Our conference in Congo concluded Friday with the biggest group we had all week, 94 in attendance. Some of them came for the first time. The fellowship was sweet and the singing was even sweeter. Above are the 20 men who are part of the 5 churches planted by Didier, including the 5 preachers and other men who serve the churches in various ways. We met at a wedding venue that was provided by the donation of a very generous friend of the ministry so we were able to be in a very nice and comfortable place altogether.
Thursday we spent the day on humility (from Mark 10:43-45) then on expositional preaching. Colossians 4 was the case study we walked through and I tried to encourage the men in an interactive way how they can preach expositorily through books of the Bible even if their only resource is a Study Bible. Many of them do topical preaching from week to week but I encouraged them to try to put into practice what they learned by preaching through Colossians section-by-section, or other passages using exegetical study methods.
Today we also shared other free resources online in French which they may not be aware of to help them with their study without having to buy books (which is practically impossible here for the most part). There are free French eBooks by Ligonier ministries, MacArthur sermons, Gospel Coalition resources, and free Bible commentaries online by Jean Calvin, Charley Spurgeon, Matthieu Henry, Jean Trapp, etc. Also Ken Sande's The PeaceMaker is available online for free in French (reference below). Didier will share these hyperlinks on WhatsApp to all the men, and I pray they will bear fruit in all their churches.
Friday Tyler spoke first on deliverance and spiritual warfare, which is a big topic here, and I got questions afterwards about whether we should cast demons out when people are sick and whether the promises at the end of Mark 16 are for today (short answer is no, today if we get snakebites we should go to the hospital, not take that as a promise for us, but we can pray for healing like James 5 says and the key is faith, not what we do with our hands towards the sick person). That gives you an idea of the context here where dealing with sin for believers is often done by a deliverance ministry, casting out the demon of lust, anger, etc.
I spoke today on fighting temptation in areas of sexuality and anger and it seemed to resonate with many
Tyler ended the conference speaking on biblical reconciliation, using the PeaceMaker principles that we covered in our church conference in February on that topic. A lot of good Q&A came from this that we pray will bear fruit in real-life situations needing these principles applied.
Some praises:
- One mother there invited her whole family to come after she heard the teaching on Colossians 3
- Another older sister in Christ there was so appreciative and wanted to hold our hands for this picture
- One wife there came who had been estranged from her husband for over a year and she seemed to be open to the Word of God and was warmly welcomed and greeted by friends she used to go to church with. We pray the teaching on humility and selfishness and reconciliation will be at work in her and her family.
- A network of churches that have had a conflict for over 14 years were convicted and committed to try to resolve that conflict as it's been too long, and to try to put the reconciliation conflict into practice and to restore unity in a difficult situation with roots going back to misunderstandings with a mission who is no longer there. Didier is in touch with them to see if they'd like some private counsel before we leave to see what we can do to help, and is on standby to see if we might meet with them a couple hours tomorrow.
It is so encouraging to see people not only sit through 20 hours of teaching, but so hungry and thirsty for more, and wanting to put it into practice right away.
It was a blessed day of pictures, pictures, and more pictures. The first is of all the pastors present today and the second is of their wives.
Tomorrow we hope to get pictures of all the orphans together for the weekend as some of them are away working or at school during the week. Thank you who have been praying - God has answered and more!
Write a Comment
Comments for this post have been disabled.