Lahu Training

We finished our workshop with the Lahu pastors yesterday. It was a great week and I think they made great progress. Wednesday was a tough day, but also a productive day. I tried a new approach to teaching what we call the Biblical/Gospel Story; the unfolding story of redemption as it occurs through the course of scripture. As I was speaking, I was gaining new insights myself and forgot that I was supposed to be training and spent the whole time teaching. I didn't realize until later that none of the pastors were going to be able to pass that information on, it was too complicated. So, yesterday I had to spend some time presenting a simpler version that they all seemed to understand. I am still learning, both how to train and about the subjects I am teaching. I think that the insights I gained will help me develop a better workshop in the future, and I learned some lessons on training as well.  It was good for the Lahu to see that we make mistakes and are learners as well.  

In their last preaching presentations, 3 of the pastors spoke about the need to stop just following their traditions and start following the Bible. This is something that we have been concerned about, but have never really addressed with them. What they were doing was responding to the new insights they are gaining as they learn to study better. That really is the only way to kill stale tradition. If you cannot study the Bible you cannot address tradition or change. But if you can study well, you have a basis in the authority of the Word for making difficult changes. I was excited that they were learning that on their own.

Today we had a debrief with the Lahu leader, who is our main translator. It was a good meeting and we learned a lot. One surprise was that he had no idea what we meant by "Biblical/Gospel Story. He had never encountered a "/" before and so he translated it "the redemptive story in the Bible", which might actually be better. It made me recognize once again that what seems so normal to me as an educated American can make no sense to nationals. That is why we try so hard to simplify our terms. Now, this is another one to work on. We asked him to tell us this sort of thing earlier. He is still learning that we can be questioned or even disagreed with. We are making good progress in our relationship.

Our host missionaries, the Callahan's, recently visited a remote village church that had a new Burmese pastor. As they were getting to know him, he asked about their ministry at the school. They mentioned how excited they were about the training we were giving the pastors. When they described it he said, "Oh, I am getting that training. Charli, one of our students, is training some other Burmese pastors and they are teaching me." What a blessing to hear that the training is being passed on in ways we could not imagine.  

We are going to go up into the mountains to visit some of the Lahu villages this weekend and I will have a chance to visit Charli's church and hear him preach. I think he is a little nervous but that he also really wants us to come. It will be a good chance for me to hear how he is really doing. I rarely get to hear our students preach in their own churches. I am sure he will do well, he is one of our best students. Doing this ministry has helped me learn to appreciate progress in people's lives and grow in real patience. I think that is a good side benefit of what we do; we continue to see the Lord causing us to grow.  

Al

Arrival in Thailand

What a blessing to be in Thailand! It was a difficult flight here, 10 1/2 hours overnight beginning at 11 pm. I couldn't sleep at all, only about an hour total, so I was rather tired when we arrived. We immediately went to lunch and met some visitors and supporters of the work here but I was able to keep it together until nap time.  

We finished well in N. India. The men worked so hard and learned so much not only about how to study, but also about the gospel in the book of Romans. It was life changing for many, including the leader of the movement. He shared at the end how what we had studied had filled in many of the gaps in his own understanding and doubts concerning his own sin. For a leader like himself to make such a statement in front of his young trainers is a credit to his character and humility. He is quite a man. 

Personally it was a tough week for me. I gradually grew more tired as the week went on and really had to rely on the Lord many times just to keep going. I cannot really say why it was so hard this time. A few poor nights of sleep and 14 straight days of hard training are part of the reason no doubt. But I also think that there was an element of spiritual warfare involved. By God's grace and through the prayers of you, we finished the race and saw fantastic results. Praise the Lord!

I have to say that coming to Thailand is a real break for Edie and I. India is so crowded, dirty, noisy and complicated that it tends to wear on you. Here in Thailand it is almost serene by comparison: green, quiet, birds chirping, etc. The weather is perfect, the food is delightful and the fellowship is sweet. Tim and Suzanne joined us from Fort Dodge and we had a great meal together with our missionary friends the Callahan's. They shared their testimony, which is so fantastic and we were moved once again by their simple yet powerful faith. I hope to hear their story many more times as I am blessed, humbled and inspired by them. We had most of the day off yesterday, which we needed, and then I preached at a Thai church this morning. It did not go smoothly as my translator and I both struggled. But the Lord again was good as one older woman said with tears in her eyes how it had encouraged her. Once again at our worst, God is still faithful.  

We begin training tomorrow, Monday, in the afternoon. We are thirteen hours in front of the Midwest, so that is about midnight your time. We look forward to seeing the men again and helping them step forward through a study of Genesis.  

 

Al

Women's Training

I apologize that it has taken me so long to write again. My material for the women's studies are not as developed as the pastoral program. There is a great discrepancy in experience with bible study for the women I train, and each group has it's unique challenges. The study in Esther for the Trichy women was energetic, yet very challenging to dig through. We always begin with observation, then on to structure, application with message statements, and finally personal application. They are up for the work, and love the active discussion along the way. I was stretched in a good way and I praise God for how close we are becoming as friends and sisters in Christ.

Here we have 3 women including our translator. In the mornings we have an older woman who translates. Her husband is the head of the denomination here. She tends to teach along with her translating, taking a lot of time off task. But with prayer Linda and I are doing our activity also in the morning, so it is going well. Today our shyer woman, who has a 10th grade education, told us she went for the first time to the women's conference and said it was OK. But she was enjoying ours better because she can participate. I then told the group that this shows us how you can have a vital ministry getting just two or three women together to observe scripture. I could tell they are feeling "empowered", which is what we are working towards. Tomorrow we will finish observing and then be looking at main ideas and events to help us see what God's message is for us today. 

I must say I wake up each day thankful for what I am doing. Yes, I have had days I just can't seem to get out of the fog of tiredness. Other days just don't seem to be going very smooth and often I wonder how or what to do next. But after a day like today with the participation level increasing, signs of obvious grasping of the concepts, and after hearing sincere words of appreciation from the shy one, it makes it all worth it.  It just doesn't get any better than this.

Linda usually introduces and explains the new tools, but tomorrow I am going to it for practice in front of her. It is not my strength, I usually lead the discussion, but need to do this when I don't have a partner. Please pray for me. I need understanding in how to best explain the tools, and confidence that The Lord can help and use what I do no matter what.

Now to try and stay awake for one more hour...

With joy,

Edie

Last Days in South India

The last days in South India were sweet and memorable. What a blessing to study the book of Romans with these men! They did so well and made such progress and we all profited from the rich teaching Paul gives us in this book. It was an intense week as we worked very hard together and worshiped over what we were learning. I have studied this book more than any other over the past 40 years and I still learned many new and precious things. We had a great strategy session on Thursday. The men are so enthusiastic about training others that they have taken on far too many groups to really follow through with for the whole course. I encouraged them to do less but to multiply their training through those they train. We talked about this last time, but this time they really understood. They were already making plans to implement a new strategy as we left on Friday.  

Edie and Linda had a great time with the ladies studying the book of Esther and learning principles of study. There were a few bumps in the road along the way, but the women made good progress. At the end they had a really sweet time as the ladies shared what they had learned and then some of the struggles of their lives. One lady has three bulging discs in her back that are quite painful but she did not miss a day. Another came with a fever one day because she didn't want to miss. They are just a beautiful group of women.  

Our farewell was like leaving family for a few months before we return in June. I was keenly aware that we are entering our last year of training here and am already anticipating the difficulty I will have in saying goodbye for the last time. One precious pastor named Peter privately gave me a love gift on the last day. He is an older man, yet younger than I, and struggles a bit more than the rest with English. He was orphaned at a young age and grew up in a Christian orphanage. He attended a Catholic seminary until he realized they were not going to teach him the bible, and then left and went to an evangelical one. He served as a pastor and later started a mission and orphanage, and now does the most training of anyone in the group. He gets up at 4:30 in the morning to come to the class, riding in several buses for three hours, and is the first one at the training, always smiling and ready to learn. I agree with Mike who said, "When I grow up I want to be just like Peter." I struggled to receive Peter's gift because I know he is not wealthy and we train these men out of love, not for any personal profit. But I could not refuse his offering of love, as he put it. Later when I opened the envelope I found the equivalent of a month's salary. I was stunned and brought to tears at his sacrificial love and appreciation for what we have taught him. I am keeping that money aside and asking God to lead me to use it for something special as a blessing somewhere as we train others.

Our trip up north was grueling. We had to get new air tickets the week before we left for this part of the trip because the airline we were flying on decided to stop flying to the city we were in. The last leg of the flights was the worst. The seat backs were so low that Mike and I could not rest our heads on them and we couldn't scrunch down enough because there was no leg room to spare. We were all so tired after an intense week that we all thought we would go nuts before we arrived here a little before midnight. We finally got to bed around 1 am and slept well, but not long enough as we had to get up and go to training the next morning. 

By midday I was completely worn out, but the Lord helped us and we all managed to make it through the day. I preached a demonstration sermon in the morning and felt I was running on half empty, but Mike said it helped to slow me down and be more of a teacher than a preacher, just the thing needed this time to demonstrate the new tools we were introducing. I knew this would be a tough day as we had just finished an amazing week, and had to travel and then jump right back in on the same material with a different group. It is really not possible to maintain the same intensity with that change. We really needed a down day, but the Lord is good and helped us. The men here did well and picked up the material quickly, so we were happy with that. I slept well last night so I am better prepared, physically and mentally for the day.  

Edie and Linda came hoping to work with a group of women here, but only two showed up. The others invited couldn't come for various reasons, including 4 or 5 who just gave birth, and several who couldn't come because it was too cold in their area to walk to the train station. One woman traveled for 48 hours to come, the other "just" 24. Edie thinks just having two is a little intimidating for them to open up so it will take some gentle relationship building to make progress.  

I hate to mention it to all you in the cold Midwest, but the weather here is almost ideal. Cool in the morning, warm but not too hot the rest of the day. We never need a jacket or a fan. I have to admit, life is tough sometimes, but not always.

Al

Future Transformation

Wednesday, February 5, 2014:  We have been in South India for 3 days and are enjoying the warm, almost hot weather. What a contrast to the Midwest! We found our students enthusiastic and well prepared as usual. This is really a special bunch of guys. We have grown to love them so much, and we all talk about how we are "family" now. They are so much fun to work with and are making such strides in grasping the study methods we are teaching them. 

Today one of the men said at lunch, "This training has made such a huge difference in all our lives and the way we do ministry. We used to just look at a random passage and see some concept in it that we understood and then preached on that. Now we all are spending a lot of time reading and rereading the text and carefully studying it. We want to understand what the author meant to say and to preach that to our people." I could not have asked for more. Yet I get even more excited to see how they are so enthusiastic about passing the training on to all the pastors in this region of India and beyond. Another pastor said today, "I used to read a lot of other books, but now I am so busy studying the Bible and training others that I do not have time to read a lot of other books." 

Tomorrow we will talk strategy with them and try to set them up to train hundreds, and possibly thousands, of other pastors. I cannot imagine the transformation that will take place in these churches in the coming decades.

Al