Tuesday in Kenya

It is the end of a full day of teaching and engaging with the Pastors and their wives. What a difference coming back with some frame of reference as to who they are and their needs. Al has had significant opportunities to counsel and instruct one on one with many. His teaching has been significant in that his assignment was to teach on church planting. He chose to use the book of Acts. His first lesson was to reference scriptures that point to the gospel. He then asked the men to do an assignment of writing out the key elements of the gospel. From that he realized more teaching was in order. It was so neat as Al told them they were missing something and they kept saying don't tell us until 15 minutes have past, and finally he told them a key element was the death of Christ and then explained it for them. They are obviously enjoying the learning and the engaging of their minds together. It is such a priviledge to see the eyes of their hearts seeing new things.

I, Edie, had my first chance to teach this afternoon. The women were enjoying the story. After sharing the story with another woman next to them we talked about who God is etc. They were struggling a little to know how to answer the questions but I think ground was made and overall I was happy with the results. Then I went to the project of making a simple fold book to draw the story and that was really a challenge for them. I concluded that they probably had never used crayons and colored pencils before. As the time went on they seem to be enjoying it more. I learned some important "cultural" and "teaching" lessons. I talked to Jim and said I am not going to change my lessons but persevere as I think they might discover some abilities they thought they didn't have. I did ask some of the ladies to act out the story and that went over well. The Lord is good and I know He is with me. I was having a terrible time staying awake in the morning session that is taught by someone else so I took a walk reading Psalm 18 out loud as I walked. It was so therapeutic for me as I felt the freedom to pray.

Al had a meeting tonight with Esron, who leads the EFC of Rwanda and is training here with us, and Daniel, the bishop here. They were discussing a training plan that Al is working on for India. The plan is to train Indian pastors to train other pastors. Esron and Daniel looked the plan over and offered suggestions. Al hopes it sparks some interest in them to set up something similar for their own pastors. They plan to meet again in a couple of days to discuss the issue further.

That brings me to a prayer request. My attitude is growing more negative with tension. The Muslim prayers were loud and went on forever it seemed last night. It wore on me. I wore ear plugs but still could hear it. I prayed the man would lose his voice or the sound system would break down. It does not sound as loud tonight. But it sure makes it hard for me to concentrate on anything significant. They also pray over the speaker other times during the day but it is the 9pm hour that they seem to get carried away.

I must close as I am borrowing a modem from Jim and need to return it. We are trying to buy our own but it has been a challenge to catch them in the store. We ordered it. So please pray we get the modem soon.

With Joy in the Savior,

Al and Edie