Today marked the start of the conference. We opened the day with beautiful singing in Swahili, then Dad taught for two hours on Ephesians chapter 1. In this section he addressed the question "What is the Church?" He spelled out how we see that throughout biblical history God's plan has always been to make worshippers, and his ultimate plan was the creation of the church. He explained that we as saints are commanded to be worshippers of God. He spoke of how salvation is through faith alone and that works cannot gain us salvation. In addition, it is the Holy Spirit who seals our salvation in Christ. Because of this we will one day receive an inheritance as a reward in heaven for what we as believers have done on earth. He then opened the floor for questions the listeners might have. Two of the questions dealt with sin: 1) If I am a saint, why do I keep falling into sin? 2) What must I do to stop committing sin? These people were starving for the truth of the word and desired greatly the wisdom of the Word to sink into their everyday lives.
This picture is of an old Pastor who sat on the front row holding his tattered Bible and reading glasses that looked as if they had been repaired a hundred times. Both days he sat and soaked in every word said.
In the afternoon we split up into two groups: men and women. Mom and I taught the women while Dad and Jonathan taught the men. The men walked through the second and third chapters of Ephesians. Mom read both of those passages, explaining some of the concepts as she went, and at the end asked if there were any questions. There were many questions and they continued until we had run out of time. The first was "How can I raise my children to be godly Church Members?" Another asked about gossip in the church, explaining that there were women in her church that were spreading rumors about her. Some women were dealing with adulterous husbands, and others with polygamists. One woman asked about a situation where her 6th grade daughter had gotten pregnant and her school would no longer allow her to attend. What should she do? Wait for the child to be born and care for it while her daughter is in school? Or would it be better to abort? We obviously advised the first option. Another woman asked about how to care for their family and avoid domestic strife/violence within the home. Mom and I and a couple other church leaders addressed these problems the best we could and we hope and pray that our words were taken to heart. We pray our words encouraged these women to stay strong in their faith and remain faithful to their husband and families.
Mom and Mrs Irene (Pastor Lawrence's wife) who interpreted for us.
Some of the 40+ women who came to hear us.
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