Portable Bible School Graduation

Samaritan’s Purse has a pretty cool program that provides Biblical training for pastors living in rural DRC. For three months, pastors undergo intensive training not far from their home villages. Most of these ministers did not finish secondary school, yet alone any form of seminary education. The hope is that these trainings will equip and encourage these pastors to continue their ministries amongst the regions most devastated by military conflicts.

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of attending a graduation ceremony for a Portable Bible School in a village about three hours south of Bunia. Roughly 30 pastors graduated. I continue to be impressed with how Samaritan’s Purse works across denominational lines for the sake of advancing the Gospel. The graduating class contained pastors from various church groups, including Baptist, Pentecostal, and even Anglican. Congregants from all the pastors’ churches came to support them for this exciting occasion. It was a great celebration – this was the first academic graduation ceremony many of graduates have participated in. In past graduation ceremonies in other villages, graduates were showered with flour by the audience (somewhat reminiscent of the bride and groom having rice thrown at them in American weddings). This time, however, the graduates were simply tackled with hugs by elderly women upon receiving their diploma.

All in all, the graduation service was a great privilege to attend. Over the span of four hours, various church choirs led worship in Swahili, and speeches were given in French by a graduate, church leaders, and SP staff. The commencement speech, given by Laurent Trabadello of SP Canada, came from Genesis 12 where God calls Abraham to be a blessing to all nations. He shared a very moving story about a single mother in Uganda who was unemployed and recently discovered that she was HIV positive. A concerned neighbor told her pastor, who then invited the woman to their church. The woman immediately felt welcomed by the members of the congregation, and, soon, the church was moved by the woman’s situation. This church, situated in a rural and impoverished region of Uganda, decided to pool all their resources together to ensure that this woman and her children had all their physical needs accounted for. The commencement speaker shared this story to emphasize that the local church, like the one in Uganda, is called to be a blessing to its communities.

One of the choirs leading worship.

All the guests from Samaritan’s Purse were seated stage right, perpendicular to the stage. Directly in front of us were a group of maybe 40 children who gave all of the expat staff curious stares. I honestly believe that these children would have all approached us if it were not for the ushers, who stated that they must all sit on a patch of grass maybe 15 feet from where I was sitting. During one of the worship songs (which frequently involves dancing in Africa), some of my colleagues and I made some new friends by dancing with the children.

Me interacting with some of the kids.

You can learn more information about the Portable Bible School by watching a video at http://video.samaritanspurse.org/revenge-meets-mercy/.