Fire for children’s ministry among CFCM trainers

“Thank God for this training. In fact, since I joined children’s ministry I have seen God being on my side and now CFCM has given me even more fire for the ministry”.

These are the words of one of CFCM’s volunteer trainers who attended this month’s Refresher course at Phalombe. Some children’s workers can feel very isolated and receive little encouragement. The Refresher course was a wonderful opportunity for CFCM’s trainers to have fellowship with others involved in the same ministry, to be reminded of the training received some years ago, to be updated on new issues, and gain more practical experience under the eyes of the CFCM staff team.

Another participant said “We were reminded that as teachers we need to be good examples to other teachers. We need to be spirit filled people who do God’s words faithfully despite our situation. At his appointed time, God will reward us. I was encouraged to meet my fellow trainers as we encouraged each other to work hard in teaching other teachers.”

Some of the highlights:

Four more trainers were officially certified as CFCM trainers over the weekend. This brings the total of volunteer CFCM trainers to 25, spread throughout Malawi. These trainers are ready and willing to help when needed at CFCM training seminars and are also equipped to carry out Sunday school teacher training within their own churches and denominations.

On the Saturday morning the trainers met in a rural church building where they were joined by six local Sunday school teachers who had never received any training. Each trainer was given a topic to teach. This practical session not only served as a recap of the syllabus, a review of the trainers at work, but was also a genuine training opportunity for Sunday school teachers.

This evening session held outside the accommodation house was on Child Protection and Safeguarding. This topic was introduced into the CFCM syllabus in 2019, so was new for some of the participants. Several trainers commented that the training was timely, helpful and relevant for them. They were glad to receive training in the subject and to have the opportunity to talk about an issue that is too often hushed up. What they learned will be useful to them in their children’s ministry and make them more watchful and aware of what is going on in the communities where they live. They committed to pass this training on to others.

Another practical session involved creating visual aids – here a cardboard child which can be used when teaching the topic of prayer. Visual aids are very scarce in Malawi, where craft materials are prohibitively expensive, so this simple demonstration of creativity using what was readily available provided a very constructive session at the end of a full day.

At the same time as the refresher course was going on in the south of Malawi, over 700km away in the north of the country, another CFCM volunteer trainer was carrying out a CFCM training on his own. Over the same three days, Pastor Tembo taught the entire 3-module course, and carried out practical assessments of the 5 teachers who went the whole distance. Pastor Tembo recognizes the huge need for children’s workers and he is very grateful that CFCM has equipped him to train others.

Clearly Pastor Boster Tembo has got the fire for children’s ministry. As well as passing on CFCM training, he has set up 10 Bible clubs in Rumphi and seen many children come to the Lord. At a school Bible club recently, even the primary school teacher who was in attendance came to Christ!