Malawi Miles
In August, Kevin Olson, his brother Glenn, and grandson Josiah spent two weeks in Malawi. The ministry there has matured. This is the second set of graduations that they have had; they started training in Zambia and Mozambique as well as expanding the number of classes within Malawi.
It was good to hear the perspective of ministry from these first time visitors to Africa. Glenn was amazed to see the twenty students from Zambia who had completed the journey of learning 84 Bible stories, applying them to their lives, and sharing them by memory. They were all graduating! As each person came up to get their certificate, their whole family would join in the celebration, coming up to receive their diploma. It was an incredibly exciting moment. At the second graduation, Glenn was astonished to see the twelve teachers with the beige neck cloth had taught 74 new students. He said, God is using the Orality Institute Ministry to equip even the most vulnerable to become disciple makers. As we drove many miles, Glenn would share his life stories with Moses and those stories had a deep impact on him.
Josiah was able to jump into ministry as well. Language barriers shrink when you play games and share candy. The people loved it when Josiah shared an oral Bible, so he shared a story every place we stopped. The group from Mozambique displayed a bit of friendly competition showing everyone that they knew the stories in their heart and could share them like Josiah.
The lion that they saw on the safari was a fitting scriptural illustration. They were able to approach the lion and get very close because an animal had already been sacrificed to satisfy the lion. In the same way, it is the Lamb of God that has made it possible to approach our Holy God. Thank you, Jesus, our sacrificial lamb.
Teamwork
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:5-6
Musasizi Wilson, from Uganda, recently asked, “What is the next program?” Which means, they are ready and waiting for a chance to travel and teach. Our Uganda missionaries have been a key part of the training in Africa. They have traveled to eight countries, many times to places where caucasian trainers would be at risk. Now their students are also working as missionaries.
This teamwork is not only happening in Africa, but the students from Lahore, Pakistan continue to train a new set of leaders in Islamabad, Pakistan. They will be finishing their first year of curriculum next month.
In Bangladesh, the oral training is going to become the required curriculum for all church leaders of the group we have trained. In Cambodia, classes are happening and the training has spilled over to Vietnam.
Mama Nissi just returned from England to Uganda after spending six months with her children and grandchildren. She influenced five spiritual children with the oral curriculum who will continue to study and lead classes while she is in Uganda.
In New Brunswick, Canada a class that started this past spring continues to go forward and their recent update was, “Our meetings have been very good, crazy how simplifying our practice shifts the focus to Jesus.” Meanwhile, Pastors Kevin Olson, Paul Kneeland, and Nate Jore continue to share the stories of God’s Word in their churches. One elderly woman was asked who she would share the story of Jesus walking on the water with, she immeadiately said, “My son, my grandchildren, and my neighbor.”
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