As the gorgeous African sun rises, so does the team. The smell of coffee floats through the lodge as the team members, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, get ready for their two days of training. Words of encouragement and blessings can be heard being shared between team members as they pray that their plans for the days are beneficial to the individuals attending.
Child Evangelism Fellowship
Last year, the Elizabeth Library International (ELI) team visited many of the schools served by the Susu Mobile Library Program. Headmasters and teachers expressed their gratitude for the books and educational resources made available to their children. Their other heartfelt plea was for Bibles and a Bible club in their schools. Also, the pastors participating in the pastoral training program sponsored by ELI had been discussing the need for children's ministry programs in their churches and as outreaches to the communities they serve. Very few if any resources were available to the hundreds of children living in the area.
Flash forward to today, the cries of the villagers were answered! Mr. Bob and Chasya enter the Susu Community Church with hearts full of God’s love ready to spread their knowledge on how to share the gospel to children. Colorful books, posters, visuals, and even puppets litter the table and floor of the sanctuary. Mr. Bob, Chasya, and Papa Larry are accompanied by Pastor Crispin and Pastor Felix who served as translators. They eagerly greeted all 32 pastors, who traveled from rural communities, on the first day and 15 school teachers, who traveled by bus, on the second day. Over the course of the 2 days they went into great detail about teaching Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF). CEF is a Bible lesson series that offers a systematic approach to teaching the Bible. Each series includes five to six lessons based on a theme, character, or book of the Bible. These stories are accompanied by many resources such as full color visuals, which are rare in the rural villages, and review games. Best of all, the CEF curriculum was explained by Mr. Bob, who over many years, has perfected the art of teaching it to reach the youth of America. During the training, Mr. Bob truly brought the training to life by engaging the attendees with his loveable personality. He showed how to take the already great curriculum and brought it to life. He poured his heart and soul out to the pastors and teachers in order to show the endless possibilities that the resources have. The attendees watched in awe as they saw the Bible truly come to life.After the story was over, the women’s literacy group began their beautiful presentation explaining everything they had learned. As they went into the details of their businesses, Chasya and Katie scurried off with the kids to play soccer, with a real soccer ball, which was a first in Mr. Benson’s village. While Katie, Chasya and the children played their games, the women’s literacy group ended their presentation by performing a play explaining how their new literacy skills are helping them to become more successful business women, as they can now read and write receipts and prices. Mrs. Erica was so touched by their presentation and impressed by their tailoring skills that she purchased little girl dresses for her granddaughters.
Their eyes were glued to Mr. Bob’s every move taking in each and every detail. As their excitement about the curriculum grew, Chasya swooped in and pulled the attendees to their feet to play the review games. Though the pastors and teachers attended the training in their Sunday best, Chasya used her charisma to engage the skeptical attendees. Within minutes, everyone was bursting with laughter as the pastors and teachers eagerly participated in the outdoor games. Dirt filled the air as the attendees ran as fast as humanly possible to win the various races and competitions.
As the dust finally settled, the laughter died down, and everyone caught their breath, as they reflected on what they had learned over a fellowship meal.
As the day drew to an end much excitement was felt among the pastors and teachers as they now have tools to reach their beloved children and youth, with the Gospel.
Women's Ministry
On the way to Susu, Erica and her fabulous translators, Cassandra and Elizabeth, alighted the bus in Brunelli. Here they were greeted by a group of excited but anxious women, who attended the women’s ministry meeting. Out in the bush, an all day meeting specifically for women is an unprecedented event. Women traveled long distances by foot, bike, and bus to attend the festivities. Pastor’s wives joined the program, sharing their personal experiences and their desire to expand women ministry programs within their churches. The women poured out their hearts to God, worshiping out loud, using the only instrument they had, their beautiful voices. Support for each other was shared over an amazing meal consisting of chicken, from the chicken project, which were graciously donated by dedicated ELI supporters, and cabbages from the Susu farm. The women laughed as Erica admired their cooking skills and attempted to help with the meals. The joy that was felt in the village overflowed and filled the air. On day two, even more women came pouring in from all over to partake in the celebrations, fellowship, and worship. Though many women attended, one woman stood out from the rest. Mrs. Erica noticed a woman, who looked so weary. Upon talking to her, Mrs. Erica learned that she has been working nonstop to care for her mentally and physically disabled child. She has not left his side in many months, however, after hearing about the amazing time the group had the previous day, she entrusted the care of her child to a close friend and made the long and tiring walk to Brunelli. She poured her heart out to Mrs. Erica about how happy she was that she decided to attend the group, because for the first time in years she felt the love of God and the support of fellow women.
This time together, as strong, Christian women, was so very important. They were able to share their accounts of hardships and see that they were not alone in their struggles. As a result, establishing a strong community among the women is very important. Erica’s knowledge of psychotherapy and ability to mentor, counsel, and connect with women was truly a God sent gift. Kenneth has shared with the group that plans for more women based meetings and fellowship are in the works. We are so excited to see where the dedicated women on the ELI team in Africa will take this project!
Teacher Training
It is day one for the teacher training, and as Katie arrives at the library she eagerly hops out of the bus and scurries inside in order to do last minute preparations before starting her class. To her surprise the library is missing their whiteboard, which she had planned to use heavily throughout her training. Thankfully Katie remembered the small hand held board that Mr. Kenneth had gifted her earlier that week. She quickly adjusted her plans as teachers of every grade and subject started to walk in, sprinkled among them were headmasters who run schools of one-thousand plus children. As soon as everyone was acclimated Katie wasted no time and began teaching. Though she was nervous you could see her fear drift away as they began discussing the different components of reading.
Anxiety was replaced with eagerness as she saw the audience become more and more engaged. Information about the basics of reading was covered, teaching phonemic awareness by using whole body movements, introducing consonants and vowels through songs, and how to most effectively teach the alphabet was covered. Then just as Katie was transitioning into teaching multisyllabic routines, which the headmasters and upper grade teachers were very excited about, members from the Susu Library brought in a white chalkboard and white chalk. You read that right. Katie was provided a white chalkboard and white chalk. Though the timing was perfect, the tools in Katie’s hands were not. As she began to teach the rules of multisyllabic routines the chalk squealed on the board and broke in her hand. As she turned around and asked the attendees who would like to try breaking up the word she had written, one attendee raised their hand and shyly informed her that no one could see what she had written, and with this the room roared with laughter. The group worked together to make the white chalk board work and soon enough everyone was once again engaged and participating. By the end of the day, everyone was overflowing with new found information and excitement for more materials that are to come.
On day two, when Katie arrived she learned that most of her attendees today were pastors and local village teachers who many of whom did not have the formal college training that her previous group had. She started the training off with the usual introduction, teaching letters/sounds, and teaching how to decode words. However, she realized this group needed something a little different, so she took the men in her group outside and started playing games with them. At first they seemed reluctant to join but soon everyone was playing. They played head, shoulders, knees, and stone, and spent time throwing a soccer ball around while repeating the alphabet, practicing numbers, and counting by numbers. By the time everyone was engaged and sweaty from having fun Katie brought them back inside and discussed how these games can be great educational tools. With eagerness to learn more games they played rock paper scissors and thumb wrestling, which were completely new to them. After they learned the concepts of the games, Katie showed them how to turn them into something educational. By the end of the day everyone had a great time and was excited to return to their villages to share all the amazing things they had learned. As quoted from Katie, “The greatest reward was watching as Mr. Benson played educational games with us. I have heard so much about him and to see him smile and happily participate in the games made me feel as though I fulfilled God’s purpose for me.”
We hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures.
- Katie P. and the ELI Team
Next Good News - Malawi Adventures!
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