Our First AABC Teaching Seminar

On Saturday I took part in the first AABC teaching seminar for pastors and church leaders in Malawi.

On the Friday I had travelled with John Ronaldson, Deputy Principal of All Africa Bible College (based in Durban, South Africa) and Alan Turnbull, the 125 miles down through the Shire valley to Nsanje where we had arranged to hold the seminar in the Nsanje Community Hall.

Pastor Peter Makupe (associated with World Outreach) and Elias Chisale (recently at Ameva Bible College in Zimbabwe) came along to interpret.

I have explained about the AABC scheme previously, but in case you do not remember, the idea is to visit key centres within Malawi four times a year, and to hold seminars to which all the pastors and church leaders in that area are freely invited.

The material to be covered in the seminar is provided in book form to each leader in his or her local language, for a minimal charge, for him to take away, to study with his bible, and then to teach to his local congregation. We believe this will help leaders, many of whom have received no bible-based teaching at any time.

After a very warm 4-plus hour journey to within a few miles of the southernmost tip of Malawi, we came into Nsanje, a town only 300 feet above sea level and consequently very warm and humid. The town consisted of scattered dust-covered single-story buildings, and was criss-crossed by dirt roads that seemed to lead nowhere in particular, some of which were traversable only by high clearance vehicles. It conjured up in my mind a sleepy town in the US mid-west about a century ago. There was a general air of decay all around.

All the passengers dismounted from the pickup to allow Alan to drive up over the embankment carrying the single-track railway line, and then it was only a few yards to the house of Pastor Jonas Jack where we were to stay for the next two nights.

Jonas came out and welcomed us into cleanly-swept rooms, and we set up the portable gas stove and boxes of food in the front-room, and made our beds in the two other rooms allocated to us. The windows in the house were open to keep the warm air moving, though there was little remaining glass to impede the airflow.

Both John and Alan could eat little that night; they were suffering the effect of hot ham sandwiches they had shared together on the way down.

After a good wash by the light of the crescent moon in the bathroom enclosure a few yards from the back door we retired for the night, but not before I had eaten a good slice of Janet's pizza, supplied in her role as chuck wagon operator par excellence.

An hour or two later, we were all woken by sounds of a cat-fight in the next room, though by the time anyone had got up to investigate, there were no animals to be seen.

Next morning, I discovered that three of the five meat pies Janet had made so lovingly the previous morning had disappeared, though they had been under other things which were untouched. These African cats are very clever! Or perhaps just very hungry!

The next day, after an early breakfast we went over to the hall at 8.30am for the seminar. John was feeling much better, though Alan was still suffering.

The hall was a large building with a table on the stage, big window openings along each wall, a few upright chairs and plenty of benches. About 20 people were already waiting for us when we arrived, so we brought the table down from the stage and began immediately, John introducing the purpose of the seminars, "to equip pastors and church leaders with the word of God."

John asked "How many of you have the 7 kwacha to buy your book containing the lessons we are going to teach today?" Only 4 people had the money. So, after deliberation, we agreed to drop the price to 4 kwacha (which is about 64p for each book, with four books each year), with the first book free. This announcement was greeted with loud “Amens” of heart-felt appreciation!

After distributing a book to each person present, John began teaching the first lesson. The people obviously enjoyed the way he was putting things over with homely illustrations and plenty of involvement from them. I watched carefully, hoping to learn. There were eight lessons in total, and we aimed to take about half an hour to present each lesson, giving a few minutes for questions, and then taking a few more minutes to stretch legs and chat before the next session began.

We took the sessions in turn, with John teaching sessions 1,4 and 7, myself 2,5 and 8, and Alan 3 and 6 because he still wasn't very well. Within an hour, the attendance had risen to 42 and the sessions were going well. The people were attentive, and there were numbers of questions, including questions from two ladies. We had posted 37 invitations to the seminar, so we were very pleased with the attendance.

After the fifth session we broke for lunch, serving cups of hot tea, having previously warned the participants that it was beyond our power to provide food as well. This was a test of their interest and spiritual hunger, because in some areas where we had gone to tell pastors about the seminars, we had been told that they would not attend if food and transport were not provided.

After the third big pot of tea had been made and poured, I went out to sit under a tree, to drink my cup of tea and to eat my cheese and tomato sandwich out of sight.

The three sessions in the afternoon also went very well, and when we wound up proceedings just after 3pm, there appeared to be genuine widespread pleasure with the progress of the day. In addition, about 15 pastors were prayed with to receive salvation.

God is gracious, for I found particular freedom in speaking, on one occasion, for a few seconds, having to stop speaking because of the impact upon myself of what I was saying.

Tengani.

The next day, we travelled back northwards to Tengani village, the site of a large refugee camp where we had been invited to the Sunday morning meeting in the local Primary school. It was there that we discovered another 40 leaders and pastors who were expecting a complete re-run of the previous day's seminar. It was all a misunderstanding! How difficult it is when you're working across languages! Can you imagine how we felt when they told us that some pastors had walked 5 days through Mozambique to be at the seminar, and most of them could just as easily have attended on the Saturday in Nsanje!

So, with everyone packed into a large classroom, sitting at two-seater desks with integral seats, after some singing and praying, John began to explain the AABC scheme for teaching pastors and church leaders. He then taught one of the lessons to give them an insight of how to use the material. When all was over, we gave out copies of the books and noted names and addresses so that we can invite them all to the next seminar in Nsanje in 3 months’ time.

After a traditional meal of nsima (we were given rice which they know we prefer; they are very kind to us) and fried chicken, we changed into cooler clothes and continued northwards, stopping only to drink bottles of cold Fanta, and arriving back in Bvumbwe at about 5.30pm, just before darkness fell.