Day 16 -What a glorious Day!

GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME! Today was not an exception! Today we worshipped in the morning at Priscilla Street. Since I had spoken at both services there last week Jimmy spoke today (and I was glad for I taught for about 6 hours straight yesterday while Jimmy worked with John Kabul). Jimmy did an excellent job in both the Bible Study and the worship period. At the invitation we had two young ladies to come forward wanting to be baptized. One was a visitor who knew some folks there and was a very serious minded young lady of about 20 years of age. The other one – ARE YOU READY FOR THIS? It was Igenia – John Kabul’s girlfriend who has had several discussions with about all four of us before Dan and Dan left and then she had more discussions with Jimmy. Off they went to be baptized. They had to go to the national stadium pool and pay to baptize – Priscilla Street has a baptistery but it needs repairs (whose doesn’t?). We went ahead with services (we have been stressing the importance of baptizing immediately and Christian practices this wonderfully) and when they got back we finished up – It was a wonderful morning.

We are both just worn out from the last two days without Dan and Dan and all that we had to do so we came back after the morning services (about 1:15 P.M.) and rested – Jimmy was having a little trouble with his sugar count and I was just pooped! We did not eat (now I know that most of you just fainted thinking that I did not eat) and our crew picked us up at 3:30 P.M. to go and teach at Garrison Street.

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT THE MAJOR CONCERN OF OUR TRIP AND WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ IT SLOWLY TO SEE HOW GOOD GOD REALLY IS! Our main issue on this trip has been that after some time with Joseph we found that he had not been baptized properly and that he was refusing to accept the teachings of the scriptures on this. Unfortunately one thing after another piled on top of this issue to add up to many issues we had to face on this trip. We found him not to have the heart he had last year and yet in our studies with him he would open up and talk about the issues including his baptism and was willing to share that he really thought he was okay because he had been immersed – unfortunately it was into the Wesleyan church while he was living with Dan Gentry during the civil war here in Sierra Leone. When asked previously about his baptism he would say yes he was baptized correctly. We knew last year that he was just learning and he had been studying on line and we were led to believe that he had been baptized for the right reason and we saw a heart that wanted to know more – yes, we had to overcome many issues of denominationalism when we arrived last year but through patience and consistent teaching many hearts were touched and changed. You might remember that we just said we had to tolerate to teach.

This year when we arrived and started talking more with some of the brethren that are here we learned many things that needed to be addressed. As a result of learning about Joseph’s false baptism and other issues surrounding this (that I will not go into until we get home) we needed to change our plans (you have already read some of the reasons we did not go to Makeni). The four of us had several studies with Joseph before Dan and Dan left and Jimmy and I had another opportunity this evening at Garrison Street because Joseph was there. I took the Bible Study and Jimmy took the worship – we both were focused on one thing – addressing the issues that we had been plagued with and teaching the newborn babes in Christ (there were five newborn babes in Christ in attendance) to stand on their own two spiritual feet and be good workers according to the scriptures. While we were both tired and we had to overcome all of the noise outside of the building we were focused on the door that the Lord had opened for us and we both did not leave anything on the table.

We arrived back at our room and we were famished – we finally went over and got something to eat and had just arrived back at the room to prepare for tomorrow’s classes (boy we wish we had the two Dan’s back with us). A knock at our door and I went to answer it – Joseph was standing there. I asked him to come on in – he did (Jimmy was just getting ready to shower). Joseph sat down and looked at me with the eyes of the man I knew from last year – the eyes of humility – he told me he was driving home from Garrison Street with his friend Kammanda (who was baptized earlier on this trip) and Kammanda was telling him that what he had learned from our teaching and read in the Bible was correct and that Joseph was wrong! He wanted to know how Joseph could go on teaching the un-perverted gospel without obeying it. According to Joseph what Kammanda was saying was the same thing he had heard from our lessons and that his heart became pricked and he needed the right baptism! I called for Jimmy to come and listen to what Joseph was saying –

Jimmy immediately came and listened. WITHOUT DELAY – EVEN THOUGH IT WAS PITCH BLACK AT NIGHT – WE LOADED UP JOSEPH’S CAR AND WENT TO THE NEAREST BEACH AND WE TALKED WITH KAMMANDA ABOUT HOW TO BAPTIZE AND HE SAID HE KNEW HOW BUT HE LISTENED AND KNODDED HIS HEAD THAT HE KNEW – OFF THEY WENT INTO THE OCEAN IN THE DARK BUT JIMMY AND I STOOD AT EDGE AND WITNESSED KAMMANDA AS HE BAPTIZED JOSEPH INTO CHRIST!

If we had gone to Makeni – we would not have made the giant leap through the open door the Lord provided us with those of the institutional persuasion – also we would not have had the 17 baptisms we have had – also we would not have been able to work through the issues with Joseph - ---

Need I say more on this blog? GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME! TODAY WAS NOT AN EXCEPTION!!!!!