Ready to Go Deeper – Writing Workshops in Tanzania

In October, Eric Soard, a missionary serving in Mwanza, Tanzania, put together a three-day writing workshop for United Methodists in Tanzania. The workshop, based on the various resources from DRI’s website, covered general writing tips, devotional writing, local church writing, editing, publishing process, and needed resources for the local church. Writers of all skill levels were able to share ideas at the end that they had generated during writing sessions throughout the three days.

A retired Anglican bishop that stopped by was impressed with the workshop. He commented that he did not know of any other main stream denominations in Tanzania doing this kind of work; he is interested in possibly talking to the Christian Council of Tanzania about running a similar program in order to improve the writing skills for other church leaders in Tanzania to be able to produce content in Swahili.

Soard imagines a second workshop that would include two programs - one for beginning writers and another for the more advanced writers, ready to go deeper into various topics.