Newsletter 2025 Oct

Dear friends of CGM,

Thank you for your continued support of CGM, through your prayers and through your giving. In this newsletter we will update you about some of our partners as well as progress made by our CGM team based at Moore College.

FRENCH TRANSLATION PROJECT

We have completed the translation of all 20 current PTC subjects into French. It has taken many years of work by translators and our CGM staff to complete this project.

These subjects are now available to any partner who wants to use them for their students in the following situations:

• No internet and no phone: PDFs for local printing or electronic distribution
• Smartphone or device available with limited internet: PTC Lesson Apps
• Internet available and familiar with technology: Online Learning Environment

---

FRENCH LANGUAGE PARTNERS

Currently we have 8 partners around the world using French PTC.

Students from these 5 partners access PTC subjects through PDF format and/or PTC Lesson Apps:

• Centre Chrétien du Lac Kivu (CCLK), DR Congo
• Anglican Diocese of Antananarivo, Madagascar
• Anglican Diocese of Toliara, Madagascar
• Anglican Church of Seychelles
• Eglise Evangélique Libre de Nouvelle Calédonie (EELNC), New Caledonia

Students from these 3 partners access PTC subjects through an Online Learning Environment (Moodle):

• African Enterprise
• CMS Australia (any CMS Missionary has access to all available languages)
• Anglican Diocese of Mauritius

Pray:

• Thank God for all the translators, checkers and staff who made French PTC possible.
• Thank God for the donors who funded this project.
• Pray for all the students who are using/will use these French resources.

---

PTC LESSON APPS

We are currently rolling out the PTC Lesson Apps to CGM partners who have expressed interest in using this new IT tool.

The PTC Lesson Apps are beneficial for students who have limited access to the internet because of cost or availability but own a smartphone or a mobile device. Typically, these are students in more urban areas of less-resourced countries.

This new technology provides interactive content to students and once they have downloaded the apps to their mobile device, it enables them to access the interactive course content without requiring the internet. This may also be a helpful way to avoid expensive, local printing costs for CGM partners if their students have access to a basic mobile device.

Our partner in the Seychelles has already indicated how helpful this new tool has been for their students “… student feedback has been positive. The review questions are a massive help for learning and revision.”

The technology behind these apps has been developed in-house by CGM staff. It has required much work from our team in development and then the detailed work of getting the PTC Lesson Apps ready for use with all the various language content installed.

Pray:

• Pray for CGM Team members as we continue to work on this technology and prepare the Lesson Apps for our partners.
• Pray that more partners will take advantage of this new technology for the benefit of their students.

For more information about how CGM works to understand its partners’ technology needs watch the video below.

PTC Lesson Apps

---

PARTNER UPDATE – JOFC THAILAND

Having been established 17 years ago, the James O. Fraser Centre (JOFC), is a Bible College in northern Thailand, named after the first missionary to the Lisu people in the early 1900’s. JOFC was founded to train gospel workers from Lisu and other minority people groups.

JOFC has been partnering with CGM since 2018 and since that time PTC has been a core part of the curriculum. Students have access to the PTC through an Online Learning Environment (Moodle).

For a number of years JOFC has been translating PTC subjects into the Thai language. Recently a project has begun for the translation of PTC into the Lisu language by a team across the border in Myanmar. In addition to their Moodle, JOFC will be using the PTC Lesson Apps in Thai & Lisu languages.

Pray:

• Pray for the students and staff at JOFC as people are trained as gospel workers for the Lisu and other minority people groups in Thailand (and Myanmar).
• Pray for the ongoing PTC translation projects for the Thai and Lisu languages.

---

ARCHBISHOP OF CHILE, ENRIQUE LAGO & THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOCLAM

Many readers will know of MOCLAM, the CGM partner that offers PTC courses in Spanish in Latin America and Spain.

Recently, the Rev Chris Overhall, a CMS missionary who works for MOCLAM in Chile, recorded an interview with Archbishop Enrique Lago. Listen to Archbishop Enrique as he explains the impact that these Spanish PTC courses have had, not only on his own life and Christian convictions but on the entire Anglican Church in Chile. Hear from Archbishop Enrique Lago in the video below.

CGM, PTC and MOCLAM

Pray:

• Pray for students studying Spanish PTC in Latin America and Spain.
• Pray for CGM’s Partner MOCLAM and their team who promote and run courses in the Spanish-speaking world.

---

NEW CGM PARTNERS

CGM has recently signed an MoU with these two new partners:

Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship (TSCF), PNG

The partnership between CGM and TSCF (PNG, IFES Affiliate) started though CMS missionaries Marion and Keith Birchley (recently retired) working with the TSCF. Initially TSCF graduates began studying PTC through the Moodle administered by CMS Australia. The PTC students were receiving great benefit from these courses, so with the news that the Birchleys were returning to Australia, the TSCF leadership approached CGM so that a direct partnership between TSCF and CGM could begin. TSCF now have their own Moodle and the TSCF graduates are once again able to study PTC online, equipping them for future Christian ministries.

Zion Covenant Reformed Church (ZCRC), Philippines

ZCRC is a church from the Reformed tradition in the Philippines. The church was looking for theological education resources in English from a reformed, evangelical position and when they became aware of PTC, the leadership of ZCRC made an application to become a CGM partner. ZCRC requested CGM to provide an Online Learning Platform. In the future, ZCRC may be able to offer online courses to other reformed churches in the Philippines.

Pray:

• Give thanks for the partnership with TSCF and pray for the TSCF graduates who are now studying PTC.
• Pray for the students and staff at ZCRC as they commence the PTC course online.

---

CGM PUBLIC EVENT

Embracing Hard Ministry – The Bible and the Practice of Global Mission

In July CGM held another of its public events. The aim of these events is to stimulate Christians in Australia to engage with the Bible and with missiological thinking as they go about their lives and ministries.

In our advertising for this year’s event, Embracing Hard Ministry – The Bible and the Practice of Global Mission, we said:

‘Since New Testament times, some of those motivated with a passion for sharing the Good News of Jesus have embraced ministry in very hard places, struggling with stony ground and with little or no obvious gospel fruit. For hundreds of years and in many places around the world, this has also been the experience of some cross-cultural mission workers. But what does God think? Whether in a local church or in a missionary location, how does someone decide between struggling on faithfully, despite the lack of visible gospel fruit, or moving to more fertile ground where God’s Spirit is more obviously working and where fruit is more available?’

To help us answer these questions, we invited Richard Chin (National Director AFES) to give a Biblical perspective of the issue while David Williams (Director of Training & Development, CMS Australia) gave insights from the history and practice of Global Mission. A question time and panel discussion followed.

If you missed this event, you can watch the recording below.

Embracing Hard Ministry - David Williams and Richard Chin

---

PLEASE PARTNER WITH US

Pray

Please continue to pray for all of the CGM partners around the world. Pray as they identify the most effective means to deliver PTC courses to students in their varied local contexts.

Please pray as well for our CGM Team:

• Marty Olmos – Educational Technologist
• Rev Tim Hu – IT and Partner Training
• Lynn Darwall – Translation coordination and CGM administration
• Bishop Malcolm Richards – CGM Director

Give

Would you like to support our translation projects? Some projects are fully‑funded but others are in need of funds. See our website to donate to one or more of our projects. You can give to our CGM Translation Fund to support all of our projects (where needed) or you can give to a specific language.

THANK YOU

We value your prayers for us and our partners. Check out the rest of our website and learn more about the ministry of CGM and our gospel partners.

Read more . . .

Dear friends of CGM,

Thank you for taking an interest in the work of the Centre for Global Mission (CGM). Thank you, as well, if you have recently given money in support of CGM or one of the CGM translation projects. Your gift is a great answer to prayer. Your generosity means that we can make progress on a number of important translation projects for which we have no stable funding.

Since our last newsletter, our CGM team has worked hard to see Bible-based resources made available to a growing number of partners around the world. We have responded to enquiries from ministries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Our conversations have included access to the PTC resources (Moore College Correspondence Course material); translation into various languages and the continuing roll-out of our new PTC Lesson Apps.

In this newsletter we will give an update from one of our partners, share some interesting developments at CGM and provide details about our upcoming event.

PARTNER UPDATE:
AFRICAN ENTERPRISE PTC PROGRAM

We reported in a previous newsletter about African Enterprise’s use of PTC in various African countries to train local pastors. Here is a little background before adding an update.

The main ministry of African Enterprise (AE) is to carry out large evangelistic campaigns in Africa’s cities. Those who respond at these events are referred to local churches for follow-up, but the pastors of these local churches often have no formal training. AE uses PTC to meet this need, offering training to otherwise untrained local pastors.

The once successful PTC program in various African countries collapsed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and personnel changes, but the need for this program is still the same. Now, the CEO of African Enterprise Australasia, The Rev Simba Musvamhiri, has relaunched the program with the help of a number of clergy and lay people from Sydney.

The ‘PTC relaunch project’ initially involves trained people from Sydney heading to Zimbabwe and Rwanda to teach PTC to those who will then become local PTC teachers (i.e. train the trainer). It is hoped that the program may be extended in time to Kenya and Ghana.

2024 TEACHING TRIP

In Zimbabwe courses were run in May and October by Stephen Liggins, Chris Jones and Anthony Donato and his team from Harare Theological College. 30-50 students studied the Introduction to the Bible and Old Testament 1.

In 2025 there are planned visits to Rwanda in May and September (involving 5 teachers from Sydney) and two further visits to Zimbabwe in July and October (involving 2 teachers from Sydney).

Please pray for those who respond to Christ at AE evangelistic events in African cities and their subsequent discipling by local pastors. Pray too for the relaunch of the PTC pastors’ training program in Zimbabwe and Rwanda – pray for those who are travelling from Sydney to teach and those who are being trained as future PTC trainers.

TRANSLATION UPDATE

Many of our partners require PTC resources in a language other than English. A translation project does not just involve translation of the PTC subject notes but also involves:

• translation of Multiple-Choice Question Banks (often requiring translation of an equal or greater word-count than the subject notes)
• translation of images text (from the notes) and the creation of the images for each language and subject
• preparation of the translated notes and Question Banks for online use
• preparation of the translated notes and Question Banks for the new PTC Lesson Apps (providing interactive offline access).

These are highlights of progress with our translations and the PTC Lesson Apps in other languages:

We have two CGM partners ready to commence using the PTC Lesson Apps in French & Malagasy in May 2025. We will be working towards having all translated subjects available in the PTC Lesson Apps.

FRENCH

19 subjects (notes and Question Banks) are completed and in use by several CGM Partners. Four subjects have been prepared for the PTC Lesson Apps, with at least three more to be completed in the coming weeks.

MALAGASY

With the completion of the first level 2 subject (NT2), there are now seven subjects available in Malagasy. Two subjects have been prepared for PTC Lesson Apps, with at least two more to be completed in the coming weeks.

THAI

The Thai translation team have completed a further 2 subjects and are busy working on several other subjects. There are now 5 subjects available in Thai with two more currently being prepared by CGM.

LISU

There are around 1 million people who speak the Lisu language (located in northern Myanmar, northern Thailand, southern China and northern India). The first 2 subjects (notes and Question Banks) have been translated and the translation team are currently working on several other subjects. CGM has some final preparation work to complete so that the Lisu subjects can be used by our CGM Partner.

HINDI

Translation of the first subject has been completed. CGM is in the final stages of preparing Hindi ITB and it should be available to our CGM Partner within the next couple of weeks.

Please pray for those who are working on translation projects. Give thanks for the subjects that have already been completed. Give thanks and pray for the many students who can study PTC in their heart language.  Pray for the CGM team as they prepare the Offline Lesson Apps. Pray that more translation work can be completed, providing greater access to theological resources in the least-resourced parts of the world.

2024 ANNUAL PARTNER SURVEY

Each year we survey all our partners – and the majority respond! This is very important for our team as we gather helpful information, including:

• Student activity for each partner (i.e. how many subjects studied and how many students)
• How useful the courses are to our partners’ students
• Partners and their students’ experience in using the CGM IT tools
• What situations or limitations the partners’ students may experience (e.g. available technology, access to the internet, cost of printing)
• Difficulties faced by partners in delivering courses
• What we at CGM can do to help.

We also get some encouraging feedback. For instance, this message from the Diocese of Trinidad & Tobago: “The Moore College Course Manuals and Examination Questions are most helpful to the Diocese in the preparation of Lay Ministers and Candidates for the Diaconate. The manuals are well-written and the information presented are suitable to our current needs.”

In the most recent survey, we also asked our partners about potential use of our new PTC Lesson Apps (interactive offline technology). 10 partners indicated strong interest in using the Lesson Apps in English and other languages.  We have begun rolling these out.  As mentioned in our translation update above, some further subject preparation is required but progress is being made.  One partner has already begun using the PTC Lesson Apps in English.

PTC AND CGM AWARENESS WEEK @ MOORE COLLEGE:
26 – 30 MAY

For many decades, PTC has been an effective tool for people to learn how to read the Bible well and also to learn how to think in a Biblical way. It has been used widely, in Sydney and other parts of Australia, and via CGM where people from over 50 countries have benefited from this teaching.

But for current students at Moore College and indeed for recent graduates, many don’t know much about PTC or how useful it is as a tool in local church ministry here in Australia. While the demand for PTC is high around the world, with thousands studying PTC in many languages through CGM, there are relatively few using PTC in Sydney and in other parts of Australia. While awareness of PTC is low, many students and graduates also are not aware of the work of CGM.

Both the Moore PTC Department and CGM want to change this – at least for current students. In the last week of May, in the lead-up to the Moore PTC graduation event, we will hold the PTC/CGM Awareness Week. During the week, at both morning tea and lunch, students will have the opportunity to interact with the PTC and CGM Teams.

Please pray that students will become more aware of Moore PTC and CGM and that in the future they will use PTC in their ministries and support the work of CGM.

Please note the difference between the Moore PTC Department and CGM:

Moore PTC – students enrol with Moore College, pay per subject and on completion of subjects receive Moore College awards (non-accredited).

CGM – has no students but provides PTC to partner churches or organisations which teach the courses to their students and give awards in their own name when their students complete courses. CGM facilitates the work of its partners by developing IT tools for our partners so that they can deliver courses to their students and also translates PTC in other languages, as required (and as funds permit).

CGM ANNUAL EVENT:
EMBRACING HARD MINISTRY – THE BIBLE AND THE PRACTICE OF GLOBAL MISSION

Since New Testament times, some of those motivated with a passion for sharing the Good News of Jesus have embraced ministry in very hard places, struggling with stony ground and with little or no obvious gospel fruit. For hundreds of years and in many places around the world, this has also been the experience of some cross-cultural mission workers.

But what does God think? Whether in a local church or in a missionary location, how does someone decide between struggling on faithfully, despite the lack of visible gospel fruit or moving to more fertile ground where God’s Spirit is more obviously working and where fruit is more available?

To help us think through these types of questions, Richard Chin will help us examine the Bible and David Williams will give insights from the history and practice of Global Mission. A question time and panel discussion will follow.

Why not come in person with your Bible Study group or watch individually or with a group online? To book please go to: CGM: Embracing Hard Ministry: The bible and the practice of Global Mission – Moore College

Serving missionaries and the Moore College community have free entry and for all others there is a small fee to cover costs.

PRAY

Please continue to pray for all of the CGM partners around the world. Pray as they identify the most effective means to deliver PTC courses to students in their varied local contexts.

Please pray as well for our CGM Team:

• Marty Olmos – Educational Technologist
• Rev Tim Hu – IT and Partner Training
• Lynn Darwall – Translation coordination and CGM administration
• Bishop Malcolm Richards – CGM Director

GIVE

Would you like to support our translation projects? Some projects are fully‑funded but others are in need of funds. See our website to donate to one or more of our projects. You can give to our CGM Translation Fund to support all of our projects (where needed) or you can give to a specific language.

THANK YOU

We value your prayers for us and our partners. Check out our website and learn more about the ministry of CGM and our gospel partners.

Thank you.

Read more . . .

Dear friends of CGM,

CGM continues to receive many enquiries from churches and organisations around the world, requesting access to our PTC resources in various languages. Recently we have signed agreements with the Anglican Church in Mozambique & Angola (Portuguese language) and with an independent church in rural Kenya (English and Swahili). We are also investigating partnerships in French‑speaking Africa and with churches in the Pacific.

Your continued support is important to our work. We covet your prayers and thank those who have contributed financially to our translation projects and to our staff costs. This support is essential as we receive no financial help apart from you who give generously.  Thank you for helping CGM to make Bible‑based resources available to a growing number of partners around the world.

This newsletter discusses options for delivery of PTC to students around the world and some of our partners’ efforts to adapt to their students’ needs. You will also meet one of our partners, The Anglican Diocese of Mauritius.

PTC DELIVERY OPTIONS MEETING STUDENTS’ NEEDS

There is no typical PTC student

CGM has partners across the world and this means that there is no such person as a typical PTC student or a typical CGM partner. Students come from a huge variety of backgrounds and situations in both urban or rural settings in the ‘first world’ and in the ‘majority world’. And because students live in places ranging from remote villages in PNG, Thailand or Peru to European cities and megacities in Latin America, we need to help our partners deliver PTC to students in these many contexts. Added to this, a single CGM partner may have students in a number of contexts.

Course Delivery – Issues to Consider

These are some of the issues that our partners have to consider when setting up a PTC program:

• Is the internet available? And affordable?
• Do students have smartphones or other devices?
• If students need paper copies, is the cost of photocopying or printing notes prohibitive?
• What is the education and literacy level of the students?
• How isolated are the students?
• Will they be studying by themselves or meeting in groups?
• Is there someone who can mentor them?

Developing delivery options for our partners

It is the responsibility of our partners to deliver courses to their students and not the responsibility of CGM. However, at CGM, we make great efforts to help our partners with content delivery by offering advice and training; and through CGM’s development of an increasing range of course delivery options.

OUR PARTNERS NEED TO BE ADAPTABLE WHEN THINGS ARE NOT WORKING

Here are some examples of our partners’ efforts to adapt to students’ needs:

Restore PNG (Milne Bay PNG)

Restore PNG works with a number of local church denominations, including the Anglican Diocese of Dogura, in Milne Bay Province, PNG. Restore PNG initially set up an online learning platform, hosted by CGM, to deliver courses to students. This works for well for urban students (when the internet is working), but for remote rural students without internet this delivery solution was not working. For these students, there was a move to the use of paper copies, however, this has proved to be very expensive and difficult to distribute.

Restore is now investigating the use of low‑cost android tablets, loaded with our newly developed “Interactive offline PTC Lesson Apps”. While the upfront cost is higher, the long‑term cost will be much lower than the cost of photocopying. With these Lesson Apps, the students will also have access to revision quizzes, that are automatically set and marked, without any connection to the internet.

Evangelium21 (a network of Christians from all over German‑speaking Europe)

Evangelium21 manages all the PTC infrastructure themselves, including translation of PTC subjects into German and the maintenance of their own online learning platform. The main difficulty that they face, is their reliance on volunteers to do all this administration and translation work. The program was suffering.

A recent solution has been to partner with an established German language Bible College in Switzerland, which will provide the online platform, administration and teaching support. This will be beneficial for the Bible College as well as Evangelium21. It will also mean that many more students will have access to the PTC in German.

St Patrick’s Theological College (Diocese of Toliara, Madagascar)

St Patricks is experimenting with various strategies for delivering courses to students both at the college and further afield in Madagascar.

The college has based it’s 3‑year syllabus on PTC. It would be valuable for the students to have access to the PTC notes for any given subject being taught in class (available in French and Malagasy) but the cost of photocopying is too high. The “Interactive Offline Lesson Apps” (described above) could be the solution that gives students the access they need while keeping costs low.

Outside of the college, the Principal of St Patrick’s has been training a group of 5 people from each diocese to teach PTC. An online learning platform has been set up for St Patrick’s by CGM so that students around the country can study and be mentored by these newly trained leaders.

Elsewhere in rural parts of the diocese of Toliara, investigations about appropriate course delivery are underway, using the Lesson Apps plus an audio version of PTC on a Megavoice player.

MEET OUR PARTNER: ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF MAURITIUS

(based on a presentation at Sydney Diocese’s Synod Mission Hour)

Background – The Lord’s Timing

In 2008 Bishop Peter Tasker, then Bishop for International Relations (Sydney Diocese), was at a Bishops consecration in Africa. He happened to bump into the Bishop of Mauritius, Ian Ernest, then also the Archbishop of the Indian Ocean. On hearing that Peter was from Sydney Diocese, Archbishop Ian immediately said “how can I get hold of PTC?”

It turned out that 5 years previously, Archbishop Ian had been visiting the Diocese of Sabah in East Malaysia. He was impressed by the general level of Biblical awareness and spiritual maturity he found there. The people in Sabah told him that a key component that brought this about was the extensive use of the Moore College PTC courses. Archbishop Ian didn’t have any contacts in Sydney – but then he unexpectedly met Peter Tasker.

Peter immediately began the work of establishing a partnership between The Diocese of Mauritius and Moore College and shortly afterwards, the first PTC course was launched in Mauritius with 40 key lay men and women.

Language is key

Language was quickly identified as a major issue. While English is an official language in Mauritius, French is understood by more people, with Creole (based on French) being understood by all.  Two initiatives were quickly launched:

Firstly, The Rev Al Lukabyo (current Rector of Croydon and Burwood-Concord), a French speaker, was sent from Sydney to teach and mentor students. Al went to Mauritius 5 times between 2008-2015, including a one‑off preaching intensive.

Secondly, this new relationship with Mauritius was the impetus for Moore College to begin translating PTC into French. As more subjects became available in French, PTC could now be offered in French as a well as English. (Note: The final, 20^th subject of French PTC is currently being translated. French PTC is being used not only by the Diocese of Mauritius but also by CGM partners around the world.)

Train the trainer

It became obvious that for the future sustainability of the PTC program, a local trainer and PTC coordinator from Mauritius had to be identified and trained. Archbishop Ian Ernest selected a lay person who had shown great promise as a PTC student. This was a well‑educated professional man called Eric Ma Fat. A scholarship was provided by Anglican Aid for Eric and his wife Jacquline to come to Moore in 2010 to complete the Bible and Missions Diploma.

On arrival back in Mauritius in 2011, Eric Ma Fat was ordained and put in charge of the largest parish in the Diocese, the Parish of St Paul, Plaine Verte, in the capital Port Louis with about 800 people attending church each week. The Parish of St Paul became the centre for the running of the PTC program.

Mauritius PTC Program

The program began with weekly PTC classes. The students had the notes in English and later in French, while the teacher then explained the material in the local Creole language. Once a student had studied between 6 to 12 subjects, they were invited to become teachers and mentors of the other students, while still continuing with their own studies.

Covid, presented difficulties but it also forced the PTC program to go online. In God’s timing, CGM had just created an online learning platform that could be made available to partners. This meant that the PTC program in Mauritius could expand even more, with students not only drawn from the local parish, but also from all over Mauritius and in other countries where people from Mauritius had moved for work. Over 300 people have now studied PTC across the years and some subjects have around 100 people enrolled. There are some students who have completed 18 PTC subjects and a few of these have gone on to study the Moore College Diploma of Biblical Theology online.

The big challenge facing the program is that Eric Ma Fat (now also Archdeacon for training in the Diocese of Mauritius) is well over retirement age.

Will you pray that the Diocese of Mauritius can identify and train the next PTC coordinator so that when Eric retires the program can continue. Pray too for CGM as it partners with the church in Mauritius.

PRAY

Please continue to pray for all of the CGM partners around the world. Pray as they identify the most effective means to deliver PTC courses to students in their varied local contexts.

Please pray as well for our CGM Team:

• Marty Olmos – Educational Technologist
• Rev Tim Hu – IT and Partner Training
• Lynn Darwall – Translation coordination and CGM administration
• Bishop Malcolm Richards – CGM Director

GIVE

Would you like to support our translation projects? Some projects are fully‑funded but others are in need of funds. See our website to donate to one or more of our projects. You can give to our CGM Translation Fund to support all of our projects (where needed) or you can give to a specific language.

THANK YOU

We value your prayers for us and our partners. Check out our website and learn more about the ministry of CGM and our gospel partners.

Thank you.

Read more . . .

Dear friends of CGM,

Thank you for your commitment to pray and financially support the work of CGM. Our CGM team has continued to work hard to see Bible based resources made available to a growing number of partners around the world.

In this newsletter you will see a report on the reboot of the African Enterprise PTC strategy; hear from the students of some of our partners about how PTC has impacted them; and see some updates from our team.

AFRICAN ENTERPRISE (AE) PTC STRATEGY

For some years, African Enterprise has partnered with CGM to deliver PTC courses in various parts of Africa. African Enterprise is an organisation primarily based in Africa and run by Africans, with its main purpose being ‘Evangelising the Cities of Africa’. While doing their main work of evangelism and referring new converts to local churches, they became aware that many of the local pastors had very little theological education. AE’s PTC program, which was designed to meet this need and organised principally by the AE office in Sydney, saw many local pastors successfully complete significant numbers of PTC courses. However, the combined impact of Covid and a changeover of personnel on the ground has resulted in the program running out of steam.

The need to train local pastors remains and the CEO of AE Australia, the Rev Simba Musvamhiri, is relaunching PTC in a number of key locations in Africa. The first step in this relaunch was a recent visit to Zimbabwe by Rev Stephen Liggins and Rev Chris Jones, who taught the foundational PTC subject, ‘Introduction to the Bible’ in a two‑week seminar.

The larger strategy will involve Stephen, Chris and others from Sydney making several visits to Zimbabwe and Kenya to teach some PTC courses. These visits will be interspersed with other PTC courses being run by correspondence. A high priority will be to identify some local teachers, initially in Zimbabwe and then in Kenya to help with the ongoing teaching load.

The first course run in Harare, Zimbabwe by Stephen and Chris in May 2024 had 30 students from a range of Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Of the 30 students, 28 sat the final exam, of which 26 passed with 20 students achieving a distinction or credit. It is hoped that this initial group of 30 might be expanded to 40 or 50 for future courses.

Here are a few testimonies from students from this recent course:

Susan Shumbayaonda:

‘I wish I had known about this course earlier; it would have made an impact in my entire life.’

(Missioner & District Coordinator of the Women’s Fellowship Methodist Church in Zimbabwe, age 61)

Moffat Simiyawo:

‘This course laid a foundation of ministry for me. It will help me to focus on preaching the undiluted word of God and to interpreting the Scriptures correctly.’

(Pastor Agape Family International Ministries, age 44)

Daniel Madhanga:

‘I found the course extremely enlightening. I can now follow the events in the Old Testament to their conclusion in the New Testament.’

(Assistant Pastor Faith in God Apostolic Church, age 55)

STUDENT TESTIMONIES FROM CGM PARTNERS

Anglican Diocese of Mauritius

EQUIP Malaysia

Evangelical Free Church (New Caledonia)

James O Fraser Centre (JOFC) Thailand

TRIAL OF THE NEW ‘INTERACTIVE OFFLINE’ TECHNOLOGY

In our last newsletter we reported about the upcoming trial of the new CGM technology, ‘Interactive Offline’. This technology allows students to download PTC subjects on devices, and once loaded to have no further need of internet connection, while still maintaining access to the interactive parts of the subject (i.e. revision quizzes and exams that are automatically marked and which gives feedback to students). We are now planning trials with two different partners:

1. St Patrick’s Theological College

(Toliara, Madagascar) uses PTC as the basis of their 3‑year curriculum, however due to the high cost of printing, students are not given access to the PTC notes of whichever subject is being studied. Free access to the notes on their devices could be of great benefit to the students, plus they would have the added benefit of access to revision quizzes. A trial of ‘Interactive Offline’ will commence once we have a translation of the downloading instructions into Malagasy.

2. Berea Bible College and Seminary

(Ghana) is a current CGM partner which has access to PDF copies of PTC subjects in English. They have expressed interest in the ‘Interactive Offline’ technology and are keen to undertake a trial. They have students enrolled in the ‘Introduction to the Bible’ course, beginning in July and these students will undertake a trial, using the new technology as they study.

The scope of the trial in each case is quite limited. We want feedback from the students about:

• how easy it is to download PTC on their devices;
• how easy it is to follow the course notes and quizzes on a screen (which is often small);
• did they enjoy studying by using a device; and
• would they want to use this technology again.

Please pray for these trials and for students as they study PTC. Pray too for Marty Olmos, Educational Technologist in our CGM Team who is overseeing the development of ‘Interactive Offline’.

TRANSLATION PROJECTS

PRAY

Please continue to pray for all of our translation teams. Translation projects can continue for many years and often progress is slow. Please pray that those involved will have the time and dedication to continue.

Please pray as well for CGM Team member Lynn Darwall. Lynn co-ordinates all the translation projects and does the arduous work of getting the translated subjects ready for online and offline use.

GIVE

Would you like to support our translation projects? Some projects are fully-funded but others are in need of funds. See our website to donate to one or more of our projects. You can give to our CGM Translation Fund to support all of our projects (where needed) or you can give to a specific language.

THANK YOU

We value your prayers for us and our partners. Check out our website and learn more about the ministry of CGM and our gospel partners.

Thank you.

Read more . . .

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continued interest in CGM and the work of providing good quality theological education material to partner organisations around the world. We are grateful for your prayers and for your financial support.

In this newsletter you will find updates about our PTC translation projects; a new subject in our resources; and a trial of some new technologies.  We will also introduce you to two of CGM’s partner organisations.

PTC TRANSLATION PROJECTS

We have about 14 active translation projects. Good progress has been made with some of our major translation projects, for example:

French

19 of 20 subjects have been translated into French. 12 of these subjects are available online while the remainder are in the queue to be made ready for online use.

Portuguese

Again 19 of 20 subjects have been translated. Four are currently available, while the rest are in the queue for processing. We are working hard to make more subjects available.

Malagasy

8 subjects have been completed with the translators working on 2 more. 6 subjects are currently being used by our partners in Madagascar – St Patrick’s Bible College and in PTC training seminars.

NEW TRANSLATION PROJECTS

Lisu

Our partner in Thailand (JOFC) has begun work on the translation of PTC into the Lisu language which will be used in Myanmar and Thailand among the Lisu people.

Tongan

Translation of the first subject has begun. This is our first Pacific Islands language project.

Nepali

This translation project will initially help the Nepali community in Sydney but it is hoped that it will be a valuable resource for the rapidly growing church in Nepal.

PRAY

PRAY for all of our translation teams.

Translation is a detailed and time-consuming process and some of the teams can only work on the projects part-time. Their work is invaluable to the students who can study Biblical theology in their native language. Give thanks for the many subjects that have already been completed and in use around the world. Pray for the ongoing work of translation for all of the above languages. Give thanks for funding that has already been received for these projects.

GIVE

Would you like to support our translation projects? Some projects are fully-funded but others are in need of funds. See our website to donate to one or more of our projects. You can give to our CGM Translation Fund to support all of our projects (where needed) or you can give to a specific language.

A NEW SUBJECT

A new subject is being added to our PTC resources – New Testament 4 (NT4), which provides an overview of Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation. We can now offer 20 subjects to our Partners.

We are currently preparing this subject for Partner use. Our French & Portuguese translators are ready to begin translation of NT4.

TRIAL OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

“Offline Interactive”

We have reported in a previous newsletter about the development by CGM of a technology which allows PTC subjects to be downloaded on devices – even low-spec phones often used in developing countries. What is exciting about this technology is that the interactive parts of the subject (i.e. revision quizzes and exams that are automatically marked and which gives feedback to students) will function properly offline. This means that an internet connection is only needed for the initial download of the subject. However, our team is also working on a device which can create a local Wi-Fi hotspot, which will allow students to ‘download’ the subjects without any connection to a Wi-Fi network or mobile phone provider. This has great potential in developing countries where people have low-spec phones but either can’t afford to pay for data or where there is no mobile phone coverage.

We are planning to conduct a trial for this technology with one of our partners – the Anglican Church in Madagascar, using the local language of Malagasy.

PTC on Megavoice

Megavoice is a Christian ministry which began in Australia but now has a global reach. Megavoice creates or sources audio content and then distributes it via devices that they design and manufacture for use in developing countries. These devices are usually small and can be recharged using solar and/or other electrical sources.

Often the content on Megavoice devices is the Bible but other Christian teaching or teaching used in Christian ministries can be uploaded. We have agreed with Megavoice to conduct a trial of PTC on Megavoice.

We suspect that a purely audio version of a PTC subject will have limited use. This is because it was created as a text-based resource and definitely not written for use as an audio resource. However, we have recorded a PTC subject in Malagasy and we aim to trial it together with the ‘interactive offline’ technology. This technology would allow a student from an oral preference society to follow the text on their phone but also to listen to the lesson on their Megavoice device.

We are hopeful to conduct the trials for both technologies at the same time in Madagascar (in the Malagasy language), sometime in the coming months.

MEET OUR PARTNERS

MOCLAM

On the MOCLAM website its ministry is described in this way: ‘The goal of MOCLAM is to make accessible yet high quality theological education available to Spanish speakers throughout Ibero‑America. We offer an undergraduate program consisting of 18 subjects, which have a focus in biblical studies.’

MOCLAM is a CGM partner and their 18 subjects are based on Moore College’s PTC subjects.

MOCLAM has a close relationship with Moore College with all their course material being made available by Moore College through CGM. MOCLAM also has a strong relationship with CMS. All the current MOCLAM workers are CMS missionaries and, with one exception, all are Moore College graduates. The International Director of MOCLAM is CMS missionary, Adrian Lovell in Bolivia.

2024 is a consolidation year for MOCLAM after the Covid years. Covid lockdown in Latin America and also in Spain were long and many ministries suffered. However, 2024 is looking bright with MOCLAM intensives already being run in Mexico and Argentina in January.

EGLISE EVANGÉLIQUE LIBRE DE NOUVELLE CALÉDONIE (The Evangelical Free Church of New Caledonia)

The Evangelical Free Church is the largest protestant church in New Caledonia. They approached CGM a few years ago asking permission to use PTC in French as the basis for their pastor training in their Pastoral Institute (Institut de l’Eglise Evangélique Libre).

This came about through a Moore College graduate, Peter Hynes who is the pastor of an independent evangelical church that has links to this larger denomination. Initially Peter was the main teacher at the Institute but he has been slowly training a group of pastors in the denomination to take over the teaching responsibilities.

Peter continues to teach students in the latter years of the course and also to train the teachers. In 2024 there are 6 first-year students who will be taught by local teachers.

Pray for the students, as well as the main teacher at the Institute, Pastor Beinon. Pray too for Peter Hynes as he teaches and mentors the teachers.

Please pray for MOCLAM and The Evangelical Free Church of New Caledonia.

THANK YOU

We value your prayers for us and our partners.  Check out our website and learn more about the ministry of CGM and our gospel partners.  Please consider partnering with us in prayer and also by financial support of one of the exciting new translation projects

Thank you.

Read more . . .