Ears that Hear

 Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.”  Well we are definitely in the “hearing” business...helping people hear and develop faith, which is trust for their own salvation, for healing, for a job, for...... the list goes on. 

I am reminded often of the awesome opportunities we are given to be a light, to serve, to bring hope, and to help people “hear”; this would be no exception....Recently the intern team, along with Skyler and myself spent the morning in what was meant to be discipleship classes in Kya Sands.  With the many teams coming through this summer, many Africans have heard the Good News and have accepted it for the Truth that it is.  With that comes the opportunity to further disciple those in this truth that is so new to them.  In an effort to help the tent churches we work with in the informal settlements we set out to initiate small groups in various locations of the camp as a means of follow-up and discipleship. 

My group headed out the furthest meeting place, over the river to Grace’s shack (one of our awesome translators).  Along the way we met Valentine.  He noticed we carried some booklets with us and wondered if we offered work.  He ended up accompanying us to the “bible study” site.  Then went on to do a lot of interpreting for us as there were 3 ladies from Mozambique that only spoke Tsonga and Valentine was the only one in the group that also spoke Tsonga.  The verse “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”, came to mind and still does as though we’ve tried to connect with Valentine since that day he is no where to be found.  Hmmmmmm???

Of the 18 ladies that we were prepared to take a bit further in their new journey we discovered only 1 claimed to have encountered our summer team members and even at that I don’t think she fully understood what was being asked and just agreed.  So our “discipleship” meeting turned into just good ole “Sharing Jesus” time.  After lots of talking, sharing, discussing, giving examples, and telling stories all 18 ladies bowed their heads and prayed to THE Lord asking for forgiveness and pledging their lives to Him.

We will now go back and next time have some discipleship time.

Can’t tell you how jazzed I was....what an incredible morning sitting on a log and various forms of rubbish that had the composure to hold a human, in the middle of a squatter camp sharing with African ladies who genuinely seemed to want to be there and who want to come back!
The picture is one I’ve held in my head for many years and today the picture took color.....

Pray for us as we continue in this discipleship venture with other areas in the camp as well.  We aim to pull in some of the translators and church leaders so to equip them to be the leaders of these groups.   Hope to have lots of “hearing” happening very soon!!