Men, Women Gaining Business and Leadership Skills in Wau, Sudan

Tuesday, June 1
Wau, Sudan

We have spent the last two days teaching basic business planning alternating with leadership skills training. The group of 40 men and women who meeting in the church are comprised of women leaders in the local savings groups in Wau and also the church leaders. So, we were asked to do some leadership training as well.

The idea behind the business planning is to have them come up with an actual business plan that covers choosing a business, marketing and record-keeping using biblical values. We split them into groups of six, and tomorrow they will present the finished plan.

As far as leadership skills, we have talked about the traits of a good leader and again had them come up with leaders within the country of Sudan and the world they think met those characteristics. Today, we talked about how leaders mobilize followers. We used the example of Jesus spending most of his time preparing the 12 disciples to be leaders who in turn would train more leaders.

Everytime we do these trainings, I’m always struck by the intelligent questions and how committed the people are to learning. I shouldn’t be so surprised but that is the bias we carry with us into developing countries that people can’t do things on their own. But, time and again, we are proven wrong.

Pray for safe travel tomorrow as we leave in the afternoon to visit Kuadjok and Lietnhom returning Thursday night and then taking a plane to Juba then to Nairobi on Friday before leaving on Saturday for home. Thanks for the prayers!

Craig Cole