Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Cost

We have had two wonderful days of training. Our students are really making progress in understanding the concepts of inductive bible study and the concept of context. We were so pleased with their answers to the home work we gave them to study on the book of Jonah. What a blessing it has been to me to see the gigantic progress since the first time I came 2 years ago. One pastor illustrates the change. He told us at lunch today that he used to go to church on Sunday morning and open his bible to decide what to preach on. Now he realizes that he actually has to study to see what God says in His word and then prepare a sermon on that to give to his people. Others have told us that they are starting to notice how some pastors are preaching passages out of context and making all sorts of errors. They really want to learn how to be faithful to the Word. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to me to see these changes and the sparkle in their eyes as they gain new insights and new skills.

The discussions during the training are lively and the men have a great time critiquing one another in good-natured bantering. They are not at all afraid of being corrected. The really have humble teachable hearts. More than once we have seen the Lord intervene with the timing of questions, etc. to help move the learning process forward. After each session the men continue discussing the ideas in small groups during the breaks. In the evenings they study hard for the next day.

My two training partners, Eric and Brad have been excellent to work with. We are all so different but share the same passion to see our students grow in the Word and in their ability to communicate it. It’s been fun to have a good team pressing forward toward the same goal.

We are concerned with one major aspect of the training process. None of the men we trained last August actually took what they learned and passed it on to other pastors. It is essential that they do this if all the pastors in the denomination are going to learn to study and teach the word effectively. We are really stressing the need to equip others with what they are learning. We will be making some recommendations to the leadership about how they can press this forward. I especially ask for your prayers on this issue.

This has been a very hard trip physically. We have battled the heat, I have some strange rash that started on my feet and gradually worked its way up my back (praise the Lord it doesn’t bother me much), we have had some stomach upset from the food, and sleeping is difficult with a poor ceiling fan, 85 degree nights, and 60 noisy young people staying in our guest house. Edie has had to teach the women in the afternoon when they are all tired and have to sit mostly in the sun. I could go on. I do not say this as a complaint, although sometimes I do complain. On the way home tonight with 4 of us crammed into a tuktuk with wet seats from the rain, I thought about all this. I just want you to know that it is challenging doing this work. We think it is more than well worth the effort and will be happy to come back again in August. But it does take a toll and we covet your prayers and encouragement as we persevere. We are certain of the Lord’s help, “you helping us with your prayers” (2 Cor. 1:10-11). I thought as we rode along that I am happy that it “costs” us something to serve the Lord. What a privilege to do something that requires a little bit of suffering to serve Christ and His church. It doesn’t really compare with what our brothers and sisters here pay but it is our small contribution. Thanks for helping us.

Al

Monday, April 11, 2011

Hot & Humid in Kenya

We just returned from preaching at a village church for Sunday service. The service began at 10:30 and I began preaching at noon. The people in the small church were so attentive and appreciative. We spent the afternoon with the pastor talking about ministry and scripture. It was a great day.

This last week has been very fruitful. We had a good training time with Eric, a ReachGlobal staff person from Dar Es Salaam, and Daniel, the bishop of our partner churches here, who we were introducing to the material we will use this next week with the equippers we are training. It is so good to just study the bible together with other godly men. Eric has been a great blessing. He is younger than us and full of energy and enthusiasm. He has a great heart to train pastors so we look forward to partnering with him in the future. Daniel is such a godly and humble leader. We really enjoy working with him as well. Brad, my training partner, and I were able to work out some of the bugs in our training as we worked with Eric and Daniel. Edie was a great help to us in letting us know what areas were unclear to her and might then also be to the pastors. We can’t wait to see the other pastors tomorrow and to renew our relationships.

We continue to battle with the heat and humidity. It gets down to about 85 at night in our room so it is a challenge to sleep well. A large group is here in the guest house tonight so it also very noisy. Thank the Lord for earplugs!

Pray for us as we begin a week of intense training with the pastors. Pray that we will purpose to exalt Christ as we give them skills for understanding the word for themselves. Pray that the men will not grow weary with the long hours of learning. Pray that Edie will be able to touch the hearts of the women with God’s word and practical applications. Al is contending with a scratchy throat so needs the Lord’s healing hand. We ask you to lift him up with that as well.

Al & Edie

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Good Morning from Kilifi!

Good Morning from Kilifi, Kenya! It is hot and humid and our prayer yesterday was that we will survive this shocking change. Our praise today is that we have made it through the night and are feeling relatively good today. I know the Lord’s grace is with us because we have a day to regroup and prepare for the good times ahead. We are here at the same guesthouse we have stayed in for the last 2 times in Kenya. We were greeted so warmly by the staff here and it felt like we aren’t so far from home after all.

For a note of God’s continual presence with us and His interest in seeing to the work He has for us, I must tell you of our first miracle. We were in London, had a few hours of catch up sleep and then we were to meet up with Brad, our partner for this training trip. He and his wife came a few days earlier to celebrate their anniversary. We were supposed to call them to set an exact time to meet in London. But it turns out that the apartment they were staying at listed the wrong number on their site so we had no way to connect with them. We had only two options: find their apartment according to the address or go with what he and Al had talked about; meeting at the Paddington station (underground rail system). We found their apartment but had no way of knowing which room was theirs, so we decided to go back to the station and look around. We had prayed that God would somehow join us together but by now that prayer seemed a long ways off and “nigh to impossible”. We decided to walk around the station to see if there was another entrance when lo and behold we ran into each other on the crowded sidewalk! They had given up, gone to eat and then said they would try one more time. I thought, "only believers could have a shred of hope in a situation like that". But really our hope has much more substance than that. To consider the fact that our God who is Lord over all, holds everything together and created everything hears our prayers from anyplace in the universe and answers such a thing as “make it possible to find our friends in London” is amazing to consider. It is beyond my understanding and so we simply praise our wonderful God and trust Him for the days ahead and what He intends to do in the hearts of all of us. More miracles to come!

We didn’t have time to give a report on Al’s trip to Venezuela before we left. The trip went very well and his teaching was well received and stirred a lot of discussion. Al met a ReachGlobal missionary there who may make some connections for future training in Latin America. I (Edie) met Al in Minneapolis after he returned so we could attend our team meetings. Al’s leadership of our Global Training Team is going to take more time in the future so we are trying to figure out how to prioritize our schedule. Thanks for helping us through your prayers.