In October before we left
to visit my Grandpa, we held a training seminar and since we arrived back the
end of January we have already held three more. It is not the school of
Tyrannus in Ephesus but the hearts of the men and women who are being taught have
the same passion to spread the Good News about the Lord Jesus throughout
Asia.....and they have already taken the Gospel through four different
provinces and to over 30 towns and villages here in this part of Asia.
Paul is sharing with this
group of men and women – elders, pastors, bible teachers, ladies involved in
children’s ministry and elder’s wives – about the importance of being in the
Word, implanting it in their own hearts and letting it flow out from their hearts
as they teach others.
It was three days,
from Monday until late Wednesday night this week, packed full of
study about doctrine, outlines, team teaching, the need for each other, forming
strong ministry teams, discussion time about church planting and anything else
on their hearts......and many other things.
Behind the scenes were many
ladies who were helping everything to go smoothly, who were cooking, making
beds, cleaning.......and other women who were providing technical help with the
Mp3 players, with the computers and power points and with printing study
materials. Not to mention Wingwing who drove many hours to bring everyone here
and who also brought in large quantities of meat, fish and vegetables from out
in town. Paul had the job of making sure everything coordinated and enough food
was ordered and this was huge.
The men and women attending
these training seminars have been taking their study time very seriously!
At the end of the day when
we’d come back to our home and the evening meal was over, some of them
studied late into every night, only slept a few hours and then would be up
again at 2:00 or 3:00am to continue studying. Our home became a hive of
activity during the evenings of little groups here and there, discussing the Word
with each other and of others finding their own corner to study the Word in and
to write and to ponder. We had never seen the likes of it in our 25 years’
experience as missionaries.
We made sure that there was
coffee on 24 hours a day and kept lights on all night in the study areas so
that they could come and go as they pleased.
One of the exercises we did
with them to help them see the benefit of working together as a team was to get
each of them to prepare a message on Acts 3:1-10, and then the ladies who work
here in the office with us encoded all the information from their combined
lessons into the computer to produce one joint lesson. They then took that
lesson and compared it with their own original lesson to see how much more
insight God had given them on that passage from the joint thoughts and
understanding of their whole group together.
They were amazed and very
pleased with the end result of their combined effort – so much so that when the
elders and bible teachers from Cauyunan went back home, they continued to put
into practise what they had learnt here and they set aside one whole day a week
– sometimes going without lunch – to study diligently together as a team the
book of Ephesians so that they could team-teach it to the church. And as a
result they have seen a re-kindled passion for the Word growing in the hearts
of the believers in Cauyunan and some who had become somewhat indifferent to
spiritual things now look forward to gathering as a church each week because
the fervour of their church leaders is becoming contagious.
When the church leaders
from Cauyunan shared this news with us last month, we got teary-eyed and our
hearts were very touched by what God is doing in their lives! And this month,
they have even more news to share because the church leaders in Tumpagon and
Limondà are following their lead and are also setting time aside weekly to come
together as a leadership team and to discuss the scriptures and to learn from
each other.
During these training
seminars, we have been including a couple of the wives each time – so far 6 of
the wives have attended and 4 more will be coming next month – and we have been
encouraging the men to involve their wives in their personal study times and to
see their wives as their number one disciple and themselves as their wives’
number one disciple as well. And we have been hearing some very sweet stories
of how God is bonding these couples together more and more as they study the
Word together and get more involved together in ministry.
Even the young people in
Cauyunan are catching their leaders’ excitement to study the Word and the
number of youth that are meeting together for Bible studies each week is
growing!
Meal times have been fun –
people spread out everywhere at tables and on the floors and lively
conversations – and we do our best to cook as much variety as we can for them.
The smallest group we have had at a meal for these training seminars so
far has been 18 people and the biggest group has been 30 so it hasn’t been too
enormous but still keeps us on our toes and means starting in the kitchen
before the first rays of sun start to appear in the sky.
We believe this year, that
these ‘school’ times in the Word, twice a month, are an undertaking that God
has committed to us to host and to facilitate and to help teach. It is
something that God laid on our hearts last year and He is helping us with more
and more ideas on how to make these times increasingly beneficial.
Please pray for us to have
great wisdom and to have hearts that continually grow in sensitivity to His
voice and to the direction He is leading. A friend shared Isaiah 41:10
with us yesterday and it is a beautiful thought to close this letter with:
Do not fear for I am with
you; Do not anxiously look about you for I am your God; I will strengthen you,
surely I will help you; Surely I will uphold You with My righteous right hand.
