Sunday School Workshop - Engela

Last week, when David was in Windhoek, he got a call from a Lutheran minister he had met, Rev Daniel. David had mentioned to him that I was willing to train Sunday school teachers and the call was asking if I would do it this week!
With Noémie here, I was able to devote a few days to preparing material.
When I spoke to Rev Daniel, I asked how long the workshop was.
‘Two days. You can have 3 if you like!’
No, he did not know how many people would come. If no one came, he said, he would cancel it!
The venue was Engela. You won’t find it on the map but it is very close to Oshikango, on the Angolan border: 90 minutes’ drive away. So, we decided I should sleep over.
I got to listen to a whole sermon in the car as I drove, which was a real blessing.
I arrived to find 24 very eager ladies (and one baby) waiting for me.
Each one represented a different parish.

I taught the first day till 6 pm and the 2nd day till 3.30, and poured out a wealth of information into their receptive minds and hearts.
We learned how to make crosses from paper aeroplanes, we sang action songs (which were a HUGE hit), practically saw how games and quizzes reenforce the lesson, did a memory verse presentation, discovered how to make simple visual aids with minimal resources and how to present Bible passages as a little play. I divided the group into 4 and their homework the first day was to prepare a short drama from a Bible passage. I include a photo of the Fiery Furnace one (worshiping an idol – the paper roll).

On a more serious side, we discussed why children’s ministry is important, how to find the meaning of a passage, the necessity of good preparation, why and how to pray, and the importance of reading the Bible themselves and of practicing reading the Bible aloud so they can read clearly to the children.

A basic Bible overview fascinated them, as they discovered where various key biblical charaters fit into God’s Big Picture.
Questions asked included:
‘What did Satan eat when he was in the Garden of Eden?’ and ‘Is killing a cow to eat, murder?’!

One problem I encountered was that the ladies came from 5 different language groups. Although the 8 languages that comprise Oshiwambo are considered ‘simply’ dialects of one language, the differences can be HUGE.
For instance, the Ndonga word for ‘blood’ is Ombinzi, The Kwanyama word is Ohonde. You can see some similarities in these following words for the traditional bread:
Kwanyama – Omungome Mbadja – Oshingome Ndonga – Oshikwiila Kwaluudhi/Njandjera/Kwambi - Oshima Mbalantu – Ohima
This mixture of languages made a united saying of the memory verse hard as I had prepared it in Kwanyama … and many could not understand it!
It was great fun teaching them to make a paper aeroplane. They had never done such a thing before … and the delight in their faces – especially when tearing it to pieces resulted in a cross - can be seen in the photos!

Another workshop was in progress (for pastors) and there is a sewing and computer ‘school’ there, too. So about 100 people were around.
I had a very competent translator, a young man who is, himself, a pastor (he is in his 7th month of pastoral ministry). Ezron is a lovely young man. He said that, even though he had studied theology in Windhoek (Lutheran seminary), he had learnt so much himself over the two days, which encouraged me tremendously. Although I spoke a bit of Oshiwambo, he basically translated for me as I am nowhere good enough. And, being a native speaker, he could also explain things in such a way that linguistic barriers were effectively breached.
I did make one mistake when I said the Promised Land is ‘meyulu’ instead of ‘meulu’. Sounds innocent enough, hey! Well, I said it was in the nose instead of in heaven!!!! But I won’t tell you about that incident as it is a bit embarrassing!

Pastor Paulus headed up the whole thing and was delighted to find I spoke French as he had spent 7 years in Sengal and could now practice his French! We were both rather rusty but it was fun. He even organised a bucket of hot water to be brought to my room in the morning, so I could wash in comfort!
He also asked me to lead the devotions on the 2nd morning, which was a privilege.
He is keen to have me back to teach the workshop to the pastors. And they want to know more about the work of NETS so we will be going back there for a meeting sometime.

And Odibo, where I went with the team from South Africa, have asked to to come back in September and train more people!

The 50 copies of the manual has been a great hit … which means I have all but sold out. Please pray for me as I chase up ways of printing more. A church in Cape Town is photocopying some for me, to tide me over a little. I hope to get them by September. However, we need enough for David to be able to take copies with him to give to the many churches he visits.
I included the words of some non-copyright Sunday school songs in the manual and the SA Team sang them into my computer. So now I have a disc to give, along with the manual, which gives the tunes to the words.
I cannot begin to tell you what a gift these people consider a book designed to help them teach Sunday school to be. Such a thing was never imagined possible. Think of all your teaching resources from Koorong and the like (CDs, books, manuals, Bible studies, dictionaries, concordances, novels, biographies, music sermons, ‘how to’ books … and try to imagine having NOTHING!

I got home in time to go dancing. I picked up one French person, one Oshiwambo, one German, and one Dutch girl. And joined one Dane, one Finn, one English woman, and some Canadians at the home of the Zulu! How about that for a ‘league of nations’!

I also include some photos I took along the way there and back. The advert for a bull as a prize would go down well in Armidale, I expect. The dirt road is finally being upgraded to a gravel road, but it will take a long time yet, I think.
Although Ongwediva and Oshakati have a veneer of ‘modern day’ when one sees the shops and internet access and things like that, you do not have to go far off the tarred road to realise you are in Africa. Wheelbarrows are good for transporting water, if you can’t afford a donkey. The other option is carrying the container on your head!
Other photos I will be posting in the next day or two are: us with the SA team, David joining me in a bit of Zulu dancing (!), me with some of the Bible Club children at library time and with David at prayer time.