Biblical Foundations Training Level One
Pastor Roque (Rocky) preaching at the training conference
We had our very first Bible training conference this past weekend (November 1 – 3) with a total of 19 participants representing the three villages of Santa Clara, Santa Rosa and Yarina. It was an incredible time of teaching, demonstrating and practicing the Biblical principles necessary for strong, hearty growth in the Lord. I want to thank all of you that stood in the gap for this event so, so very much. Without your faithful intercession this could never have gone so well.
Our meetings were strategically planned to concentrate on the men, women and youth during our time together by breaking them up into groups and holding their specific training classes in different buildings on the farm. This proved to be quite effective since each group had very different comprehension levels and this allowed us to address them appropriately.
Pastor Roque teaching men Sharon w/translator teaching women Pastor Rufino teaching youth
I had arranged for two Shawi Indian pastors to come and minister as well, Pastor Roque (pronounced Rocky) and Pastor Rufino, and they were absolutely amazing! Although total opposite of each other in expression they delivered their sermons during the evening services and the training classes during the day in such a way that the people were hanging on their every word.
Pastor Roque is a very charismatic, dynamic speaker and incredibly free in his worship to dance and enjoy the presence of the Lord. As he did, this broke through a never-before-challenged cultural response from the Shawi Indians that came to the training. The look on their faces as Pastor Roque danced, jumped and shouted uninhibited to the Lord to give Him true worship was alone worth all the planning and set up for this conference. The Lord used him to literally change the atmosphere of the entire conference through the freedom that he was expressing in his genuine worship to the Lord. It was so out of character for a Shawi Indian to behave this way that it shocked the onlookers (even Pastor Rufino!) to the point that all they could do was stare.
Pastor Rufino, on the other hand, is very conservative in his expression of worship and public speaking although very confident in who his God is and what his relationship to Him means. This comes out very clearly in his mature, balanced teaching of the Word and because of this, I observed, it established a foundation of trust in the Lord that the people did not have before.
Three Shawi women came with their native hand woven skirts, headdress and string of seeds (percussion instrument) to help lead in worship. The man in the background is also wearing typical native dress for men.
We held five sessions a day with a church service at night teaching on how to listen/study the Bible, what is worship and praise and how to do it, what is prayer and how to do it, repentance, and several other subjects as well. As much as possible with each lesson we had included a time where the participants were actually doing what was being taught.
An example of this is in the photo below. Tito from Santa Clara, standing in the background on the platform, is reading a few scriptures from the Bible and then asking the people what was just read. Camilo, in the while shirt in the foreground one of our Christian workers, read the same scripture in his Shawi Bible so that the women could understand what was read. While this is a very simple method of studying the Bible it forces the listeners to pay close attention to the details of what is being read in order to be able to repeat it back. In doing this they will be able to retain what they hear longer allowing the Holy Spirit to work in their souls through the power of the Word of God. As they get more accustomed to doing this we can move on to something more complex.
Tito and Camilo doing the Scripture reading exercise
The conference ended with everyone being thoroughly blessed, equipped and challenged to move higher in the Lord. I told them that we will be continuing this once a quarter to complete a total of four levels over the next year and they were very happy to participate. The goal of these training sessions is to firmly establish them in the Word of God and in their relationship with Him so that it is clearly expressed in their daily life. As they grow in the Lord their life’s responses will be very different than before. Instead of going to a witchdoctor for physical healing or to resolve a conflict with a neighbor they will seek the Lord and realize their authority as a child of God to resolve these issues.
I am so overwhelmed at what the Lord did this weekend and can’t thank all of you enough that prayed for this training. I pray that you will be just as blessed, rewarded and encouraged at your part in this as I am in mine in seeing our brothers and sisters leap forward in their relationship with the Lord. God bless you hugely in all that you do!
Participants with their certificates of completion and the trainers
