Yet more teaching

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.