We began our ministry at Hope Education Center on Saturday night. We went to dinner, had some prayer time, then hailed a “tuk-tuk” (golfcart-like taxi) to head to our destination. Sadly, we couldn’t remember how to get there and our driver didn’t know either. We had the street number and a close landmark. We ended up driving around for over an hour when it should have taken no more than 15 minutes. (I don’t think we have made it to any destination on the first try yet. Check out Annie’s blog http://anniebower.theworldrace.org to hear about our bike ride.) Our driver stopped to ask for directions, we pulled out our maps, and we called everyone we knew that might be able to help. Finally, we found street 138 and started down it. We soon realized that we were at the other end so after turning around we ventured through a dark alley that reaked like garbage, our tuk-tuk got stuck in the mud and we had to get out and walk, then we went through another alley were there were tarps over the top and our tuk-tuk was skimming them. We were bumping and jostled all over. I was expecting the driver to be fed up with us being lost and just tell us to get out, BUT we did finally make it! Only an hour later than desired, but we made it. After the long journey, many of us were not too motivated to be there.
When we arrived, they were doing worship. We filed our way into the center of the room. We expected there to be a lot of people and to our surprise, there were about 20. They finished worship and then divided into 3 groups. Morgan and I are teaching about leadership, Spano and Candice are teaching about discipleship, and Andrew and Annie are teaching about new believer follow up. Morgan and I had 8 men and 1 woman in our leadership group. They range in age between 18-25. They are all currently studying at the local university. We began by asking many questions about leadership – what it means to them, good examples, leadership in their culture, when have they been leaders, etc. We read from Matthew 20 when Jesus talks about becoming the least and serving. They participated in discussion and had many good questions. We will be studying different leaders in the Bible and observing thier leadership characteristics. All of us walked away encouraged and excited to participate in this ministry.
Yesterday, our second day there, we began looking at the leadership of Nehemiah. It was interesting because they had never heard this story before. They said that they mainly read from the New Testament so it was neat to talk about something completely new. They are eager to learn as they take notes and are focused on what we have to say. We plan to continue with Nehemiah tonight before moving on to other leaders.
In our group, we made friends with a girl named Pilot. She works at a Christian coffee house called Jars of Clay. We are going to stop by to visit her at work today. She explained that they have many ministry opportunities and we are going to look at those as well!
Please pray for:
– students – their lives, walk with Lord, finances, calling, studies,etc
– our team as we teach each night and create relationships
– for other ministry opportunitites to arise out of this ministry
