Day 10

Marking our sixth day of teaching here in Nicoadala...

This is Joâo Sulude, and he is one fantastic person. Joâo is not a pastor, but is heading up the theological school here and has been working with Pastor Olympio. I believe he is currently working at a church, kinda like a inter or interim pastor. It is probably only a matter of time though be he is ordained and has his own official church. Joâo is extremely bright; he speaks some English, is teaching Portuguese to Jim, and has been to a theological school. He's the one that taught out of 1 Samuel on the first day...this guy can PREACH! He is also very kind, patient, has a great sense of humor, and is becoming a great leader.

Please, take a minute and pray for Joâo (John in English)

Wanne made pancakes this morning (yum!), and it wasn't long before we were out the door. If it wasn't for Wanne, I would forget my coffee pretty much every single morning. Every morning though, she has a cup waiting for me just before I leave. John says I've inherited a second mother, haha. I few days ago I was comparing my cup to John's...which as you can see is MUCH bigger, so I told John I felt like a kid at a big boy's table. Pretty much right after saying that, I dropped my cup and spilled coffee everywhere. Prophecy fulfilled I guess, haha.

Billy picked us up, since John's truck was still in the shop and it wasn't long before we were at the teaching center. I said hi to many of the pastors, and several of them just laugh when they hear me speaking Portuguese back. After some songs and the morning devotional, I was up again. We were able to finish going through the Psalms and moved onto Proverbs...and there we got stuck, but in a good way. I starting outlined the MANY proverbs that deal with sexual immorality and in the curriculum I wrote, I did this in four major points. It took us almost 40 minutes to get past point one! Mind you, my first point was about sexual satisfaction in marriage...so, I little awkward. haha. To give you an idea of what was asked, here were some of the question I had to address:

* After the birth of the first child, the woman's interest in sex goes down. What do I do when she no longer desires to have sex?

* What do you do when a man leaves his wife, has an affair, contracts a disease, but then wants to reconcile with his wife? If she forgives him, she'll contract the disease as well.

* How does a person who sins in this way find forgiveness?

* If a Pastor does this, and he repents, can he continue to be a Pastor?

Here was the two that just floored me...

* What do we do if a Pastor cheats on his wife with another women, the church confronts him, but he doesn't repent. Instead, he leaves his wife and the church to live with the other woman and continues to be in the ministry. Should this man be a Pastor?

ALSO

* If that SAME man comes back to his church along with the woman he had an affair with, should he be allowed to come back since his former wife still attends?

Haha...Those where just SOME of the questions, and there was also a lot of discussion. That fact of the matter is, that all that is probably happening. The other reality is, it happens in America as well...probably much more than we think but we've just become insensitive to it. See, it's easy to answer these questions OUTSIDE of the situation but now lets pretend that you know the guy in the previous question. In fact, you've known him for years. You've had him and his family over for dinner many times, his children are friends with your children, you work along side each other, laughed together, cried together; he's your dear friend. Also add in a culture that is truly more about people then self, marriage is a foreign concept, polygamy is openly practiced, animism to generally believed, and the democratic thought process is practically unheard of. NOW answer those questions...tad harder, huh? What is amazing though, is that God's Word cuts through ALL of that. No culture can contain it. All of my answers were there, and nowhere else. In short; I am having soo much fun here :)

By the time we were done with all the discussion, it was far past the usual time that we had our "bread break". So, we relaxed and I spent most of the time talking with John and Jim about what had just happened (and also checked to see if I messed up at all, haha). In many ways I feel small compared to these guys...John is a seminary grad, long time missionary, in-your-face kinda guy and just pours out godly wisdom. Jim is very much the same way, he's not a seminary grad...but he should be teaching seminary classes. So, I always check to make sure I'm doing good amongst these two.

After the break, Rick began teaching on the concept of worship and it's implications for the pastor. It was a great teaching time, and he was able to answer questions and clear up some misconceptions. During his teaching time, I tested myself and while looking around the room I discovered that I THINK I have everybody's name down. Now I just gotta make sure I have the right name, to the right person.

Lunch came...rich, beans, fish. After I ate I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out a card game some of the pastors where playing. It was SUPER confusing, especially since they were only playing with about 20 cards, and for some reason all the 10's were placed off to the side.

As I said in earlier posts, today was a half day of teaching since tomorrow is Sunday. John had to stay for a meeting, so Jim & Billy took us home. Once home Wanne took me out to the markets and I found some pretty good things to bring home. I'll be looking around in Maputo and Jo-burg for a few more things though.

John's been having a lot of "car issues" though, so pray for him. On his way back home, a mat had fallen out of the truck in front of him...then struck and scattered windshield on the truck John was driving. He spent a VERY long time at the police station...which is very sad because earlier during lunch we had a throw down and were gonna settle a debate via Halo on the Xbox.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to a new work, which is about 2.5 hours away from home. Hopefully I'll get lots of pictures! Thank you for prayers & comments, they mean the world to us! Don't forget...I'll be video skyping the church during the 10am service!!

Things to remember...

* "I just wonder if it tastes like chicken" -Billy

* "That buck was soo beautiful, I could see the gravy dripping off it's leg" -Billy

Everybody getting that Billy is a hunter by now? haha

* "You flatlanders just don't drive well" -Rick

* "Josh, how many Samusas? 4 or 10?" -Wanne

Favorite picture...