Wow, The Time Has Gone By Fast

Hello, Well, it is been a crazy couple last weeks with three different seminars and three different books taught on the Bible School here finishing with a few days of debriefing with the team. Our Titus Project Outreach is now officially over and the time has gone by so fast, but it has been so good. Thank you so much for your prayers and support during this time, it truly could not have been done without you.

Right now I am trying to quickly prepare for this week. I will be teaching the book of Matthew on the Bible school this week, but have had very little time to prepare and am a bit overwhelmed trying to get my head around all 28 chapters. This update will be quick because I need to get back to studying Matthew, but here are a couple of the highlights from the last two weeks:A week and a half ago we had an amazing two-day seminar. I’ll admit, when we arrived we were a little disappointed because only about 10 people showed up, it was set up at the last moment, we were very tired from all of the teachings and honestly did not feel like teaching. We gave it everything we had and were encouraged by the responsiveness of the students, especially when we learned that the entire leadership of the church was present. They seemed to be excited and were very engaged, giving wonderful answers. At the end of the two days is when I finally learned what God had been doing. At the finish, the pastor stood up and told us that he just came back from finishing seminary two weeks ago and just a few days before our seminar he had a discussion with his elders saying that he wanted to change the way the church gave messages. He wanted to begin teaching the Bible with expository preaching, by going through a book and helping the people to understand the Bible. (This is in direct contrast to the vast majority of churches who preach feel-good messages, the majority of which never even use the Bible in their messages) But he said his problem, is that he did not have a framework by which to study and then teach in this way. He told us that that week God miraculously answered his prayers and brought us to show the leadership how to study the Bible and to give them a framework to follow as they take the church in a new direction! I can’t express with words how in awe we were of what God did. Our sovereign God, in His divine timing, sent us there at that time as a direct answer to this pastor’s prayers and we had the honor of being able to give them a foundation for the future.

The following week we were deep in a village. Our translator drove his two-wheel drive car for about an hour and a half on a muddy village road after torrential rains that I would be scared to drive a 4 wheel drive Landcruiser on. I was positive we would be spending the night in the car and prayed the entire drive, but each time we got stuck, it seems that our prayers were miraculously answered and we had just enough of a “lift” to get us out again. But that week was a wonderful time with the pastors who came from all around. It was great to be able to encourage them and see their hunger for the Word of God. It is such a privilege to go deep into villages where teachers rarely go and be able to see the joy and eagerness of the believers as they get to study the Word of God
After that we had a time of debriefing with the team and it was wonderful to just hang out and reflect on the last few months. We also had the chance to spend a day white water rafting down the Nile River. That was a highlight I won’t forget. We kept flipping over in the middle of grade 4 and 5 rapids. It was an awesome time!

Well, I need to get back to preparing Matthew, but I just wanted to say thank you for all your prayers and support for the last few months. The team is now gone and I will be here on my own working with the Bible school and traveling and doing more pastor training seminars. So please continue to pray as now I need it more than ever by being on my own.

Please pray:
- for this week, that God would anoint me and give me an understanding of the Gospel of Matthew so I can clearly communicate its message to the students and that it would bring about a change in their lives and mine.
- For continued health and safety. Things are going to get very busy, I will only have a few days to rest between now and when I return to the States at the end of January. So please pray for health, strength, and energy.
- Please pray for the logistics of all the seminars that are coming up. The schedule is beginning to be set, but here nothing is certain. Misccoummincation is the norm, not the exception. So please pray that God makes the arrangements and the right people come together at the right times.
- Please pray that I would be able to deepen relationships with the people here and would not feel that I am on my own.

Thank you again,
Sincerely,
James
www.ToMakeHimKnown.com