I am writing this as I sit on my bed in the retreat centre of
an Anglican church and Bible college in the hills, in the village of Milo,
which is about an eight hour drive from my home in Mbeya. I can hear the ladies
next door chattering away as they get ready for bed, having returned from their
evening prayer and worship time at the church that’s less than a hundred yards
away; I could hear them singing and praying from my room, which was a lovely
uplifting thing to hear floating through the night air. These ladies, together with
the men who are sleeping at the college a few yards away, have been my students
for the past three days. This is my third year of teaching at the college, but
this time, instead of just teaching the students I was invited to teach a
seminar of several days for both the students from the college and leaders of
groups in the Anglican churches of the region, totalling nearly fifty people. I
felt honoured and encouraged that they should organise for all these people to
gather together and then invite me to teach, indicating that they had obviously
valued my teaching enough in the past to ask the bishop for permission to hold
this seminar.
It’s quite an operation to provide accommodation and food for
all these people in a small college (of less than ten students), though the
college and church has a good amount of space to put people up, and it’s not
easy for the participants either. I never cease to marvel at the ability of
communities here to feed large numbers of people over a wood fire; if I even just
put my head round the door of the kitchen my eyes start to sting from the smoke!
Then there’s the need to heat water for everyone to have bucket baths each
morning (it’s too cold here to bathe in cold water). Another challenge is that
there’s not enough blankets and sheets to go around so everyone was expected to
bring their own (except for special guests like me, my colleague and a couple
of church leaders), and the thin blankets people brought with them wouldn’t
have been much protection against the chilly nights. Some people have travelled
quite a distance – a few have asked for a lift back to the big town of Njombe
(a good three hour drive away on dirt roads), as they don’t have enough money
for their return fare. I am humbled by people’s readiness to come despite the
challenges, and the cheerful spirit with which they face each day, even getting
up before dawn to attend a 5am prayer meeting in the church. I have a lot to
learn from their attitude.
The teaching took place in the church, as the college’s
classroom would have been too small. I really enjoyed the short times of
singing between sessions and before prayer times, as the church resounded with
the harmonious sound of their voices. I taught the usual things such as how one
can do personal devotions and family devotions and how to lead Bible studies. I
am no longer surprised that so few people put up their hand when I ask if they
have a habit of daily Bible reading or if they read the Bible with their
children. I hope and pray that some will start to do these things after the
seminar. To be honest, I am starting to get a bit tired of teaching the same
things several times a year in different colleges, and then doing it all over
again the next year. I love teaching, but repeating the same material (as it’s
always to new students) is taking some of the pleasure out of it. I am
wondering if there is the chance for me to take a slightly new direction in the
future as I would love to do more actual Bible teaching, not just methods for engaging with the Bible
(though I believe these to be really important). People have a real thirst for
Bible teaching, which was made clear to me today when we started our final
topic of looking at the big picture of the Bible – when we got to lunchtime one
of the students commented that he wanted to stay and carry on learning this
topic rather than go and eat!
.............................................................................
I have now returned home, praising God for safe travels on
some rough roads in our project’s Land Cruiser. I ended up giving four
participants a lift to Njombe, and it was fun to listen to them talking as we
drove, as they spent most of the trip recounting the things they had learnt in
the seminar and discussing how important and useful they thought those things were
and how they could use them in their church fellowships. It was so encouraging
for me to hear their enthusiasm and to see just how much they had taken in. In
October there will be a seminar for teachers in churches and they plan to teach
them some of the things that I taught during this seminar, particularly how to
prepare and lead Bible studies, so I was able to leave my teaching notes with
the Bible college teacher for him to use. This is the kind of thing I have
always hoped would happen – that those I train would go on to train others. I
really hope they follow through with this plan and pray that it will help
people to dig deeper into God’s Word and grow to know Him and love Him more as
a result. To show their gratitude I was given a sack of millet (bit different
to the standard box of chocolates you might be given in England)! At some point
I shall ask a Tanzanian friend to take it to a mill to be ground so that I can
use it to make uji, a form of local
porridge.
In some ways I was sad to leave Milo – it’s such a beautiful
area, with some old forests (where I saw colobus monkeys one day), stunning
views, nicely kept homes and wheat growing in every available space, and of
course being back in Mbeya means back to the office, to difficult decisions and
to my to-do list. However, it’s always good to be home, to have time to be with
colleagues and friends, to speak English, to sleep in my own bed and to prepare
for the next opportunity to teach.
