Our praying friends,
You have prayed, and God has answered! Thank you so much for the vital role that you
play in our ministry here in DRC.
Many of you followed our blog and/or the daily facebook
posts from our last orality training – Workshop 4 of the Mbandaka Story
Together Project. In late April the 8
teams and their consultants in this project began making their way to the city
of Mbandaka. On motos, in pirogues, by
foot, by car, and by plane, they came.
Some traveled for 4 or 5 days (as they have for each and every workshop)
to arrive on May 1. Their homework had
been to record at least half of their redemptive story set chosen during
Workshop 3. Follow the photos below and
thank the Father as you read how He answered our prayers. And don’t forget to see prayer requests at
the end of the post for upcoming events.
As usual our days begin with vibrant, heartfelt worship.
The consultant team made up of amazing Congolese and
American colleagues loves to laugh together.
Of course, Baby Grace, who just celebrated her 1st
birthday is a special part of our consulting team.
On the first day of the workshop each team was charged with
building a wall at least four levels high.
After all teams had completed their walls, everyone watched as our lead
trainer tested the walls to see if they were sturdy and had firm foundations. He then explained to everyone the importance
of crafting and compiling Bible story sets which have solid foundational
stories as well as additional stories which give strength to the teaching of
key doctrines of the faith or teaching about issues that disciples may face in
their unique cultural contexts.
In the coming days each team reflected on specific doctrines
which need further teaching in their churches and what stories they would
choose to teach them. Teams chose story sets about prayer and salvation and
family. They also discussed specific
issues being faced in their local churches and what stories would help to
prepare their church members to confront these issues in their lives and see
the transformational power of God’s Word as they put these stories in their
hearts. Teams prepared stories sets to
confront the prosperity gospel, the use of fetishes, and sexual purity. Each team chose rocks to represent their
story sets and was required to defend their story choices to the team of
consultants. This was an intense time of
learning, with even some pastors realizing that they have embraced false
teachings in their ministry. Afterwards
both consultants and other participants offered suggestions for other stories
to increase the strength of the “wall of teaching stories.”
And then at the end of each of these long days, teams spent
time recording more stories from their redemptive story sets. Each recorded story was checked by at least
two consultants and sometimes three to be certain that it is Biblically
accurate and interesting to listen to.
At the end the groups headed back to their villages to
continue telling His Story, telling it often, and telling it well.
So what comes next and how can you pray?
- Our colleagues the Finch family have been waiting almost 6 weeks on their visa to return to DRC. Please pray for their passport to be released soon with their visas.
- Jay is returning from a visit in the US with our boys. Thank God for the good visit and pray that God will glorify Himself in their lives.
- Please pray for a group of women here in Kinshasa who have committed to learning one new Bible story together each month and sharing it with their neighbors.
- Please begin to pray now for our second visit to Mossendjo, Republic of Congo in July. This will be the second and last of two orality trainings that we are doing as this team begins a Bible translation in their language.
- Please pray for the 8 teams in Mbandaka as they finalize their 35-story set of redemption and complete their recordings. Pray for team unity, for equipment to function properly, and for team members to faithfully tell the stories they learn.
- Thank God for our partnership with Seed Company, with whom we partner for these projects.
- Thank God for Jay and Kathy’s 30 years of marriage which they celebrated (apart) on May 20.
