Day Thirteen

GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME! Today is not an exception! Upon our arrival (after a very short night of rest) we were talking with a young lady by the name of Michaela who is 21 and was attending an Evangelical church. It did not take long to see that the four of us were just too intimidating to her – so as we have done this whole trip three of us backed off and let just one talk with her. Dan Barker talked with her for some time and she expressed the desire to be baptized. While this discussion is going on Jerry (who is sharp and who is the one that was baptized last evening and the one who was baptized earlier in his life by those of the Boston movement) was having a discussion with a young man of about 25 years old. Jerry has stated that he really wants to just go and teach one on one in his life and he is good at this and knowledgeable to do such – yes he is a babe in Christ (like Victor) but oh the knowledge they have and now that they have been pointed in the right direction who knows how much seed will be sown. Back to the discussion between Jerry and Samsura the young man – after a period of time this young man made the decision to be baptized – well Christian, Theopolis and Victor had already left with Michaela to baptize her – we got our crew to take the young man and Jerry and away they went to meet up with the others – YES – TWO MORE SOULS YIELDING TO THE CALL OF THE GOSPEL – GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME! Today is not an exception!

Dan Barker got us started in our teaching today with a great lesson on personal evangelism. He has followed the plan of equipping those in the audience with the basic knowledge of what to teach others and how to teach others. One of the BIG issues we have found in Freetown is that many that were taught by the institutional believing folks are not grounded in the basic first principles of the gospel. As a result we have really dealt with this and Dan has been the point man every day to get us started.

We switched and had Jimmy Lee go next with the subject of “Now That I Am A Christian” – of all things he asked me to be his scribe and write on the blackboard – folks I cannot even read my own writing! Anyway he really drove home his points and hit several issues we have found to be lacking in Freetown – again among those who have been baptized recently and in the past by those of the institutional belief. In case you are wondering – he did a really good job!

We then took a short break and answered some questions and then went back to teaching. Unfortunately a lady had an epileptic seizure and this delayed us for a few minutes – she was okay after a while.

Dan Byers then followed the plan he has been following and taught on what a congregation is to do as far as the work is concerned. He drew on the board and he took his time and walked them through every point – they were writing his points down and were so attentive. For many of them this is teaching they had never heard before – remember our audience – mostly those taught by the institutional belief and few of those who were baptized when we were last year scattered in and even some from the community who are hearing the lessons from the windows and just come and listen. Daniel did an excellent job and really set up my lesson well.

My lesson was on “Authority and Issues of Division”. I taught the first part on authority by using examples we had been using about all week – drawing those out on the board. Then I asked them if they would like to see some modern day examples of division in the Lord’s church because of a lack of respect of authority they wanted to hear some. First I gave the example of missionary societies and the board of directors over them – they were somewhat astonished and said there is no scripture for a board of directors which means the institution (company as they call it) cannot be supported by the church treasury – next was orphans and the board of directors appointed to oversee orphan homes – they came up with the same results – next came schools – they came up with the same results – then came sponsoring churches and I used the example of our congregations the four of us attend and the one church of the institutional belief that came over and started all of the congregations here before we came last year – they were very silent and you could hear some moans – I asked them if there was authority for this – no was the answer – I closed by telling them I will let them chew on that overnight and we will discuss more tomorrow.

Then more questions and answers and Jimmy “The Riotous One” got the ladies stirred up by answering a question on the covering and then on a woman wearing tight pants and away we went – the highlight was Jimmy parading down the aisle acting like a lady that was just looking for a man and that was a riot in itself –then in only a way that Jimmy could do it he switched gender and started acting like a man who was looking for a women that was not dressed properly – the audience got the picture and it was a perfect illustration (a sight for sore eyes but a perfect illustration) - that just escalated when the question of whether a man should marry a woman that is not a member of the church – that really got going when a fellow from Nigeria stated that a man should follow the same rule as a woman and they should look in the church for their spouse as this is the place to look it. Well this was followed by my suggestion that all the unmarried woman that were members of the Lord’s body stand – they did and then we did the same for all the unmarried men – then we said maybe you should look closer as here are some great candidates.

Tonight we to Wellington where Dan and Dan spoke – they had not spoken there as of yet and since they leave tomorrow night this was their night to teach there. Of course they did a great job teaching about how special a child of God is – Jimmy and I just gave a brief statement to encourage the congregation. Just a word about the two Dan’s - these two wonderful men and teachers of God’s word: Jimmy and I have both just been overwhelmed by their quick adaption to these conditions – their willingness to do whatever was needed to be done to enhance the work of the Lord in the Freetown area – their knowledge of God’s word – their wisdom in assisting the four of us in some of the most stressful issues we faced and these issues were more stressful (and still are) than any trip I have been on has just been tremendous. They are such good men – sound in the faith – dedicated to the cause of the Lord – we pray for their safe return home and look forward to serving with them again on this foreign soil.
GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME! Today was not an exception!