Thursday: More Training

Thursday was the continuation of Wednesday's teaching. Dad continued in Ephesians through the beginning of chapter 6. We had discovered the day before that polygamy was a very prominent problem in the district. Unlike in the States, the laws for marriage are not as detailed. Many of the marriages are sanction by the community and the government considers that sufficient. So during the section of Ephesians 5 which deals with the relationship between an man and his wife, Dad stressed the need for godly men to follow Scripture and love their wife as Christ loves the church. He taught this along with the topics of "How should a Church Member live?" and "What is the role of the pastors?" 

After lunch we again spilt into our groups and mom and I taught the ladies and Dad and Jonathan taught the men. The men finished out Ephesians by looking at the armor of God and examining how the church should conduct herself when under persecution. I went a different direction and looked at what it meant to be a biblical woman. We looked first at the story of Eve and saw the reason why woman was created and how it was later distorted by sin. Then we looked at the stories of Sarah and Hannah and compared them to one another. The women related to these women very well for just as the women were in polygamist relationships so were they. They asked how they could live alongside their cowives and what kind of a relationship they should have with them. Many of them wanted to know if God could still use a second wife for his glory. They wanted to know how they could deal with the other women and how they could be witnesses to both them and their husband. Mom and I did the best we could with the help of Mrs Irene and answered those questions as gracefully and biblically as we knew how. This is a situation we do not see often in America nor is it a problem we had ever encountered. Many of the second ( third, etc) wives did not want to leave the man and were afraid of being put away because there was no way they could provide for their children. I read to them the story of when Sarah put out Hagar and Ishmael and how God provided for them in the desert. I told them that while it is a frightening thing to live without provision, God is faithful to provide for his worshippers. One of the things we told the women is that while they many not be able to escape these relationships themselves they can teach their children (especially their sons) to follow the biblical principle and by doing that they will save their children from their lifestyle. 

These are pictures of our group on Wednesday but on Thursday we had almost 70 women listening.