Bible Study

As we've posted on other days, Eric and I attend a very small church in the nearby village called Moutongo. There are about 15-30 adults there on a Sunday, and with kids the totals are more like 40-50 people a week. A few months ago, our little group was still called an "annex" of the bigger church in town that had started it 3 years ago. But it has just been promoted and now is called a "church" and we have started actually paying our pastor a salary :) .

Eric and I aren't the only missionaries to go there - things fluctuate, but there is another missionary couple or two that often goes to Moutongo as well. But we are far outnumbered by the Africans, and play a very small supportive role in general as the pastor and other leaders are capable of good organization and teaching. Infrequently, we help by giving a sermon, acting as treasurer, helping in Sunday school, or leading the service as emcee.

One of the changes that the pastor's wife, Emma, wanted to make during this time of transition is to help the women of the church build better relationships with each other and with God. So this Wednesday, we had our first "small group" for a women's Bible study. The teachers will rotate, but I took the first week.

This was the first time I've lead a small group Bible study in French, and I haven't done it in English in quite awhile either. But it was a very encouraging experience. There were about 12 women there. We started with a name-game where you stand in a circle and throw a balloon around as you say the first name of the intended catcher of the balloon. The ladies giggled and had a great time, and I wasn't the only one to learn some names, which made me happy :) .

The theme for our studies for the first few weeks or months will be "relationships," and this week was "Having a Relationship with God." We talked about whether God wants a relationship with us and if so, what kind of relationship. Then we discussed what can keep us from having a relationship with Him, and finally we talked about why Jesus came as a man to die for us and what he accomplished by that.

What I liked most was seeing these ladies look for answers for themselves in the Bible. One of the weaknesses in the church that I see here is that people take a speaker's word for something when they should also know the scriptures for themselves as well, to test whether they're being told the truth. As the women read passages in Genesis, Revelation, Romans, Philippians, John and other books on Wednesday, it was a joy for me to see them re-establish the firmness of their foundation in Christ and the reason for their hope.

At the end of the study, we discussed salvation at length - how to pray so God will forgive our sins and begin to lead our lives. We all prayed together, and one lady said she had never prayed for God to save her and come into her life before. What a joy it was to see this woman become a sister in God's family!

After the study, I found out that a few of the women had been Christians for a number of years and had done Bible studies a long time ago, others had prayed to receive Jesus a few years ago but had never been in a Bible study, this lady (above) was brand new in her faith, and there are perhaps some others who haven't made this decision yet. We prayed for one another's needs at the end, and I think we had a great beginning to learning something more about relationship, both through experiencing it and through seeing God's example of how to love.