Dear ITEM Partner,
I am preparing this in advance of my trip to Madagascar on Sunday. On Monday I will meet with our team to do some planning. I’ll have more to say about that on later in this post. But today I want to bring some hopefully tasty leftovers from the three days in Utawala (seminar). And I also want to introduce you to Kenya’s Mightiest Prophet.
LEFTOVER QUESTION
Here is a question I don’t think I mentioned in previous reports.
After my lecture on spiritual warfare and mentioning that one writer used 1 Timothy 2:15a (the woman will be preserved through the baring of children) to teach that all women are to bare children and if they don’t, they are cursed and need a deliverance, came this comment and question.
Q: In our context if a woman cannot have children by her husband, she may be given to another man to bare children because women are to bare children and her parents are asking her for grandchildren. (That may not be exactly the comment but close.) Is that right?
ANS: Nathan asked to answer that one and I was happy to let him. He essentially said that we are to glorify God and that parents without children can glorify God also. He went on the say this was one of those “tradition/culture vs Scripture” conflicts and that we need to stand with Scripture.
REQUESTS AND COMMENTS OF THE HOST
The host pastor had kind words all week long. On the last day after going through the lecture on the theology of Ephesians and Romans, he pulled me aside and asked me how I was able to put the structure of these books of the Bible together. I told him what techniques I use when I begin to study a passage of Scripture and the Bible. I also confessed a lot of it was from my training. If you are interested in seeing the “structure” he is talking about, here are the notes.
Structured Outline of Ephesians
The second request he made for me to give some suggestions on what they all should do to follow up the seminar on their own. I suggested a few things, all of them were designed to get them back into the notes they had been given.
Then, during one break he came to me and said, “One thing that is so good is that everything you say comes right out of the Bible.” I told him that that is what I try to do and I was pleased that he noticed.
This is the example I was shown at the first Shepherds’ Conference I went to as a young pastor/preacher in 1983 and have desired that for myself ever since.
KENYA’S MIGHTIEST PROPHET
One day as we were driving home from the seminar, Nathan and another man in the back seat, were talking about Kenya’s Mightiest Prophet. I immediately thought of Nigeria’s TB Joshua. I asked them some questions about him. I guess he went from “prophet,” to “mighty prophet” to “mightiest prophet” (if I remember correctly). I did a little research and it didn’t take long to come up with some pretty amazing stuff. And to think these men have huge followings. Why? Because the Word of God is not taught much at all in most of the churches leaving people and pastors very vulnerable. Here are a couple of links worth looking at. Neither article are too long.
Went to Heaven to Anoint Jesus’ Seat
Will Be Assassinated and Ascend to Heaven
POSSIBLE JULY OPPORTUNITY
We were planning a seminar in Jos, Nigeria in July. Jos is where the ITEM ministry started in Nigeria when Nathan lived there in the early 2000s. We haven’t been back there, I don’t think, since he left to go to school in So Africa many years ago.
Nathan got a call from the one who is organizing the seminar who told him that their denomination (ECWA, Evangelical Church Winning All) is having a meeting of its own in the area at the same time. They are working on plans to give me a chance to present some of ITEM’s training to the entire group pastors and church leaders. I think Nathan said there are about 80 churches in the district.
This is certainly something to pray about.
MADAGASCAR PREVIEW
I will be meeting with the team on Monday. Things are developing slowly in Madagascar. The purpose of the meeting is to set clear direction and make sure there is complete understanding of where we are going in Madagascar and how we are planning (by God’s grace) to get there.
Also something I’d ask your prayer for.
Thanks for praying and participating.
Here is the link to the picture album. I think I added a group picture: 4 ladies and me.