{"id":1464,"date":"2014-08-11T06:25:08","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T10:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/?p=1464"},"modified":"2014-08-11T06:25:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T10:25:08","slug":"posted-by-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/2014\/08\/11\/posted-by-email\/","title":{"rendered":"Posted by email"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI liked the teaching today. I could understand everything! It is in my own language and this is good. I want to come again and hear more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could these words be from the same man who openly rejected the Bible teaching and Jesus last year? Amazing… But then, we worship an amazing God!<\/p>\n

Alifa (middle front in photo) is the owner of the local religious prayer house (of a well known middle eastern religion) in our neighbourhood. In this culture, each religious house \u201cbelongs\u201d to a family and each family has a religious leader. Alifa is this man for the most important family in our village. Last year, when we started the Chronological Bible teaching for the first time in the village close to ours, he refused to go. He is one of the oldest men in our village and it broke our hearts to see him choosing darkness over the light. It happened three days into the teaching, we had a car load full of people and as it was their religious day, we stopped at the religious house where a bunch of more people squeezed into our car. (Car\u2019s in Africa, always have more space for more people :)). Some declined the invitation, by simply leaving quickly, but Alifa stood in front of the house and refused to come. When I tried one last time, he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cBe quiet! Don\u2019t say anything more! This (and he pointed to the religious house) is all I need and want from God. Go! But don\u2019t expect me to come to this teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hush fell over the people in the car and nobody spoke for some time. Alifa\u2019s rejection of the Bible teaching had put a definite quenching effect on everyone.<\/p>\n

It is more than a year later. The faithful ones who often went to the first cycle teaching last year, have now grown into two groups of believers who are coming together once a week to study the Bible more intensely and intentionally (This is called \u201c2nd cycle teaching\u201d, meaning the second time we go through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, but this time with a different focus: our identity in Christ).<\/p>\n

As we started with another Literacy class in our village a month ago, it was clear that there was a definite need for another Chronological Bible class (1st cycle). Although many from our village participated in last year\u2019s teaching, many could not or didn\u2019t want to go since it was at the neighbouring village and a bit of a distance to walk.<\/p>\n

And that is how we started with another Bible class on Friday, last week. (This would be the third official teaching through the Bible with the intent of evangelizing people in eMwinika).<\/p>\n

The most remarkable thing on this first day\u2019s teaching? Four religious leaders arrived! (All in the front row on the photo). None of whom, as we went around the village inviting people to come, we ever thought would do so! Two of the men are the owners of different religious houses in our villages and the spiritual leaders of their families. All of them agreed afterwards that they not only liked the teaching but intend to come again! We believe that this will have a great infusion into the willingness of the other members of the village to also take the step to come.<\/p>\n

Pray with us that many, many will come; that they will be ready to hear the truth, accept it whole heartedly and be saved! Pray for Wasi who has been discipled for the last year by one of the believer leaders from another village. He will be leading the teaching here. Pray for his protection and a deepening of his relationship with the Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI liked the teaching today. I could understand everything! It is in my own language and this is good. I want to come again and hear more.\u201d Could these words be from the same man who openly rejected the Bible teaching and Jesus last year? Amazing… But then, we worship an amazing God! Alifa (middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":808,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ministry","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/808"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/francois-hattingh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}