Extension Programmes in Discipleship in Rural Churches

Wathabu Simfukwe who is the principal of Samfya Bible School is a man that is continually thinking about the rural church and the effectiveness of the training being given to students at the school. His desire is to see real spiritual growth in the lives of people in these rural areas. To this end, the bible school now runs extension programmes in these rural churches.

These programmes are basic discipleship training. Over 10 months, one weekend each month, intensive training occurs with people from surrounding churches, lead by a Bible School staff member. Usually there are 30-50 people in each group being trained. Then in year two, graduates of the school take the training further with these people and the desire is to see this discipleship spreading through their churches.

What an excellent means of seeing depth growing in these church communities. Fenton Park Bible Church is supporting one of these initiatives in Kulundu this year. The graduates of these classes are also becoming potential full time students at Samfya, the extension programme identifying those who are called and gifted for further equipping for ministry.

The photos are of a student group graduating from a programme at Kundafumu, and of Sam Mululu who is the principle teacher of the extension programmes (another staff member is needed for this next year to help ease the load). Interestingly, the Bible School cannot keep up with the demand from areas wanting extension programmes. Please contact me if you or your church would be interested in supporting this type of ministry.

Farm Site for Development

With sleep eluding me for most of the night (yes Robert & I are back after a marathon 42 hours returning home) I have been thinking of other aspects to share about our time away. One of the desires of Samfya Bible School staff is that the school continue to do what it can to become more self sufficient in its ministry. Any of you who know about Bible Schools will understand that they need sponsorship to help them, however it is a good thing to be as self supporting as possible.

To this end, we visited the site of an 18ha property that the school owns that is about 24kms from the Bible School and is right on the edge of a village area. This property has the potential to produce all of the food needed for the students every year and also earn a small amount of income. To enable this to happen however will require a small investment of capital. This would provide a perimeter fence (2 metres high square mesh) and a low cost bore with solar pump for water. The costing on this is still being done. Initially there would be a stock of meat goats acquired to breed and provide income, but the property would be used for maize production (staple diet), sweet potato, vegetables etc

This project may be the focus of a short term team next year. The perimeter fence is needed in terms of security for this remote site and eventually a full time farmer would be on site as well. Principal Wathabu Simfukwe has a background in agriculture and is overseeing the possibilities of this project. It would also become part of the training in agriculture given to students who are predominately subsistence farmers, equipping them with better skills to support their families and church ministries. The Photo is of Robert, Wathabu & Peter Chomba (teacher at Samfya) as they look at the site and talk about possibilities and then one of the bush on site.