Bob Ekblad is fundraising
Equip more African leaders
In Africa, it is estimated that 90% of church leaders may never have received even one day of formal training. This is especially true in East Africa, where poverty, drought, disease, conflict and religious persecution are wreaking misery and chaos.
While some training is available to the privileged, training is needed for front-line Christian ministry workers who are giving their lives in service of the excluded and under-reached.
To address this need, we developed a training program that helps grass-roots ministry workers of all ages develop core competencies in skills such as leading Bible studies, teaching, emotional and physical healing, advocacy, gifts of the Spirit, conflict resolution, addiction-recovery approaches, prison ministry and sustainable agriculture. This training program offers a “Certificate in Transformational Ministry at the Margins,” which can be taken in three, four-day intensive seminars or through a distance learning program over 12-18 months.
The instructors, Bob and Gracie Ekblad, are ordained pastors in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and have been teaching and ministering with Tierra Nueva www.tierra-nueva.org and The People’s Seminary www.peoplesseminary.org for the past 35 years in Honduras, Washington State and around the world.
Bob has a ThD in theology and teaches at Westminster Theological Centre in the UK and The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He has written Reading the Bible with the Damned, A New Christian Manifesto, The Beautiful Gate: Enter Jesus’ Global Liberation Movement and the forthcoming Guerrilla Bible Study: Preparing and Facilitating Revolutionary Encounters.
The Ekblads work together with African pastor couples who have been through the training and now share the teaching and ministry.
To respond to the acute need for training in East Africa, we have completed two Certificates in Zimbabwe and Kenya, graduating some 200 leaders. We have also completed the first module of three in Ethiopia and Tanzania, attended by 300. See reports on Ethiopia and on Kenya and Tanzania here .
We now are scheduled to offer module 2 on "Holistic Liberation" to 300 leaders in Mbeya, Tanzania (October 24-27) and module 1 to 75 leaders in Mumia, Kenya (Oct 17-20) and to 50-100 francophone pastors and evangelists in Rabat, Morocco (Oct 31-Nov 3). Funds are needed now to purchase airline tickets and make other arrangements. We are currently in need a total of $24,500 to cover our October-November trainings.
The cost for one African leader to receive this four-day training course is $55.00 ($550 for ten), which includes meals and accommodation for participants from remote areas, travel expenses for African trainers who help teach and minister, airfare (from Europe) and accommodation for Bob and Gracie, the translation and printing of training manuals and certificates, along with other incidental expenses.
Local leaders organize meals, accommodation, worship and outreach during the trainings.
These training seminars cannot be offered without funding. Funds will be administered through New Earth-Tierra Nueva, a registered 501(c)3 non-profit.
Please consider responding to this appeal by helping to fund trainings for unsupported pastors working with those on the margins. Your support will make a difference in the lives of these undertrained and underserved pastors.
While some training is available to the privileged, training is needed for front-line Christian ministry workers who are giving their lives in service of the excluded and under-reached.
To address this need, we developed a training program that helps grass-roots ministry workers of all ages develop core competencies in skills such as leading Bible studies, teaching, emotional and physical healing, advocacy, gifts of the Spirit, conflict resolution, addiction-recovery approaches, prison ministry and sustainable agriculture. This training program offers a “Certificate in Transformational Ministry at the Margins,” which can be taken in three, four-day intensive seminars or through a distance learning program over 12-18 months.
The instructors, Bob and Gracie Ekblad, are ordained pastors in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and have been teaching and ministering with Tierra Nueva www.tierra-nueva.org and The People’s Seminary www.peoplesseminary.org for the past 35 years in Honduras, Washington State and around the world.
Bob has a ThD in theology and teaches at Westminster Theological Centre in the UK and The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He has written Reading the Bible with the Damned, A New Christian Manifesto, The Beautiful Gate: Enter Jesus’ Global Liberation Movement and the forthcoming Guerrilla Bible Study: Preparing and Facilitating Revolutionary Encounters.
The Ekblads work together with African pastor couples who have been through the training and now share the teaching and ministry.
To respond to the acute need for training in East Africa, we have completed two Certificates in Zimbabwe and Kenya, graduating some 200 leaders. We have also completed the first module of three in Ethiopia and Tanzania, attended by 300. See reports on Ethiopia and on Kenya and Tanzania here .
We now are scheduled to offer module 2 on "Holistic Liberation" to 300 leaders in Mbeya, Tanzania (October 24-27) and module 1 to 75 leaders in Mumia, Kenya (Oct 17-20) and to 50-100 francophone pastors and evangelists in Rabat, Morocco (Oct 31-Nov 3). Funds are needed now to purchase airline tickets and make other arrangements. We are currently in need a total of $24,500 to cover our October-November trainings.
The cost for one African leader to receive this four-day training course is $55.00 ($550 for ten), which includes meals and accommodation for participants from remote areas, travel expenses for African trainers who help teach and minister, airfare (from Europe) and accommodation for Bob and Gracie, the translation and printing of training manuals and certificates, along with other incidental expenses.
Local leaders organize meals, accommodation, worship and outreach during the trainings.
These training seminars cannot be offered without funding. Funds will be administered through New Earth-Tierra Nueva, a registered 501(c)3 non-profit.
Please consider responding to this appeal by helping to fund trainings for unsupported pastors working with those on the margins. Your support will make a difference in the lives of these undertrained and underserved pastors.
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