This was a very interesting time for me as we presented the training in Sabilo. This time I worked very closely in preparing the materials to present to the pastors coming for the conference, so I was well-invested before we ever traveled into the bush. Bayo is such a gifted leader who makes sure that the translation is “sure and clear” and well understood by the pastors attending. We are working with a culture that is not as strong in written language as we are in the States (They struggle to learn by reading alone.), but they are very strong and gifted in oral language and love a good story. I learned early to use a lot of descriptive language and weave the stories in the Bible like visual parables. They very visibly brightened up and became very engaged.
I was very excited to see so many women pastors at this conference, clearly about 20%, which is really encouraging. They listened intently and followed along in the notes provided for them in ki-Swahili. Every day the women made a point of stopping to speak to me, and on our last day I was able to pray over them and bless them and their ministries.
At one point in our training we gave a demonstration of the Old Testament steps of the Covenant. I provided the explanation while Bayo and Bob acted out each of the 8 steps. You can see here that Bob is wearing an African wrap (called a Shuka) given to him by Bayo, and Bayo is wearing Bob’s coat signifying the exchange of robes as described in scripture. On the floor in front of them was goat skin describing another portion of the covenant. But in this case, that goat skin was FRESH! You guessed it,….goat was on the menu for that day’s lunch, and the “Mama” who butchered the goat saved the skin for us to use in our illustration! That’s just not an experience likely to be found in the States! --Susan
