Archive for June, 2009

Samburu Pastor Training

June 22, 2009
Pastor Nicholas

Pastor Nicholas

Meet Pastor Nicholas.  Pastor Nicholas is a typical Samburu pastor.  One year ago, his church was small and struggling.  They met under a tree and wondered how much longer this particular work could continue.

Last July, the MT4 project came to Nicholas’ church.  In a 3-month period, 400 Samburu who were not followers of Jesus, became followers of Jesus.  His church grew, and folks from other villages began walking to his village to go to church.  Immediately, Nicholas and the Kenyan leaders of the MT4 project knew what they needed to do: plant churches in villages that had new believers, but no church.

This church planting strategy brings new challenges to pastors like Nicholas: How to train these new pastors?  Many of them have herds of cattle and goats to shepherd and cannot go away to Bible School.  A great number of these potential pastors cannot read, so how do you train them to be “mighty in the Scriptures”?

Pastor Nicholas is a part of a pilot training program underway in Samburu.  Using the MT4 techonology, the wisdom of our indigenous partners and T4G’s oral strategy, 50 Samburu pastors are undergoing orality-based pastor training.  These pastors will be trained over a course of 2 years without a single book, manual or paper being written.  They will master 120 Bible stories, and have an understanding of how each story is a part of God’s grand story of Redemption through Jesus Christ.  These pastors will also have an orality-savvy model of preaching, and will be under the tutelage of seasoned pastors like Nicholas.

Posted in Kenya, Kyle McClellan | Leave a Comment »

An Historic Occasion

June 18, 2009

75 years ago, the Rev. R.R. Brown began the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary Conference. Dr. Brown was a radio preacher of some renown, and since Omaha in August is oppressively hot, the folks at WOW radio had an idea. What if Dr. Brown did 10 days of a conference that could be carried over live radio? And, what if the location boasted pleasant weather? With that, the Okoboji Conference was begun on the shores of Lake Okoboji, a vacation spot of some renown in the Midwest.
Over the years, the Okoboji Conference has hosted thousands of missionaries. Back in the day, there was a “Missionary Parade” (as in, a literal parade), and flags from various nations still adorn the walls of the conference tabernacle. Missions has always played a central role at Okoboji. The stories told by expat missionaries home on furlough shaped the lives of many conference attenders, myself included.
This year at Okoboji promises to be an historic one. The Conference is celebrating its’ 75th anniversary, and for the first time, two of the missions speakers will not be expats.DSC00280
This year, Pastors Simon Mwaura and Wilfred Lenaisemoi will be speaking at Okoboji. A conference that has heard from, prayed for and financially supported thousands of expat missionaries will hear from indigenous church planters. The fruit of 75 years of faithful praying and sending will be on display.

Posted in Friends, Kenya, Kyle McClellan | Leave a Comment »