EPI expands to Congo!

Theophile Rugubira

Martin Odi, teaching last February

Floribert Kikwabantu

One of my hopes is that EPI will expand to surrounding countries from its East Africa base. That is now taking place. It is also occurring in the way that I am most happy to see--by a completely African-led team! Martin Odi (EPI's Uganda national director) and Theophile Rugubira (an excellent teacher who is helping with the work in Rwanda, and who also has translated the 1 Timothy Inductive Training Manual into French) are now in the Democratice Republic of Congo (DRC) leading EPI's first conference in that country. They are teaching 1 Timothy.

Last January, some pastors from DRC (led by pastor Floribert Kikwabantu) had joined us for our conference in Gisenyi, Rwanda. They very much wanted EPI to come to DRC. I told them that I would not personally be able to do so in the foreseeable future, but that our African affliates could do so. That is now a reality.

This conference is important because it demonstrates that EPI is not simply reproducing the "colonial model" of making the Africans dependent on Westerners. That is an important value of EPI. It also demonstrates the significance of TOT ("training of trainers")--i.e., intensive training of some of the pastors (in addition to our regular pastors conferences), to insure that they are thoroughly equipped to train others, in places where I will never be able to go myself.

May God get the glory for this great work of equipping his people in a vital part of the world!