Day Eleven

Another somewhat sleepless night last night – but the day has brought some good things.

We went to Priscilla Street to start the teaching and what a joy it was again! We ended up having a packed house again and ANOTHER ONE HAS OBEYED THE GOSPEL! A man by the name of Samuel who had been attending at Garrison Street came to realize that he had not been baptized properly (folks this is one of the major issues we have been facing – many were immersed into some denomination and not into Christ!) He told us when we arrived that he was troubled by this and wanted to correct this – we had him stand and he made his confession before all and immediately Theophilus took him to be baptized. This really set the tone for the day as it uplifted everyone and let me tell why we needed uplifting.
When the crew came to get us today John Kabul came in very troubled. We sat down with him in private (him and the four of us) and listened to what had happened. The last two Sunday’s at Wellington one of the higher authorities (a very devout Pentecostal) at the Port Authority where John Kabul works had tried to take over the Bible Study period – I dealt with him the first week and Jimmy dealt with him last week. This man called Eddie then called John Kabul last night and talked for one hour about how we were teaching a doctrine belonging to a cult. How John was not going to be his friend again – how terrible it was that this was happening. Eddie tried to persuade the people at Wellington that faith only will save them and they should not believe anything else. Also, John then got calls from three others who have threatened bodily harm to him when they see him on the streets because he is not following the teaching they want him to follow. The landowner (the structure is owned by members of Wellington but the land is owned by someone else) has told John to stop teaching this un-perverted gospel. John just broke down in tears – he is a good man and would not harm a flea and yet he has now been threatened for serving the Lord. This is troubling but he will stand for the truth – we sure do have it easy being Christians in the states don’t we? Please pray for John Kabul!

We started today’s teaching with the thought that we could commit spiritual adultery – the audience picked up on this thought – then Dan Barker started his lesson on Biblical Illiteracy – he went through that lesson and the points he made were just outstanding! The packed house was with him all the way and he taught them that even though they may read the Bible they may not know what is in it – he also explained that all the questions we get from the Old Testament about instrumental music and things like that could be answered if we all studied the Bible to know it. He related that the Old Testament was something we should know so we can understand the New Testament better – he gave the example of Hebrews as a book that was written along that line. A GREAT JOB OF TEACHING BY DAN BARKER TODAY!

Dan Byers then picks up on fellowship – he starts with the special relationship with God that Adam and then Eve had and how it was severed through sin. He explained this in full detail by drawing out on the chalkboard (yep that is what they use over here – a chalkboard). He then started detailing out how everyone who obeys the teachings of the un-perverted gospel of Jesus Christ is reconciled with God through Christ giving them a special relationship with God. Then he drew a line connecting all of the individuals who had put on Christ in baptism in order to have the special relationship with God through Christ to one another to show they had a special relationship to one another. The he circled three or four of the individuals to state they may be members in the same location working together to do the Lord’s work in what is called a congregation. Tomorrow he goes further on fellowship. TWO LESSONS BY THE TWO DAN’S – AGAIN DAN BYERS DID A GREAT JOB OF TEACHING – THESE TWO ARE JUST AMAZING IN THEIR APPROACH TO TEACHING IN THESE CONDITIONS.

We then had questions and answers and then a short break.

After the break – here comes Jimmy “The Riotous One” – Jimmy had the task of teaching about the woman’s role in the church and folks a riot about started because we had about one-fourth of the packed house was women that are members at Priscilla Street. They were on every word and so were the men – several had questions they wanted answered RIGHT NOW! Oh did Jimmy ever do such a great job – he walked among them and let them ask their questions and yet maintained control to teach them about that women were equal but they were to be in submission and he brought out scripture after scripture teaching this. The audience (just like with Dan and Dan) were hanging on every word and writing down the information. Then Jimmy switched at the end of his lesson to bring out I Corinthians 13 to show that things like prophecy are not needed anymore and therefore a prophet or prophetess is no longer because we have the complete word of God. YEP! OH “RIOTOUS ONE” DID IT AGAIN – ANOTHER LESSON ANOTHER GREAT JOB OF PRESENTING IT – folks it is a joy being among these three talented teachers.

My lesson I must admit was not too bad – it was on “Proper Music in Worship”. I taught that there are at least four ways one can worship – in truth – in vain – ignorantly – self-imposed or self-willed. I walked through the passages where singing is mentioned in the New Testament – used Hebrews 8 (again as we have used it several times) to show that if the old law had been faultless there would not have been a need for a better covenant. As a result the worship of the Old Testament gave way to the worship of the New Covenant – then I walked them through some historical findings and statements and also some statements from denominationalists who state that instrumental music is not acceptable in true worship.

This was a great day – one baptized – many questions dealt with – good audience participation – well-presented lessons.

Now on to more news on Makeni. I cannot cover all the issues but here is news that you do need to know. The gospel is going to Makeni – not the way originally planned. We have the names and addresses of 21 individuals who have completed a correspondence course given by World Bible School (an institutional church sponsored missionary society). They WBS representatives refused to baptize the ones who wanted to be baptized because there was not local congregation there. Theophilus and Christian have these names and addresses– their plan is to go knock on the doors of the folks and set up Bible Studies with them, teach them and establish a non-institutional congregation there. Our part of that plan is to spend time with them and Victor (yes the Pentecostal who was just baptized but who is extremely knowledgeable in the Scriptures who has now given up his $20.00 (yep $20) a month salary from the Pentecostals because there is no turning back for him in studies) to strengthen them. Folks John Smith mentioned in a special addendum to this blog about Victor’s influence – guess what – he speaks the language of those in Makeni – he has a great influence among many in Makeni – he is on fire for the Lord – so our plan – to study and study with him and several of these new Christians next week here in Freetown – then they will go do the teaching – now you can see some of what is behind our decision. The rest of what is behind our decision will be told when we are home.

Tomorrow is another day with more opportunities – special thanks again for your support and prayers.