All Done?: Trip #9

Wednesday, May 18th

Monday marked the last teaching session with a group of church leaders that I have come to love. We completed lesson nine of the nine courses that make up the curriculum that Training Leaders International created to help the 70% of pastors worldwide who serve without any formal biblical training. Our goal is to assist this little group from northern Uganda and South Sudan, putting them in the position to apply what they have learned to interpret and communicate God’s Word for God’s precious people they serve.

The picture included with this post is of the thirteen men of “my” learning group. I have come to appreciate them. They have taken their work seriously. We have laughed and grieved together. We gave each other nick names. I have worked directly with this group for six of the nine courses with this day in mind: to take what they have learned to strengthen and establish churches throughout the region. We have men from eight different people groups (each with a unique language) in this cohort to advance our shared vision to see an abiding network of Bible saturated, gospel centered, African lead churches emerge. By God’s grace we are seeing this take place.

For those of you who are keeping score, each course we have taught in the last four years has ended with lesson ten, which consisted of a brief review, a reminder of our shared vision, and the assignments to be completed for the next course. We have completed nine of the ten lessons before leaving the Pastoral Training Center for a few days (more on these days in upcoming posts!). Lesson ten will take place in our absence as this lesson will include vision casting by Africans for Africans and their shared future together in ministry. We have moved from the driver’s seat and our African brothers are now behind the steering wheel. It’s a great day.

Larry Szyman

Pastor for Missional Life