Day Four -- 18 baptized!!

KEEP ON READING TO READ OF 18 SOULS BAPTIZED!

We had a very short night of rest (not sure any of us really slept well). The long day of Monday and all the events were just almost overwhelming to us – yet we were ready to go this morning at our given time.

We were able to have a very good breakfast at Crown Bakery before we went over to Ebenezer Hall for teaching. We had good conversation with our “crew” and really enjoy our “down time” of about an hour with them before we taught. They take good care of us and watch over us extremely well. However, we understand the society here and are very cautious with what we have and do.
We started our session today with a question and answer period. This lasted about an hour and ten minutes and we still had a number of questions to deal with. However, we came to teach and to answer questions – so we started our lessons at 1:15 P.M.

Dan Barker (What is a New Testament Christian) went first as was our plan. Words cannot describe the great job he did. They were attentive – they were looking into the Bible (the ones that have one) – they were taking notes and they were really into the lesson. He gave some great illustrations and he really challenged them on whether they were a Christian according to the New Testament.

Dan Byers followed on his assigned subject – the family as God would have it – yesterday he went into detail concerning marriage – today he went into detail on divorce. Let me just say that Dan did a great job of almost creating a riot!!!! We give them 3 x 5 cards to write their questions on and I can attest to the fact that there were 3 x 5 cards flying everywhere with questions. One of the saddest was on the subject of incest that seemed to come from one who may have either been a victim of this or very close to one whom was. Dan did another wonderful job of presenting his lesson. Dan and Dan have really adapted well are just great Bible teachers – the congregation at Fayette is fortunate to have both of them in the same congregation.

Jimmy Lee spoke again on The New Testament church – and of course again he was just great! He really got into some issues today and he did not back down from challenging the audience on the name of the Lord’s church – who built the Lord’s church and whose body does a New Testament Christian belong to. The material that Jimmy has put together really compliments what Dan Barker is doing and what Dan Barker has put together really compliments what Jimmy is doin. In between of course Dan Byers is leading them right into the fact that the having a family as God wants physically relates to having the “family of God” spiritually as He wants. These three fellows are teaching their hearts out over here.

Jimmy Lee writes - I can’t speak for the other guys, but I’m not getting much sleep. It seems that Steve is coming over earlier each morning to wake us up. I wish he would oversleep in the morning. Anyway the day began with breakfast at the delicious Crown Bakery. It is owned and operated by a couple of Brits and the food is simply terrific. I had my favorite…a good size cinnamon roll, as did Dan & Dan. But Steve had to be different and ordered Eggs Benedict… after all he is the Big Boss this year.

There was another large crowd today to listen to our topics. Index cards have been passed out to write their questions on. We were just swarmed with questions mostly due to Dan Byers’ topic on divorce. These folks are suffering in their home life in so many ways. We could not answer all the questions, so our plan is to begin earlier tomorrow in hopes to answering their questions. In closing, I really miss my wife! I love you Sandi.)

I followed up my lesson of yesterday on the Bible and how we got it and who wrote and facts about it with a lesson on the importance of the prophecies found in the Bible. Many here do not understand the importance and the great comfort of knowing the prophecies found in books of the Old Testament like Isaiah and that these prophecies were fulfilled.

Oh yes, I need to tell you one important thing – THERE WERE 18 SOULS BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST TODAY! As you know it seems that when one wants to be baptized in Freetown there is always an issue about transportation or something that is so frustrating – not today – we knew that some wanted to be baptized so we mentioned this to a good man Christian Asgil. When it was known that we had these folks wanting to be baptized he took it upon himself to take them with the assistance of Theophilus and another gentlemen to the national stadium pool right then and baptized them – to God be the glory of this great event!

We again have to tolerate to teach – but we are thankful that God is granting us the courage to be bold and address these issues right up front. Our prayers are that as we continue to teach on this trip and on trips to come that many of these issues will disappear. Part of it comes from ignorance and some from stubbornness of not wanting to change their old denominational habits. However, many issues are being addressed and we are seeing great progress.

One individual who continues to impress us is John Kabul. The spiritual growth is being seen on a daily basis and oh how he has grown in the last year and how he is such a sponge to learn again this year. You might remember that his wife died in January of 2009 of a heart issue. He mourns for her and yet he knows he is young and needs to move on in his life. He has met a young lady by the name of Ieginia (pronounced Egenea). She has never been married but like many young ladies over here has had a child out of wedlock. Her little boy’s name is Jessie. She is a very pleasant young lady who was raised a Methodist. She has been absorbing the material that we have been presenting and after our studies today told John Kabul that she was thinking that she needed to be baptized into Jesus so she could be added to His church. Folks when we heard this need I tell you that there were wet cheeks? All of her thoughts are not based entirely upon our teaching – we are just re-enforcing the great teaching that John has been doing with her. We pray that she continues to study and comes to the conclusion to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tomorrow morning will come soon enough – it is close to 10:30 P.M. here now and there is much studying to do before our teaching tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers and we pray that all is well with each of you – WE COULD NOT BE HERE WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT!!!!