Our desire is to see our Agutaynen brothers in the Lord become lovers of God’s Word and proclaimers and defenders of His Truth. With this desire, our team has decided to move forward in equipping and training the Agutaynen men.
This month, Manfred and Stephen have asked the men to give up three mornings and come to study the book of Titus together. The key word is “together”. The missionaries and the Agutaynens are reading and listening to the book of Titus together, over and over.
We try not to teach them concerning the message found in Titus. Instead, we ask the Agutaynens questions and hope they give us the right answer. For example, we asked them, “Who is the writer?” or “What was the problem with this group of believers?” or “What is the believer to do based on this verse?” and finally “What does this mean for us today?”
Sometimes, the Agutaynens quickly give us the correct answer. Other times they don’t. But when they don’t, we together read the book again. Each morning, after a passage has been discussed and studied together, Manfred and Stephen then give the men several opportunities to teach that passage to the group of men.
In many ways this has been an encouragement to everyone, both to the Agutaynen and to us the missionaries. In the end, Manfred and Stephen will print an Agutaynen commentary booklet of the book of Titus. This commentary will be comprised mostly as a result of the hours spent together with the Agutaynens. Our team will also add culture notes, and cross-reference passages. A final check will be having the Agutaynen men look at the rough draft for proof reading and to add any comments we left out.
We hope to have this commentary finished and printed within a few weeks. Then we will also give the men the opportunity to teach, passage by passage, through the book of Titus to the believers on Sundays.
Please pray that this will encourage and strengthen the faith of the believers. We hope to choose another book of the New Testament and do this again, possibly in May.