a long time, were surprised to find out that man was in the garden when the woman was being tempted, and that humans were not cursed. One Anglican priest, named John, repented and said he had been teaching wrongly to the church.
Though Rwanda is leading the world in having the greatest number of women in parliament (currently estimated between 61-64 percent), it became clear to the participants that the underlying cultural gender based violence is still prevalent in the Rwandan society. During the seminar, they talked about the fact that during genocide, women suffered more by being raped first, then killed or maimed, something that is not captured in genocide documentations.
Participants were eager to learn and were especially intrigued by the lessons in New Man, New Woman on how scarcity affects human relationships and gives birth to patriarchy. They were thrilled by the way Jesus talks to men and challenges them to eschew struggle for power, as well as His message to the world that women are not sex objects. A new understanding of headship, submission and the mystery of marriage capped the seminar lessons for participants in a way they never envisaged before, Frank reports.
Dr. Mimi Hadad, the President of Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE), who had come to speak in EFOGE conference, came to the seminar and was given some time to greet the participants. She commented that she likes the work of Empower because “they go deep into the Word of God and listen to what God is saying and by so doing make cultural applications that contribute to deeper personal and community transformation.”
Rev. Domnic also visited the participants and had this to say: “Our conferences don’t bring the message of biblical equality the way Empower seminars do. That’s why we partner with Empower, so that as many people can benefit and after words be able to grasp the massage from EFOGE conferences.”
True to this, after the seminar, many participants registered for EFOGE conference and were further instructed in gender and justice.
After the seminar, it was time for EFOGE Conference, where Wayne and Frank were invited as speakers. Wayne was invited as a plenary speaker, and he presented a very insightful paper on “Women’s role in Church Considering ‘The Whole Counsel Of God.’” It was very well received and Wayne distributed copies of the paper to each participant for further study. To download a free copy of this paper, visit our resource page.
Frank led one of the four workshops, on “Patriarchy, Bride Price and Social Injustice in Africa.” Workshop participants found it to be very helpful and he was asked to present it to the whole plenary the next day. Indeed, it touched many people and many men decided to change the way they have been dealing with bride price in their cultural dynamics. It was such a blessing to be able to present twice at the conference.
Frank reports: “Kigali was very successful, and we thank God for what He did through the team. To Him be the glory!”
Later this week, we’ll have Part Two of Frank and Wayne’s report on their trip.