Africa Literacy Training Institute - Ghana, 2017

Besides seeing new readers discover God's truth for the first time in their mother tongue, the most fulfilling part of our work with LEI is training literacy leaders.  These are are the sergeants, lieutenants, and generals who are getting it done on the front lines, battling against relentless opposition and forging new paths.  This month, one of our sister organizations, Literacy & Evangelism Ghana, has been hosting a 3-week course called the Africa Literacy Training Institute to train new literacy coordinators.  I had the great privilege of getting to meet these leaders from different parts of the African continent and help train them in how to develop a literacy ministry and train teachers.  

Rev. Samuel, Director of Literacy & Evangelism Ghana

I have to hand it to L&E Ghana.  Organizing and hosting such an institute is very demanding and they've done a tremendous job.  Today, they will be graduating a group of 14 literacy leaders from Nigeria, Ghana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, Togo, Guinea Bissau, and Benin.  We appreciate your prayers for each of these graduates as they return home and continue to serve the Lord in the area of literacy ministry.  They will undoubtedly face a myriad of challenges as they put their training into practice - sometimes from the government, local leaders/chiefs, and even local churches where the pastors are apathetic to the plight of their illiterate.  

ALTI Class of 2017

Very few people will ever know the real sacrifices that these literacy coordinators have made and will make to bring the Word of God to their people.  Nearly all of them are doing this work as volunteers and put in long hours without any financial compensation.  I wish I could tell you the full story of each literacy worker I got to know in Ghana.....but I'll just choose one to illustrate their level of dedication:

Usman Gandu

Usman Gandu, from Jos Nigeria, is in his early thirties.  He his pursuing a master's degree in Missions and Evangelism from a local seminary.  He is married with three children.  About 5 years ago, he was at a church office in Jos and saw an LEI literacy book (primer) for sale in the Hausa language.  He had no prior experience in literacy and didn't know anyone in Nigeria who was involved in literacy ministry.  A normal person would have looked through the primer, found it mildly interesting, and then set it on their shelf to (maybe) use in the future. Not Usman. 

Usman began diligently reading the teaching guide, which is first 20 pages of an LEI primer.  The teaching guide is not meant to be a standalone resource for literacy teachers; they need to go through a teacher training workshop and be certified by an LEI trainer....at least in a perfect world.  But Usman simply studied the guide and then immediately began teaching his first class.  

He was moved and inspired by the transformation he saw in his literacy students.  He was also troubled by the fact that no one else around him was doing anything like this to help the poor and those most in need.  He decided that he would go to the churches and offer to train volunteer teachers. He did just that. Seeing the great need and the positive response from many churches, he went a step further and started his own organization called Top Hill Literacy & Evangelism International.  

He eventually discovered other LEI workers in Nigeria and they joined forces to create Literacy & Evangelism Nigeria.....but not before he had singlehandedly trained over 300 teachers who were teaching their own classes.  He had no formal or regular financial support to do this work but told me many stories of how God provided for his family through neighbors, friends, and fellow church members.  I marvel at the exponential growth and impact that have stemmed from one single man called by God.  Now that Usman has completed this training institute, I have no doubt that this work will continue to flourish in Nigeria.  

Now......Photos!

Pastor Seco travelled 6 days by bus to attend this training!!!  Pray for him as he leads literacy ministry for the Fula people. 

Our good friend whom we trained last year was also there!  Pray for her as she works in a closed country. 

Solving the worlds problems in the summer hut. 

I team taught with these dynamic duo - Rev Sila (left) with 25 yrs. experience DRC and Dr. James, LEI's Africa Director

Service at Rev. Samuel's church

Rev. Carey Jo, director of LEI Canada led the 3rd week of the training  

Inductive Bible Study

Additional proof of intelligent design.  

Making the Card Holder

Helena is part of the L & E Ghana team and was one of the instructors at the training.  

Teaching How to Train Teachers and Developing a Literacy Ministry

I guess we still need work on ways to make the training more interesting 

Boro from Burkina - standing next to a small termite mound (others were over 10 ft tall)  

My friend Rev. Joseph teaching Inductive Bible Study. We met back in 2003. He's been an inspiration to me ever since. 

Teaching the 5 Steps of reading

 Pastor Sila has is currently supervising around around 30,000 literacy classes!  He led week 2 for the Francophones. 

Wilberforce from L & E Ghana and Pat, an LEI missionary serving in Benin who led the first week of the course.  

Learning how to make the word card holder to practice putting syllables together

Tope and Nanklin from Nigeria.  The last two days of our course was a Teacher Training Workshop Practicum where participants trained real people from the community interested in starting their own literacy classes. 

TTW Practicum

The last day I was there we went to a rainforest reserve and walked high up in the canopy in a web of drawbridges.  As we started the walking on the bridges, the sky opened up and we were soaked with a  torrential downpour.  We went straight from the park to the airport and so I arrived wet.  Because of some killer traffic I arrived late and there was no time to change.  By the time I reached London I think my pants were nearly dry.