This Past Week: The weeks are flying by now. It hardly seems possible that we are only a few weeks away from finishing this first phase of teaching! On Monday Francois taught about the paralytic whose friends let him down through the roof of the house to see Jesus. The fact that Jesus could read the hearts of the Pharisees that were there watching was a big thing to those listening. His Deity is slowly coming into focus as the stories progress. Tuesday we were rained out yet again. All day we had been having rain bands coming through the area and only a handful of people showed up for the teaching, so the decision was made to postpone. Wednesday and Thursday we taught on more of the miracles Jesus did including healing the cripple man on Sabbath day and the resulting effect on the Pharisees. We taught through the parable of the sower and challenged each one to consider what kind of soil they were! We also spent a lot of time on the demon possessed man who was living in the graveyard and being harassed day and night by a legion of evil spirits. That is when the group came alive and kept saying, “That is what they do to us too!! They want to mess us up like that too!” Spirit possession is a key element in how the Mwinika people treat illness. We used an illustration of the evil spirits “playing” with people like a cat plays with a mouse. The cat might let the mouse go from time to time but has no intention of letting it escape. In the same way spirits might make it seem they are giving us health but they have no intention of letting us go in the long term. They grasped that in a major way!! We went on to further share that when Jesus cleansed this man of the evil spirits, he was indeed cleansed. Those on God’s side have His promise that He will take care of them, that does not necessarily mean their life will be easy but it does mean they will be free from the game of cat and mouse that they currently experience. We ended by telling them that we will soon be talking about a big choice each one has to make and that we hope they choose well. Also on Thursday our guests arrived and we have enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship with them. They were able to attend Thursday’s teaching. On Friday we had the graduation ceremony for our second literacy class. This class was held in the village our partners live in. Please pray that these recent graduates will continue to practice their reading and that excitement will grow for future classes.
Thank you for praying for my (Elin’s) health. I am feeling much better, praise the Lord, and getting back into a routine again. Elias came down with the same thing a few days ago but he too is on the mend. Continue to pray for all of our health – especially Phil whose remains very busy these days! Upcoming Week: Our guests will be with us through Monday then we will be on our own again for a while. Monday Francois will be teaching on the feeding of the 5,000 followed by more miracles during the rest of the week. The attitude of the Pharisees toward Jesus and His reaction to them is also a core part of this week’s teaching. Pray that the people will begin to see that the “religious” system isn’t what pleases God. God looks at our heart and our motivations. Many people are coming for the media players and the news is out that only a few more weeks remain for teaching, so quite a few are saying they want to come more faithfully. Pray that many will hear (by coming to the teaching and listening to the media players and fall in love with the Savior! Continue to pray for our health and for stamina these final weeks. We are tired and the major push is yet to come!