Next Phase of my Trip: the Pastor/Teacher

So far I have been very occupied as "the doctor" around the clinic—or at least so far as wound care and immunization is concerned.  But for the next three weeks I will be much more busy as a teacher and pastor.  Yesterday I started a discipleship group with many of the Sudanese nationals working on the compound.  It came about very quickly this week, so that I did not have much time to prepare.  But it seemed very good to me to focus on what it means to “love God with your heart, soul, mind.”  On Friday I asked all of them the purpose of life and answered with the Great Commandment.  Then I asked them, “what would your life look like if you did love God with your all?”  It is one thing to know and say “love God with my all.”  But that is knowing it in your mind.  What about your heart, and your soul?  What does it actually look like to love God entirely?

I didn’t answer that question for them, but I shared testimonies of men who have loved the Lord so that we could observe their lives and break the religious mindset of “being a Christian means going to church and doing good things.”  The Sudanese respond the most to story.  They weren’t raised with 12 years of education like Americans, and they have difficulty sitting still and learning from a teacher.  But tell a story, and everyone wakes up.  I shared three:
     1)  John Riak, a Sudanese man who acquired blindness and terminal heart disease at the age of 12, who was miraculously healed by God (but was still blind), was miraculously dictated the whole New Testament of the Bible by God (he saw the verses in Dinka before his blind eyes as if a finger read them to him), memorized all of it, and lived the rest of his days preaching the gospel, raising up pastors, and even healing the sick.  Sebit knew this man personally.
     2) Brother Yun, who is the subject of the book “The Heavenly Man,” who was miraculously saved in China a couple decades ago.  His life is one of unbelievable miracles, suffering, and persecution for the sake of the gospel.
     3) The calling of Jesus’ first disciples in Luke 5.

I then encouraged them that our Bible study will have this focus of loving God entirely and learning how to follow Him.  Please pray for us all.  We will meet every Tuesday and Friday.  Pray for me as I follow Jesus in leading these men.  Pray for a love to consume me for them.

I am also preaching tomorrow (briefly) at the ECS Church, and early this week Sebit is gathering all the town pastors together to encourage them and edify them in light of Peter’s sin two weeks ago.  Then, when the pastors arrive August 1, I will be teaching 1-2 times a day M-F in the Bible School.