Training Tanzanian Trainers

As you may remember, we mentioned that one of the purposes of this trip was to help Scripture Union Tanzania train some of their staff/full-time volunteers so that they would then be able to conduct trainings for Christians who want to teach the newly published Swahili Biblical values curriculum in school classrooms, churches, and/or communities. In response to that statement, one of our supporters asked us to describe how we plan to go about doing such a training of trainers. Our response was simple...not sure how that was going to happen but was requested by our Ugandan colleague, Beth.  During our second week in Uganda (please see photos in the previous blog regarding the first week), the three of us (Beth, Laura and Ruth), spent several days discussing logistics and strategies mixed with a lot of prayer. Although a huge dose of flexibility was demanded after those plans, the process began to come together as only God could do it.

Upon our arrival Jan.18 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, we met Stellah, the Scripture Union Tanzania National Director and, with joy, saw and held the first copies of the Swahili Forgiveness and Purity Modules in our hands! Stellah asked us to pour our efforts during the next four days into five of her key staff/volunteers whom she felt were capable of training others to teach this newly translated and published curriculum. All of them had taught at least a couple of lessons of the English curriculum in a school. During the first two days, we traveled about 1 ½ hours one way (some of the way over washed out roads!) to a Primary School and observed the SU Team teaching the brand new Swahili curriculum on Forgiveness in three classrooms simultaneously. Although we do not understand Swahili, we had the English Teachers Manual in our hands and followed as best we could. (Language was no barrier when it came to comprehending how much the students and their teachers were enjoying the Swahili lessons.) Following their classes, we met together for lunch and discussed our observations, giving affirmation and suggestions. Together they worked on learning the songs in Swahili and deciding on appropriate actions. The last two days were spent at the Scripture Union office watching them demonstrate the rest of the lessons in front of each other and giving mutual encouragement and suggestions. Stellah then selected four of them to become the Training Team for the first ever Swahili VOICE Training to be held on the island of Zanzibar the next week.

All of us traveled to Zanzibar via ferry and the 3-day training, focused on Forgiveness, began on Tuesday, Jan. 28…in straight Swahili! The Training Team bonded quickly with the 22 participants and learned the songs, actions, definitions, etc. effortlessly. Beth marveled at the speed and delight—there was no comparison with trainings she had done in the past with her English being translated into Swahili! On the third day, the participants then demonstrated some of the lessons with the Swahili Training Team leading the evaluation. The three of us merely observed and coached a bit from the sidelines. As we stood in a circle holding hands during the closing, all praised God for the training and the newly printed Swahili curriculum, and entered into fervent prayer that God would use the newly trained teachers to make an eternal difference as they determined to teach the curriculum to children and youth of that island. Of course, there were challenges and obstacles to overcome, but by God’s grace all went ahead and God’s name was lifted up. For Laura, unexpected news came on the morning of the first day of training that her 97 year-old Aunt had slipped into eternity. The day following the training, Beth and Ruth joined Laura in taking time to stop, reflect on, and remember Aunt Doris as Laura’s family members gathered in Canada for the funeral.

A couple of days later, Tuesday, Feb. 4, the same training was repeated in Arusha, Tanzania, for about 46 participants. One of the original four was unable to join us, but the remaining three did a great job. Upon our return to Dar es Salaam, we gave a glowing report to Stellah as we encouraged her to engage them in other training opportunities as soon as possible so as to not lose momentum.

As we write this, we are in Nairobi, Kenya, for several purposes, one of which is to sort out the printing bill for the Swahili VOICE curriculum…which is proving to be quite a challenge, but our trust is in God; prayer is appreciated.

Praise God for His plans, His amazing work of bringing this tool in Swahili to Tanzania, and how He put together the initial Swahili Training Team!