Testimony
3 minute 26 second read
I recently had the privilege of going to a country in North Africa to lead a five-day orality training event for a group of nine leaders. Our training is very practical. We want everybody to gain experience in teaching an orality lesson themselves, so eight is our usual maximum.
The majority of those who attended were local believers from the south (which is majority Christian) who have come out of their comfort zone to go and live among those who are traditionally considered their enemies in the Muslim-majority north. We also had a number of workers with Pioneers or other missions who minister together with them to reach out to seekers and disciple often very isolated believers. There are few established churches in that part of the country.
The rural north has a low literacy rate. Just imagine doing a Bible study with a group of people who are either completely non-literate or whose preferred learning is definitely oral because they live in a predominantly oral culture. To model an oral way of learning, we tell the participants that they cannot take notes during the five days of training. The usual reaction is fear! All of the training is given in an oral format so the trainees can experience how information is acquired orally, retained orally, and can then be passed on to others orally.
The key is to use oral teaching methods and memorisation tools that make retention more effective and more long-term. On the last day, we play a big revision game - and everybody is surprised at how much they remember of the content of the training, and how well they can recite Bible passages they’ve memorised during the preceding five days.
The training was multi-lingual. I used French and worked with a colleague who is fluent in the local Arabic dialect. The training started at 8 o’clock in the morning and usually finished by 6 o’clock, with an hour for lunch and two half-hour breaks, morning and afternoon. After that, we, as trainers, would sit down with whoever had to present a lesson the next day to help them in their preparation. It was more intensive than other trainings and for us it was a very long day.
At the end of the training event, we created a WhatsApp group so we can stay in touch with the trainees for encouragement and extra support. And of course, they can also encourage one another as they use the discipleship lessons with seekers or believers. Two of them have already started the programme the week after the training! The local Pioneers team is also organising the translation of the orality discipleship manual into the local Arabic dialect.
“To model an oral way of learning, we tell the participants that they cannot take notes during the five days of training.”
The next step for me is to train one or two of the participants as orality trainers. Having trainers in country will allow for a lot more flexibility. I need to pack everything into five intensive days but they will be able to spread it over a number of weekends or whatever is more convenient. They can also contextualise the training more easily than I can and there won’t be any translation issues.
My recent trip to North Africa was an amazing experience. I came as a visitor and I was struck by the sacrificial commitment of local believers who stand on the frontline, at great risk for some of them. I was equally moved by the sacrificial commitment of my colleagues. Living in the capital city may be a bit easier than the countryside, but it is certainly not luxury. Those in the most remote parts of the country have given up an even greater amount of comfort. It’s just inspirational to me to see what these people have given up because of the calling of Jesus upon their lives. As one of them said to me, “Why would anyone choose to come and live here if it wasn’t for their love of Jesus?”
*Name has been changed and library image used.
