Africa: Training Workers for the Harvest

Africa: Training Workers for the Harvest!

September 23rd, 2026

The Vision:

A few years ago, Mark went to Uganda to a Pastoral training conference in Uganda. Our spiritual son from Kenya came to support him.

Tobias is an ordained pastor who loves the Lord with all his heart. People from all over know this, so they will drop off people who have been sick or mugged or destitute on his doorstep and he takes them in. They sleep on his couch. Sometimes for months. Tobias sleeps on the chair between his guest and his wife and kids in the bedroom. The guest heals slowly and gets radically saved, then heads home and starts a home church. At one point Tobias had 86 home churches. This is a man of God.

Back to Mark. He is speaking to the pastors in Uganda. He mentions the ten commandments and all he gets are deer in the headlights. No one knows what he’s talking about. Plan B. Teach the Ten Commandments.

Later he asks Tobias, “I hope your pastors are better trained than that?”

Tobias lowered his head and admitted, “Unfortunately, no.”

Heart break.

A few years later governments begin to shut down home churches, and rightly so, bc being a Christian in a third world country can be a money making scheme. “Come teach us. We need you. You don’t even need to travel. We can do it over the internet. We will need $3000.00 for internet equipment. And maybe another $1000.00 for food.” It can be a scam. Rightfully they are being shut down.

Since Mark and I are ordained and have a ministry, we can ordain pastors. Tobias asked us to ordain his pastors. “Just send the backwards collars.”

Mark said, “No. We will not ordain them, unless we train them.”

Who knew?

Tobias went out and secured a compound outside of Nairobi. He then called and reminded us of our promise. And of course asked for money to help pay it off. So, between MORE Ministries and several other supporters, the compound is paid off and plans are moving forward.

We meet government requirements for a pastoral training school. 1200 hours of pastoral training.

We will do a 10 week intensive.

It takes 72 hours to read through the Bible. Let’s round up to 80. Different vide that by 10 weeks and that’s 8 hours a week. Less than 2 hours a day to read the Bible and 6 hours to discuss it.

Monday evenings - Identity, Identity, Identity!!

Tuesdays - youth/young adult night. Go out and evangelize the Neighborhood. Bring them in and teach them what you’ve learned.

Wednesday nights - church - teach them what you’ve learned.

Thursday nights - children’s church. African men - humble yourselves - bring in the children and teach them what you’ve learned.

Friday nights - worship.

Saturday - sabbath

Sunday - church, healing service.

Ten hours a day. Grueling.

Do the math - nearly 600 hours

150 scripture sent ahead for the Pastors to memorize.

Assignments- read the Bible through again.

Hand in 1 sermon per quarter to be assessed.

Then in 1 year we do it again. Bc reading the Bible once or twice isn’t enough. The second time around will go deeper.

Then we will ordain.

Yes, we can do it.

But honestly, not without your help. We need prayer support/ coverage. We need finances. Mark and Nancy can support Mark and Nancy - airfare, food, housing. But these are the poorest of the poor. The least of these. We need to raise money for transportation- to bring them in and send them home. For food. For Bibles. Housing. Bedding. Supplies. (Outhouses/ toilet paper, paper and pencils). Drinking water. More things than I can probably think of.

We will need qualified teachers to assist with teaching and mentoring.

We will need a volunteer to set up a sponsorship program for the children who cannot afford the school fees in the elementary school Tobias is currently running for the children in Kibera - the largest slum in the world.

We could use some volunteers to teach at that school as well.

And, again, we need prayer coverage!!

At first this was small. Tobias said about 20 pastors would be able to leave their families unsupported for 3 months. So we figured, realistically, maybe 12-15. Doable. But when we called to confirm that number recently, it’s now 50-60 who want/need training. Gasp…..

This is beyond us.

When another spiritual son heard of this, he asked is we could do that in Ghana. We said yes. There is now a compound in Ghana. Land only at this point. But a start.

Ethiopia has asked if we could do it there. We will talk to them.

And we have recently talked to a couple with great plans from the Lord about Uganda. We are hoping to come alongside of them and start a Pastoral Training Center there as well.

This is so far beyond our scope.

Only the Lord….

We plan to begin in Kenya in February. Yes, in four months.

God willing.

With Tobias, we have estimated that the cost of sponsoring a pastor comes to approximately $1000.00. That includes transportation, bedding, food, water, Bibles and writing materials. It also goes towards the cinder block dorm we are trying to build. And toilets…..

Please pray about coming along side of us, prayerfully, financially, and/or as a volunteer as we prepare to do the work of the Lord - Preparing the workers for the harvest.

Again, every prayer counts.

Every dollar counts.

And every volunteer is welcomed.

Together we are the dream team.

Love you all!! 💕

So seriously excited!!💃

WE (all of us) get to train up workers for the Harvest!!

Hallelujah!!

Nancy 💕