A New Mission | Trip #2 | Post #6

Thursday, March 30th. The vision of the Pastoral Training Center is “an abiding network of Gospel-centered, Bible-saturated African-led churches.  

This is about efforts others will make, and not us. Our call is to equip them in making this network a reality. Central to this task is equipping certain leaders for the future of this ministry. 

Mike, Stu and I each have two Lead Trainers (LT) assigned to us. These are graduates of the last training cohort (with one exception) who set themselves apart and have interest in further training toward the end of becoming instructors in the future. They come to the Pastoral Training Center (PTC) two days early so we can work together and prep for the Monday-Friday week of training. Each of my LT’s did one of the ten lessons that we have in this course. Vincent had session six, entitled “Scripture Reveals God Through One Unified Plan”. He did incredibly well-I’d give him a 9 on a 10 scale. If he can do what he did in our class for an entire week, we have a future PTC impact player on our hands. On our next trip (September), they will also teach one session; we anticipate their load increasing after that. We want to work to make them successful. 

Vincent and Moses (not THE Moses) have a number of TA-like roles: administering and correcting daily quizzes, lining up trainees for their presentation that they make each course, and drilling the class with our memory verse for the week, Colossians 1:15-18. Vincent not only shows skill in communicating in front of a group, he also shows great sensitivity to needs one-on-one. He also has given me feedback on areas that I can be more effective-really rare in African culture, getting tips from a person ½ your age. 

Week one is coming to a close. We go a ½ day tomorrow, jump in a vehicle for the drive across the country, grab a bite to eat, and catch an 11:50 pm flight to Amsterdam then on to MSP. A guy in my small group is piloting a flight from Amsterdam to MSP, but he leaves Friday and not Saturday. I really love it here, but I get the itch to get home about this time in every week. 

Today’s quote from Union with Christ by Rankin Wilbourne. “In all his letters, the apostle Paul never once uses the word “Christian.” Rather, his most common descriptor for those who follow Christ is that they are “in Christ.” Page 29.