One must keep their focus when living in a foreign country where things do not always go the way you have planned so we focus on the most important thing and that is that we have a regular discipleship training going for almost all the male teacher training students and have also started one for the students at Machame, a hospital about ½ hr up the mountain. There are about 500 students there in the nursing and medical officer training program and most of them are in their 20’s. My male assistant in the teacher training program here at the Rafiki village is turning out to be a good Bible teacher so he is going to run the disciple training program on a Sunday afternoon at the hospital. It is simply held in a spare classroom. Ours here at the village runs for about 3 hrs on Saturday mornings. First hour we study a Bible book, second hour is aimed at the details of personal discipleship which is built around handouts based on a CRU (former Campus Crusade for Christ) outline. For the last hour I dismiss all the students except my assistant and he teaches me the Gospel of John in a practice session. During the week he prepares the study using my Bible Knowledge Commentary set. In this practice session I give him constructive suggestions for the next day, Sunday, when he will actually teach the study to nursing and medical officer students at Machame. I love his enthusiasm and ability to retain what I teach him. He had to drop out of the teacher training program between the second and third year to save enough money to pay for a room and food for the third year. He is singularly my best student and is doing a wonderful job as my assistant into this coming academic year.
We are inserting a picture of the male students in the discipleship training program here at the Rafiki village, two students are missing when they stepped out for a break. The one squatting on the floor and holding the commentary volume is Paschal, my assistant. You will notice I am wearing something on my head. It is a crown made out of a cardboard box. There are nine points on the crown in groups of three with the central three raised above the other six. I wear it when teaching this part of the discipleship program which is a subheading of “complete surrender”. The crown represents a major theme under “complete surrender” which is seeking God and not sin. We are spending three sessions on what it means to seek God. The material is taken from a very “ancient text”-Deuteronomy chapter six (about 3500 years old)-which has at least nine important points. The first is “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (v. 5).
The second picture expresses my joy in the wonderful privilege of teaching young men and women about these things. It reminds me of the Lord’s joy when Israel in the future will be reconciled and married to Him permanently. This is a major theme of the OT book Hosea. I am asking the Lord to let me in on this joy and celebration now although the event is still future. His plans for ancient Israel after being separated from Him these thousands of years, symbolized by the children of Gomer, his wayward wife, reflect this great joy. Although they are now called Lo-ruhama and Lo-ammi (she is not loved and not my people), God will change all this through the miracle of regeneration. They will be betrothed or married to Jehovah forever. The features of this betrothal will be in righteousness, justice, lovingkindness (hesed, it is loaded with meaning used over 250 times in the Bible), compassion and faithfulness (Hos 2:19,20). The conclusion is “then you will know the Lord”. Lord, let me know you in these ways and experience the joy of it more deeply!
Lest you think I am just getting too heavenly minded for my own good the last picture is one of my students mopping the floor of our new building. I still spend most of the day (about 7:15 AM to 5:00 PM) mentoring the students through the curriculum with the students at 8 levels and directing cleanup at the end of the day. We still really need a visionary lady to join the program as a music/art teacher who is interested in discipleship for the women. The fruits will be great.
Lest you think I am just getting too heavenly minded for my own good the last picture is one of my students mopping the floor of our new building. I still spend most of the day (about 7:15 AM to 5:00 PM) mentoring the students through the curriculum with the students at 8 levels and directing cleanup at the end of the day. We still really need a visionary lady to join the program as a music/art teacher who is interested in discipleship for the women. The fruits will be great.
