Full Story

News

Bob and Maryanne Frisken at the Equator in Uganda

OPPORTUNITIES IN AFRICA

Rev Bob Frisken AM

Africa -- Recently Bob and Maryanne Frisken visited Africa to develop contacts with a number of groups with whom New Hope International had been working and to explore the possibility of using in Africa the exciting new Effective Teaching Program that New Hope International is developing.
What we experienced was a deep sense of awe at what God is doing in Africa through Christian schooling which is exploding across the continent especially in East Africa and a growing awareness of the huge need that exists for the sort of training that God has led NHI to develop.
The opportunities are amazing and the need compelling.
While in Africa we visited South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda. In each of these countries we were astounded at the work God is doing through Christian Schooling. We mainly visited teacher training centres as we see the need to work with Christian teacher training institutes as we attempt to use the Effective Teaching series in Africa.

Dr Jason Fawcett in front of Hebron College.

SOUTH AFRICA
We stayed with Dr Thinus Dreeckmeier Staff member of Foundation for Cross Cultural Education (FCE). He took us to meet Dr Jason Fawcett of Hebron College. Hebron College is a registered distance learning college offering degrees in Theology and Teacher Education. Hebron College has an arrangement with FCE to provide lecturing staff for their teacher training courses. We discussed with Dr Dreeckmeier and Dr Fawcett how we could use the Effective Teaching Series in South Africa. We agreed that the best way might be to work through Hebron College and FCE, to provide the inservice programs using the Effective Teaching Series as the initial basic course. Hebron College could develop an ongoing program of inservice training which would satisfy the registration needs for teachers in Christian schools based on the Effective Teaching Series but with additional subjects which they would seek to have recognised by the Teaching Professional Institute as being suitable to maintain teacher registration.

Neels de Jager in front of one of the new staff accomodation blocks built from local materials - The bricks are made from soil from anthills

ZAMBIA
FOUNDATION FOR CROSS CULTURAL EDUCATION (FCE)
We visited FCE to hold discussions with Neels de Jager, Director of FCE about ways we could work together. FCE offers training on the basic premise that all knowledge is hidden in Christ. Therefore all training is Christ centred. Their task is to train missionaries for different areas of service. FCE is a community serving Christ. Masaiti Training Centre has 120-150 trainees at any one time.
FCE staff is 84 adults and 60 children. There are about 40 on base at Masaiti. Staff members rely on the Lord for their support and cannot seek support from people directly but only through prayer. Most of them have sold all their possessions to serve with FCE. They are all full time workers and where possible both husband and wife are in ministry together. FCE provides them with their accommodation and food from the common purse. Staff members must have a strong sense of calling and must have been trained through FCE courses.
We discussed the possibility of trainers being sent to FCE for training in one of their courses. FCE policy is that any people trained must agree to either go back to their sponsoring group or Church or else work with FCE. If people are trained they would expect NHI to provide on going guidance for the staff members that were trained.
Neels suggested that NHI could develop opportunities for FCE staff or graduates to come to Australia for exchange teaching experience. These teachers could perhaps board with teachers or parents of the school and serve as teacher's aids, and in relief teaching etc. They would need to receive a small retainer and be given free lodging.

The new FCE base being built at Masaiti using mostly local materials and being built by local workers trained by FCE

FCE Training Centers
What FCE is doing at this Masaiti Training Center, they duplicate at their other training centres in Namibia, Zambia, Malawi and South Sudan. FCE can provide many opportunities for short term outreach programmes for students and adults. For further information see their WebPage http://www.fce.org.za/

Inside the village school built from bush materials. FCE is now replacing these rooms with modern classrooms built from brick made from anthills and with thatched roofs

FCE Community School Masaiti
FCE commenced a community school in 2002. Before that the FCE students had worked with children of the village. The parents began to ask if FCE could start a school.FCE agreed if the parents would provide the buildings. The classrooms were built of bush material.
Many of the students who started were much older than starting age and were up to 13 or 14 years of age. They first started giving the older students basic literacy plus practical skills. In the second year it was decided to give the older students a more concentrated course of the normal subjects since many of them were really bright. They compressed the seven years into five years. Last year the first of these students sat for the national exams and did extremely well. These then graduated to the government high school, the oldest being 22 years of age.
Currently there are 134 students from preschool to grade 6 at the school. The Lumba culture is a matriarchal culture and most of the children come from village homes where the father does not take proper responsibility for the family. Because of this there are problems in the home. The father does little more than drink while the rest of the work is done by the mother. This leads to family breakdown with children coming from broken homes. Discipline can be a problem. After working with the children for some time there has been a change and children are beginning to love each other even though they sometimes came from communities that fight with each other. Parents pay 5,000 guatcha (about $1) a month for school fees but some of them cannot even afford this little amount. If they can't pay fees they can come to do work for the school. Mostly it is the women who do this work

Village ladies who have learnt how to care for citrus tree seedlings and can now earn money doing this. The citrus tree nursery is the only registered citrus tree nursery in Zambia.

FCE Community Development
Carel Els who leads the Community Development program at Masaiti explained how FCE operates. He said the problem is that people in the community have a poverty mindset even though they have been Christianised over 100 years. The problems are rooted in sin and in people's turning away from godly principles in the every day practice of life. Thus restoration starts with changing the worldview of the people and therefore changing their cultural response to problems. This can be done practically through education that addresses practical issues of living and brings godly principles to bear on everyday life. But education is not enough if people are dying of hunger, they need practical help but just helping will not be enough either. FCE attempts to meet the problem by:
1. Developing practical projects that are based on godly principles so that as people get involved they are discipled in godly ways of doing things.
2. Having a philosophy of help is based on Nehemiah who first spent time before God who then gave him a plan that involved practical action which he communicated to the people and spiritual revival followed as they carried out the plan.
3. Using an approach involving prayer and seeking God, and then getting the community involved in following God's way and blessing will follow.

Alan and Lynda Stephenson Pioneers of the Joshua Foundation

TANZANIA Joshua Foundation
The main purpose in visiting Tanzania was to hold discussions with Lynda Stephenson who is the Education Director of The Joshua Foundation and currently Principal of the Joshua Teachers Training College (JTTC). We spent several days sharing with Lynda and also with Alan and Sue Dow (from NZ). Alan and Lynda Stephenson have spent 17 years transforming a wilderness into the wonderful centre for training that the Joshua Foundation now is. Joshua Foundation trains leaders, pastors and teachers. We agreed to work together in the use of our training material and while we were there we signed a MOU with them. Training Trainers
The lecturers of JTTC have a good understanding of a Christian philosophy of education and this will enable them to be trained as trainers. The training could be done by Lynda using material supplied by NHI that is being developing for the January training Seminar. They would be required to study the NHI material. Bob explained that training would involve three aspects
• Familiarisation of the lecturers with the material. This would involve a personal study of the Trainers Manual and completion to the best of their ability of all questions in the Teachers workbook followed by a short (1 hour) survey and discussion of any areas needing clarification.
• Study of background material to the course using the instructor's manual currently being developed.
• Practice sessions where each could give some part of a lecture.
Lynda indicated that she would be willing to develop with her staff a series of sets of follow up material to be used to reinforce and consolidate ideas learnt after the presentation of the lecture material. This material would be submitted to NHI as it is developed so that NHI staff can make suggestions on it.

Dr Olan'g shows us around the Mt Meru University

TANZANIA Mt Meru University
While we were in Tanzania we visited Mount Meru University (MMU) a private institution owned by the Baptist Churches of East Africa, which is incorporated in Tanzania and is located near Arusha. The University is accredited by the Higher Education Accreditation Council. The MMU Board of Trustees is composed of seven members from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (the East African countries), and two from the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (USA), which is the founder of the University. The University is run by the Council that meets twice a year. After becoming a university, a new Faculty of Education was added, offering a Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Christian Education, Diploma in Education, Diploma in Christian Education, Certificate in Christian Education and Diploma in Church Music. In January 2006 MMU added to its degree program a Bachelor of Business Administration with majors in Accounting, Business Management and Public Administration. The Faculty of Education has over 250 students enrolled
We met the Vice Chancellor Dr Harrison Olan'g in Australia two years ago and he warmly welcomed us to the university and showed us around it. MMU has a strong Christian staff, but many of the Teachers College students are not Christians. Dr Olan'g gave Bob the opportunity of lecturing some of the staff of the primary school run by Mt Meru and the few lecturers who were at MMU (Most were out doing fieldwork with students). He invited NHI to return next year to run some classes

Roger Ellem with Director of Imara Mission, Mike Rothery.

TANZANIA Imara Mission
While we were in Tanzania we met with Mike Rothery the Director of the Imara Mission. The aim of the Mission is to equip leaders, strengthen Churches and transform communities. We were particularly interested in the work they are doing in the communities, which involves putting orphans, mostly AIDS orphans, into homes with families who will care for them, building up the local schools - helping them to become better schools through training and through bringing in resources and work parties from Australia, Canada and USA, and they also do a lot of HIV/AIDS training; which is a huge need in sub-Saharan Africa. Mike's wife, Lyndall, heads up this ministry, which trains community workers to go out to give practical help, to care for those who are dying and to care for their families. The team gives ongoing support and training to these community workers. While visiting Imara Mission we met with an outstanding African leader, Godsave Ole Megiroo, Executive Secretary, Programs Manager and Deputy Chief Executive Officer for Imara Ministry Foundation We also met up with Roger Ellem, who since his retirement from Compassion, has become involved with Imara Mission and is the Eastern Australian Representative for the Mission. The Joshua Foundation Teachers College trains teachers for the schools in the villages where Imara works. There is a problem at the moment, as JTTC cannot train enough teachers for the needs that Imara has, and so they also look for teachers from Meru University.

Some of the delegates at the Watoto Conference

UGANDA Watoto Child Care Ministries
We went to Uganda to present the Effective Teaching Series at Watoto, at the request of Mrs Dorcas Kibirige, Education Director of Watoto Child Care Ministries. She also agreed to invite other schools with which we have contact in Uganda.
Altogether there were 29 teachers who attended. Watoto provided the venue for the seminar and also the meals and charged the participants who came from other schools a small fee for this. The organisation and the facilities that were provided were excellent.
Two participants came from Hope Primary School (with whom we have had contact for over four years), two from Good Hope Primary School, one from Lighthouse Primary school, two from God With Us Primary school, two from the Baptist Schools of Uganda, and the rest were from the two Watoto Primary Schools, the Watoto Secondary School and the Watoto Vocational School. All had been selected by the Principals as trainers for their staff members.
Because there were only four days available for the seminar, we cut it down to eight sessions. Maryanne and I shared the lecturing between us. The teaching made a great impact on many of the teachers. The evaluations they wrote on the course, and the testimonies that were given at the worship sessions told of the changes that were taking place in their thinking and how they wanted it to impact on their teaching and relationships with their students and fellow teachers

Dorcas Kibirige, Education Director of Watoto Child Care Ministries receives a Certificate of Training from Bob Frisken President of New Hope International

Watoto Child Care Ministries and Others
The work among the orphans at Watoto was inspiring and we found it very challenging to see what the Watoto schools are doing and how the children are being cared for in the homes and the changes that this program is making in their lives. We met with Michelle and Frank Heyward, the founders of COME on the Friday evening at the end of the Conference, and were able to introduce them to the Principal of the Watoto Secondary School, and they found that they had much in common. They are doing very similar work, on a smaller scale and we feel that this networking together will be beneficial to both groups.

Chris and Christine Leach from the United Kingdom with Rev Ronald Mutebi and Rev Tom Galliwango of the Baptist Union of Uganda

UGANDA Baptist Union
On our last day in Uganda, Rev Tom Galliwango (Education Director of the Baptist Schools) and Rev Ronald Mutebi from Luweero Baptist Association took us to Kampala to meet Chris and Christine Leach who work in the Education Department of the Baptist Union on secondment from the Baptist Union Mission Department in England. They are endeavouring to train teachers of the Baptist Schools. At the moment they are trying to find out how many Baptist Schools there are in Uganda - as churches often start up school in villages, and there seems that there is not a developed registration system in the Baptist Union to keep track of schools. Chris and Christine were very interested in what we are doing and felt that it would be good if the schools could be involved in a training seminar next year. They have been running workshops for teachers to improve teaching skills