A Great Week of Training

It has been a very good week training pastors. We have around 60 and many of them have come from long distances for the training. The are eager to learn and have great attitudes. I and another pastor, Lee Heyward, trade off teaching devotions in the morning from the book of Ephesians. The we split the group into two groups and I teach on Bible study methods in the morning and on Marriage in the afternoon. Lee teaches on leadership principles. Today we traded groups and will start over with the same material. It is so rewarding to see these pastors grapple with the Word and rethink their beliefs, especially in the area of their marriages. We are not trying to get them to adopt an American view of marriage but a biblical one.

I did the devotion today on being raised up with Christ in the heavenly places and what a display that is to the powers and authorities, chapter 3:8-12. They responded really well and we entered a really neat time of worship together in response to the Word. What a privilege to be here!

I posted some pictures on my facebook so you can see there some of the sights around here. Go to Alan J. Lewis and they should be on my profile.

Al

Seeing the Country of Ghana

It has been a couple of difficult days. I've been crammed together with two other guys in the back of a small SUV driving for about 16 hours in the last two days. The Ghanans wanted to show us their country and we have covered about half of it or so it seems. I think that in the Christian life a lot of time is spent in the mundane and unpleasant so that we are available when the opportunity comes to make an eternal difference.

The country is pretty, very green this time of the year although it is very hot and humid. We've seen some beautiful beaches and a rainforest and lots of countryside. We briefly visited a family that had just had a funeral right before we came. They do that a lot differently than we do. Everybody comes dressed in black or red and it seems the whole town turned out. It becomes quite a social event, usually on Saturdays, and after the service later in the afternoon everyone comes over to the relatives' house and they essentially have a party.

We learned an interesting fact about this culture. Everyone's first name is the day of the week they were born on, although men and women have different names for the day of the week. For Friday men are called "Kofi" as in Kofi Annon. All men born on Friday have that first name. Then they are named after a friend or relative, then a Christian name like Paul or David, etc. and then their father's name. So they all have four names. They asked us what day of the week we were born on and none of us had a clue. Do you?

There seems to be an abundance of small churches here but very little knowledge of the truth. It makes our passion to teach pastors the Word more pressing. I can't wait to get started on Monday.

Thanks for your prayers,

Al

News from Ghana

I (Al) am in Ghana and adjusting to the 6 hour time change. On the way because of weather I missed my flight out of Atlanta and had to spend the night and then fly to New York to come on to Ghana. It is very hot and humid this time of year here with heat indexes over 100 everyday. Quite a change from the Midwest and snow that we left.

We spent some time today with Walter Pimpong the leader here. It turns out that we were at Trinity Seminary at the same time years ago but did not know each other. He is a fine godly man whom the Lord has used greatly here in Ghana. He has a ministry that rescues women who have been enslaved by a satanic cult. They have schools to train the women and other ministries to aide them. His group has also planted around 80 churches and we will be training some of their pastors and other pastors from the area in our conference. We hope to build some bridges with ReachGlobal for the future. The conference starts on Monday and we will be seeing some of the sights here in Ghana until then. I'll try to update as I can over the next few days.

Al

The End of our Time in India

Today we finished our meetings at noon. We celebrated together with our Indian brothers and sisters with a communion service. I really believe that they were significantly impacted by our teaching and the manner in which we conducted ourselves. One group of pastors told me that our teaching was some of the most significant teaching they had ever received and that they were excited to be able to use it with their people. One pastor told Mark, our training partner, that he was impacted by the humility we showed as we taught them. We were so happy to hear that because it is one of our prime objectives to serve them with humility and build them up in Christ. I built relationships with several pastors that I think will turn into opportunities to train in their areas of South India. All in all, we were delighted with our time here. When we are planning on a trip to a new area like this I find it hard to imagine what the people are like. I picture them as more or less a uniform mass of people. When we arrive and live here awhile we soon find out that they are as distinct as we are with widely varying looks and personalities. It has been a real joy to get to know these folks.

This afternoon we went to a shopping area. It is hard to describe unless you have experienced it. Instead of a mall it was really a series of narrow streets jammed with people. Literally thousands of small motor scooters lined every street. One section we walked into was a Muslim section and the dress of all the people suddenly changed. Some seemed not too happy that we were there. It reminded us of the challenges that the pastors face here with opposition from the Hindus and Muslims. Yet they have such a fervor to reach them for Christ. Perhaps the stark differences between them and believers reminds them that unbelievers are lost and going to hell. We in American have only subtle differences from our lost neighbors and we sometimes forget where they are all going.

We are excited to soon be going home but not without a sense of loss that we leave good friends behind. We comfort ourselves with the fact that we will return here again. Edie and I head first to Spain for a short vacation, the first in a long time. We are looking forward to a few days together before we return to the US and dive into a pile of work to get ready for the future. Thank you for partnering with us.

Al

Teaching in Bangalore

Our teaching here in Bangalore has been going very well. I have been teaching on our design as human beings and how in Christ we have a new identity. We are working our way through Romans 5-8. I am teaching them how to use these truths in counseling. The pastors and their wives have been super responsive and already making applications to their lives. Several mentioned that they wondered why their bible schools did not teach them these things. They are so thankful for what they are learning. One woman, Neena, was sitting with Edie and wrote a note saying, "deep and meaningful, a different perspective. I will use this in my counseling." It is a privilege and delight to teach them life-changing truths.

The women are warming up to Edie and becoming more open. They tend to be a little reserved at first. They responded well to her teaching. She has especially connected well with Neena and Beth, the leader's wife.

One interesting thing happened as I taught the first day. A pastor sitting in front began strongly shaking his head side to side as if in strong disagreement. However as time went on I realized that was not the case. It turns out that if the Indians are really engaging with what is being said they tend to shake their head that way, just the opposite of what we do in our culture. We all had a good laugh together about that when I mentioned it to them.

Some of the couples in our group have recently experienced strong persecution, with some of them being actually beaten and threatened for their faith. It impressed me that they are acting so ordinary, laughing, singing, engaging in conversation. I realized that they are just like us, ordinary people who are experiencing a cost for their faith. Pray for them.

We are enjoying the Indian food which is a bit spicy. We have tried a lot of new dishes and quite a few new varieties of fruit. We did walk down to the local KFC last night for a little bit of America again and it was so good! We have been invited to one of the pastor's homes for supper tonight, which will be fun.

Thanks for praying,

Al

First week in India

We are now in Bangalore and it is much cooler here, probably in the high 70's. It was up to 100 in Ahmadabad. We had a great time with Wilson and his wife there. Wilson and his son Nish and I had great discussions about our plan to train current and future pastors in their movement. We made a lot of progress but the issue is quite complicated. Training up to 20,000 pastors in the next 10 years is a logistical challenge. We still have some work to do to get the system worked out for training multiple levels of trainers to accomplish the task. You can pray with us for wisdom for all of that.

Here in Bangalore we have had a good time meeting with Charles and Beth who are the leaders of the Southern India EFC affiliate churches. We start our training this morning on biblical counseling and then this afternoon we speak on marriage. We look forward to a great week. Our hotel has internet so we will update regularly on the blog about what we are doing.

Al

Summary of Kenya Training

We finished our week of training here in Kenya today. We have tomorrow (Saturday) off for the first time in ages, and then I preach on Sunday morning. I leave for the airport on Sunday afternoon for the long flight home (arriving home in IA on Monday evening). It has been an interesting week with lots of surprises. The pastors and women worked very hard at learning how to do bible study. It is obvious that they have never been taught anything like this before. It became apparent that they rarely have preached on anything other than what they have heard. Looking in the bible for what it says and preaching on that is new to all of them. But they have come to realize that this is what they need. They are so open to learning and changing. They have made steady progress but still have a long ways to go. Considering their lack of study skills, it is amazing to me that God has preserved them from so much of the false teaching and heresy that are common in churches around them. God has been gracious to them and now they have the privilege of beginning to learn from His word directly.

I asked one day how many of them had read the whole bible. None had. I challenged them to do so within the next two years, a great challenge for them. They were eager to try. Few seem to have ever read through any book in its entirety. We worked a lot in Philippians to get them started working through the whole book. We got almost all the way through chapter two so they now have studied and have preaching outlines for that much of the book. My hope is that they will preach through the whole book in the near future.

I do not want to give the impression that these men are immature. Far from it. What they lack in study skills is more than made up in other areas. I listened to my translator pray in English and was amazed at the depth of reverence, intimacy, submission and expectancy in his prayer. I was moved. I thought of how shallow my praying seems in comparison. I have learned much from my Kenyan brothers. What a privilege to help them learn to study and preach and to teach others as well. Each pastor was assigned one or two others to train them in what they learned this week. They are excited to begin this. Would you pray for them that they would not only grow in their own ability but also be able to help others grow in His word as well?

Thank you for your interest, prayers, support and partnership with us in this ministry. The pastors asked me to tell the people in the US how much they appreciate the training they received. I wish I could communicate their smiles, hugs and enthusiasm to you. One day you will see it yourself when you meet them in God’s presence. God bless you.

Al