Kitwe Preaching Workshop

I attended the Simeon Trust Preaching Workshop on Biblical Exposition in Kitwe, Zambia on 21-23 March 2023. The workshop aimed at helping preachers to become better expositors of the apocalyptic literature. We looked specifically at the book of Revelation.

The Simeon Trust vision: “The growth of the gospel through equipping expository preachers”.

“This is NOT a conference” said Mervin Eloff, “it is a workshop.” And indeed it was. This was one of the best things about it. It was a workshop requiring input and effort from us participants. We wrestled with applying the tools we were learning.

“The death and resurrection of Jesus is the interpretive centre of the entire Bible”

– Mervin Eloff

I really feel that I have benefited greatly from attending this workshop. It was great to be reminded of some of the elementary tools that expositors of the Bible have in our ‘tool-kit’ and how important they are in discovering the original intent of the author – not only of apocalyptic literature (such as Revelation, Daniel, and Ezekiel), but of all the books in the Bible.

A group photo taken on the last day

Our instructors were: Rev. Mervin Eloff (St. James Church Kenilworth, South Africa), Rev. Ken Mbugua (Emmanuel Baptist Church Nairobi, Kenya), and Rev. Chopo Mwanza (Faith Baptist Church Kitwe, Zambia). The participants were from various church backgrounds and traditions; what we had in common was our desire to see the gospel grow in Africa through becoming better expositors of the Bible.

“Allow the argument to emerge from the text”.

– Ken Mbugua

“Every text has a structure and that structure has been carefully designed. Structure reveals the author’s emphasis”.

Mervin Eloff

Help with costs

The cost of attending this workshop (including board and lodging) was just over R5000 (about USD250). If you would like to help me recover these costs, I’d be most grateful. Please use reference “55045/Min“. You can find bank details on our support page.

“The Bible must shape our framework rather that allowing our framework to shape our interpretation of the Bible”.

– Chopo Mwanza

An 8-hour bus trip to Kitwe

The UBZ bus left Lusaka for Kitwe at 06h30. It was an 8-hour journey. The bus is fairly comfortable and clean. I used most of the time on the bus in preparation for the workshops as we had homework to do before arrival. Since I have had a busy few weeks leading up to this workshop, this was the only time I had available to do my preparations. I also spent some time thinking about my sermon as I would be preaching at the end of this week too.

I was very happy that I wasn’t driving this road. The condition of the road is quite bad and requires a lot of attention from the driver. I just focused on my work and felt safe in the hands of the competent bus driver.

The bus arrived at Kitwe at around 14h00. I got a Yango taxi cab (like Uber) to my accommodation for the week which was Rosevilla Lodge. Faith Baptist church is about 2.6km from Rosevilla, so it was close enough for me to walk.

Arrival at Kitwe
A rainbow in the sky above Kitwe during one of my walks
My Strava route walking between Faith Baptist Church and Rosevilla

Some pictures from the Workshop

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