11,000+ air miles, six flights, 93 delegates, 53 church groups, 25 sessions and five days of teaching are simply statistics behind ECRAD’s first Pastor’s Conference held in October 2014. The story behind the statistics was deeply encouraging as 85-90 delegates gathered daily for Bible teaching and study.
An intensive five days comprising five elements per day included devotional messages from the life of Elijah, an overview of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation highlighting key events in God’s calendar, formal teaching and workshops. Each day’s study featured a different book across the Testaments – Genesis, Psalms, Nehemiah, John’s Gospel and Ephesians. The workshops included discussion groups with pre-set questions, a feedback time and question and answer sessions. All delegates participated enthusiastically in the interactive sessions.
The mix of delegates cut right across traditional denominational divides and included Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Pentecostals, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, JW’s, RC’s and one Muslim – a truly remarkable group of people with a genuine interest in the Word of God. Outline notes of all the teaching and questions for discussion were translated into Chichewa and issued to delegates. Bibles were given to all attendees as well as an Attendance Certificate.
Overnight accommodation was provided for those unable to travel daily together with meals for all delegates. All sessions were translated into the local language by a gifted team of interpreters. The pictures below show a formal teaching and workshop sessions.