Watching the Spirit Reveal Himself

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

Praise Him that we successfully completed our first eight-week Bible storying class and that seven women learned and were able to repeat the stories!  There were also several others who heard the stories, though they haven't yet learned them well enough to retell them.

Prayer Necessities:

1.  Pray for me and for the ladies as we start up our next eight-week course on Thursday.  They will be learning three stories from the lives of Abraham and Moses.  Pray for me as I memorize and teach the stories, and pray that the students will learn them well and will be granted the Spirit's revelation into His Truth.

2.  Pray for my next language evaluation, which is scheduled for the end of this month.  Pray that I would arrive at level 5 and be released to begin full-time ministry.

3.  Pray that the Lord would reveal His direction for the location of my ministry once I've achieved the required language level.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:

Hanging out with some of my students after class

My Bible storying classes are always a mixed bag.  From week to week, I never know who will be in class with us.  I have a core group of six or seven who are consistently there, but new students frequently join us as well.  Some of the students are already followers of Christ, and a few have followed Him for many years.  There are others who have not yet made the decision to follow Him, and a few know very little about Christ at all.  All of the women are from a variety of backgrounds:  Some come from the villages of Thailand and some from Bangkok.  Some have a background of drug addiction; some speak a little English; some have children, while others do not.  They all have different stories and are at different points in their journeys.

Because of the mixed nature of this group, it's sometimes difficult to know how to teach them.  I'm learning just as much as they are - and probably more.  I have no background in education, and I'm realizing just how difficult it is to teach so many different types of people.  My only teaching experience comes from teaching pharmacy students and from teaching Sunday School at my church at home, and this setting would be far more diverse than either of those, even without the cross-cultural barriers.  It's just plain hard.

But, man, is it ever fun. :)

When I discover a new way to engage my students, it is one of the best feelings in the world.  I absolutely love to watch their eyes light up and see the interest on their faces as they listen to these stories and watch me act them out.  I have the best subject matter in the world to teach.  This is material that will truly change their lives if they can grasp it.  It's more important than arithmetic, more important than reading and writing, more important even than learning their own language.  I get to handle and teach the unique and life-changing Word of God, and I'm amazingly blessed to have such a privilege.

Once the women have learned the stories well enough to retell them, the next step is to ask them questions about it.  That's what I got to do a couple of weeks ago after they had learned the story of Adam and Eve's fall from Genesis 3.  I asked them questions on the curses God had put on the snake and on the man and woman.  I asked the ladies what they thought about Adam and Eve's disobedience, whether or not it was bad, and why they thought so.  I asked them what they thought about God's banishment of the people from Eden, whether He was wrong to do so.  They all thought He was perfectly just to do so.  They really understood.

May I remind you that this class has several people who don't follow Christ?  Yes, they were answering the questions, too.

But my favorite part was when I asked them what they learned about God from the story.  I have one young lady in the class who is relatively new.  She started learning with us at about the sixth week, so she missed the creation story and just began learning the story of the fall.  I'll call her P.

P is one of my favorite students.  She's not a believer, but she has a Bible.  It's an illustrated version that is probably meant more for kids, but it is fantastic for people who know nothing about the Lord.  She brings her Bible to class each week and follows along in it as I tell the stories.  She watches me like a hawk as I act them out and even helps her classmates if they forget parts of it.  She is a sponge, just soaking up all of God's Word that she can.

When I asked the question on what they learned about God, P chimed in with her insights.  It is amazing to watch this young lady of a Buddhist background begin to know the One True God.  This beautiful young woman has spent her entire life praying to false gods and trying to appease and manipulate spirits that she thinks can take care of her, but the Spirit is revealing His Truth to her.  And it shows on her face.  She's hungry for more of Him.

How cool for me that I get to be involved in giving her more of the Bread of Life!