Now and again we plan to feature interviews with members of our team – Staff, Trustees, Trainers and other friends, as well as those we work with around the world. Here’s a short interview with one of our Trainers, Peter Maclure.
Who are you and what do you do for PTI?
My name is Peter Maclure and I have been a missionary with Africa Inland Mission for many years working in South Sudan, Kenya and Chad as well as 10 years as the Personnel Director for AIM European Missionaries. In 2008, I returned to UK and became the part-time pastor of Causeway Community Church (FIEC) as well as doing some rep work for the mission. I officially retired from the church in 2018. I am married to Sally and we have a son and 3 grandchildren. My two passions are Missions and the Local Church!!
How long have you been doing that for and how did you first connect with PTI?
I have been involved with PTI after being introduced to it by Timothy Alford one of the founders of PTI. Timothy had worked as Director of AIM and was a close friend. My involvement started in 2011 (?) and I have been very privileged to have been a trainer with PTI a total of 8 times. (4 times in Burkina Faso, 3 times in Tanzania and 1 time in Zambia.) I was due to return to Zambia earlier this year with Paul Gamston, but it was postponed because of covid 19. I am also a close friend of Keith Ferdinando, who has written up the very helpful PTI curriculum.
What is your favourite part of your role?
I love Bible teaching in Africa and seeing the pastors and church leaders become excited as they engage with God’ Word. Let me give one example, when teaching from Ephesians chapter 1 and dealing with the issue of the prosperity gospel, many pastors saw for the first time the glorious spiritual riches that we have in Christ. They spontaneously rose to their feet and started praising God with the phrase “We have been blessed in Christ.” I also have been thrilled that my many years of experience in Africa has given me many examples from within their cultural context to illustrate my Bible teaching. I would not accept an invitation to teach with PTI outside the Africa context because I believe that it is vitally important not only to know the Word of God but also to teach it with at least a rudimentary understanding of the culture to which one is going. Always more to learn but this has been wonderfully fulfilling. I was also greatly privileged to be one of the first PTI trainers to work in French speaking African (with David Vaughn) – which in general is the most neglected part of the African continent.
What is your prayer for PTI?
I pray for more trainers who can appropriately relate biblical truths to the context to which they are going but I also praying for more trainers to be identified and trained from within the countries where we work. Also, with one third of those who have attended the conferences being women, I am praying that we would do more to help them too. I did take my wife on my last trips to Burkina Faso and Tanzania and she ran a few sessions for the ladies which were greatly appreciated.
What have you read recently that’s encouraged or challenged you?
One of my lockdown projects has been to write up some short summary biographies of Christian leaders/missionaries from yesteryear. I am doing this because we are discipling some young Christians here in UK who do not know of those who have gone before. I know the summary of David Livingstone’s life will be particularly interested to pastors in Zambia because we held a conference very near to the place where he died. I have deliberately included an African Christian leader – Bishop Festo Kivengere as well as many of the more well-known missionary pioneers from the West. A book that stimulated this was Warren W. Wiersbe’s 50 People Every Christian Should know but it has led me to dip into the writings of several of the books that he cites.
