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.
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