We have a very important meeting coming up in the village. In the next week or two we will be sitting down with the political, family, and religious leaders in our area to discuss the details of how we can begin teaching them God’s Word. This is one of the most important meetings we will ever have in the history of the work. It is one thing for people to say they are interested in hearing God’s word but in a resistant environment, it is another thing to get the whole community to agree to listen as a group. In this upcoming meeting we need to decide many of the details regarding the main teaching sessions that will hopefully start by the end of the year.
The Mwinika people have a saying to express unity and agreement between parties. They say they are “sitting in the same shade.” We are trusting the Lord that He will give the leaders in our area a willingness to hear His Word be taught and a unity about the details of how, when, and where the first teaching should take place. There are a lot of factors involved and we are thankful that we can entrust to the Lord. It is His work and He has much more at stake in it than we can even imagine.
It reminds me of the first meeting we had in the village in mid 2004. The picture is of that first meeting. We (DJ Morrison and I) met with the village leaders about being able to live and work in the village. The Lord went before us in that meeting and now, years later, we are getting ready to agree on the details of what we promised them in that meeting that we would do. We trust that He will go before us again.
Please pray with us that He will be at work in the hearts of the leaders in the next week or so before the meeting. As a team we be visiting with many of the leaders individually to talk about the upcoming meeting and what we want to talk about in it. Pray that Lord uses these conversations to prepare hearts. Pray that the details of the meeting will come together. We will continue to update you with details as the meeting gets closer.