This morning I met with Daniel and George, the WVT staff person in charge of Christian Witness, who is responsible for interacting with pastors and their churches, coordinating trainings, and serving the local church in general. We went to the conference room at the hotel where I am staying and met with the hotel set up staff so they know how I want the room configured. Since I am not a Powerpoint man, I am very low tech: flip chart and markers!
I was planning for 30 couples--pastors and their wives--but uncertain about who was actually attending this conference. George estimates that there will be somewhere between 25 and 30 couples attending and he informed me that there will be a wide range of ages as well as educational levels and years of experience in the parish. I think he told me that there would be 5 bishops attending, a number of whom have done graduate work. There may also be pastors with little or no education.
By the way, the pentecostal churches frequently have bishops. From my experience, they are generally founders of a church which then grows and plants sister churches in the same city and may grow to populate other cities and even other countries. For example, Bishop Stephen was visiting and preaching at the new Eagle Christian Church in Arusha. He has four churches in Nairobi, this church, and he is leaving this week to Cape Town, South Africa to plant a new church there.
George suggested that we may want to translate into Swahili. I'm sure most of the pastors and their wives will be fluent in English but some may not have a sufficiently good practical grasp of English and might have difficulty understanding. The problem with translation is that it almost doubles the time it takes to communicate. I already realized that I have too much material to present as is, and translating coupled with a content change I have made to the beginning of my presentation, I am afraid that I will have to cut a lot of important material. But I would rather cover well what we do cover and have attendees understand what we are covering rather than presenting more material but less comprehension.
In any case, I am excited and a bit nervous about tomorrow and would encourage your prayers for my presentation and all the details.
On another note, there is a great cafe a stone's throw away from my hotel on the same side of the street called "Africafe." They have great cafe lattes and I had what I think was the best grilled cheese and tomato sandwich I have ever had anywhere. They have pretty good wifi so I have periodically tanked up on coffee and worked on my presentation there.
One of the things I really like about it is that most of the customers are African. In other cafes I have gone to in Arusha and Gulu, it is almost always Europeans and North Americans who are the major clientele. In the Africafe there are always a few of us, but the vast majority areTanzanians. The owners have done a great job with the decor. Below is a picture I took of the inside.
I was planning for 30 couples--pastors and their wives--but uncertain about who was actually attending this conference. George estimates that there will be somewhere between 25 and 30 couples attending and he informed me that there will be a wide range of ages as well as educational levels and years of experience in the parish. I think he told me that there would be 5 bishops attending, a number of whom have done graduate work. There may also be pastors with little or no education.
By the way, the pentecostal churches frequently have bishops. From my experience, they are generally founders of a church which then grows and plants sister churches in the same city and may grow to populate other cities and even other countries. For example, Bishop Stephen was visiting and preaching at the new Eagle Christian Church in Arusha. He has four churches in Nairobi, this church, and he is leaving this week to Cape Town, South Africa to plant a new church there.
George suggested that we may want to translate into Swahili. I'm sure most of the pastors and their wives will be fluent in English but some may not have a sufficiently good practical grasp of English and might have difficulty understanding. The problem with translation is that it almost doubles the time it takes to communicate. I already realized that I have too much material to present as is, and translating coupled with a content change I have made to the beginning of my presentation, I am afraid that I will have to cut a lot of important material. But I would rather cover well what we do cover and have attendees understand what we are covering rather than presenting more material but less comprehension.
In any case, I am excited and a bit nervous about tomorrow and would encourage your prayers for my presentation and all the details.
On another note, there is a great cafe a stone's throw away from my hotel on the same side of the street called "Africafe." They have great cafe lattes and I had what I think was the best grilled cheese and tomato sandwich I have ever had anywhere. They have pretty good wifi so I have periodically tanked up on coffee and worked on my presentation there.
One of the things I really like about it is that most of the customers are African. In other cafes I have gone to in Arusha and Gulu, it is almost always Europeans and North Americans who are the major clientele. In the Africafe there are always a few of us, but the vast majority areTanzanians. The owners have done a great job with the decor. Below is a picture I took of the inside.
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