Saturday, September 30: Our time in Lebanon went very well. The
students were wonderful, intelligent, passionate and eager to learn. We had a
wonderful time together. These believers are courageous. One told about God
leading him to go and preach to the Hezbollah. He was hesitant to do so but did
and found them “hungry for God.” Another traveled extensively in Syria, in
areas where ISIS still operates, to visit churches and encourage them. Most of
the pastors in the area had fled to safer regions and the churches had no leadership.
Our hosts, Ben and Burgi, are also wonderful and are courageous people
themselves, giving themselves wholly to the work of the Lord and to their
students in a difficult part of the world.
I found the week to be of great benefit to me. It has been
awhile since I have had the privilege to teach systematically through a section
of Scripture. Spending 4 days working through Romans 1-8 was wonderfully
refreshing to me. I realized I need to find more opportunities for that in the
local church. Our church in Colorado, which was a church plant, closed last
month. When we return we will have to begin to look for a new one. Teaching and
ministry opportunities for Edie and myself will be high on our list to
evaluate.
We went from our hotel to the airport at 12:30 am, flying
out at 4:30 am. We arrived in Bucharest at 10am, obviously quite tired. Then we
had a 2-hour drive to our host’s home. Thankfully, we had a one-hour nap before
lunch as we kept dozing off in the car. Then we traveled to a nearby Roma village
to “do ministry” but we did not know what that meant. A group gathered at the
house of a Christian where they hope to plant a church, and gathered a crowd
from the neighborhood. They had Gypsy singers come and asked myself, another
pastor who was there from Canada, and the lead singer to “say a few things” (which
meant preach the gospel). We did and a number of people responded, although we
are not really sure what was happening since it was all in languages we do not
understand. It was a bit “Pentecostal” for Edie and I, but the Lord knows
exactly what went on and will do His will. We were exhausted when we finally
reached bed after supper around 9:30pm. We both got 9 hours sleep, a new modern
record for me, and felt much better this morning.
We had Gypsy barbecue at a church member’s home today and it
was wonderful. We had good conversations in a relaxed atmosphere. Tomorrow
after church, we will travel to the first training location. This afternoon, we
do not know what we will be doing. That has become the norm for this trip, but
God enables us as things develop. I do not know what is coming but I am sure it
will be interesting.
Al
No comments:
Post a Comment