As I entered the village of Buenos Aires, people were going about their normal activities. Many were sitting around the different little house stores [imagine people selling things through a window of their house, one house sells bread, another chicken, etc]. Alex was working in one, butchering and selling chickens. Julio was standing outside the window, most likely waiting to buy food for dinner. They had invited me to come and help them with a Bible study in their village.
Buenos Aires is a village located in the hills, about 15 minutes from our home. It has a Nueva Vida church plant that began in the early 90's. Alex and Julio and another man, Don Chucho, lead the church, which does not have a pastor. In many ways, it seems to be the strongest of the 5 daughter church started by Nueva Vida in Jarabacoa. In March, I had offered to help the church and while we had many conversations, it didn't seem like much progress was being made. But a few weeks ago, Alex approached me about this study and now we were excited to begin.
I went out there, not really knowing what would happen. I prepared a small Bible study, but didn't want to "take over" if they had something going or had ideas. When I arrived, there were a little surprised to see me. They had decided to start the following week, but hadn't told me. But, as they said, since I am here, "let's start!" Within about 10 mintues, we had entered Julio's house and and 8 men had gathered. We sat in a room, around a table. The table almost completely filled the room. To get in, they pushed the table to one side against the wall. I squeezed down to the other end and some of the men sat down on the one side. Then they pushed the table as tight as they could to the other side, where the men were sitting and other men climbed in on the other side. With everyone in the spot, Julio and Alex introduced the men, sharing who was a believe are who was not. This was done very openly. I guess you can be blunt, when people are pretty much stuck in their seats. I laughed to myself about this, but even laughed more when we went to open in prayer. You see, the custom here is to stand when we pray...so you can imagine the commotion that developed as every tried to squeeze their way to their feet and then return to their seats after the prayer.
Julio and Alex shared they a Bible study option that was good for new believers, but they wondered if I had something that would be more fitting for this group. Thankfully I had prepared something. I shared a little about who I am, shared some rules and we began our study looking at 1 Corinthians 10:12-13. We had a good time as we discussed the temptations that man face, God's promises, and our response to temptation.
The groups ages range from 15 to 40. At this point, we have only met twice. At our second meeting we spent a lot of time helping the men understand how to find verses. The level of education really varies in the room. While I think most in the study can read, some are at a very low reading level. And numbers seem to be a challenge. For example, if I ask them to turn to page 1094, some would not be able to find the page. As a result, the table of contents is not as helpful. So we are taking our time, helping each person discover God's Word, how to use it and what it tells us about God.
Our study will focus on stories of the Bible. Most of the stories will be totally new for many of the men and as we read the stories we will focus on "Who God is" and "How God relates to people." Some questions we will consider include "Understanding who God is/Seeing what God has done here, what is your response? Can you trust God with your life, with your daily decisions?"
It is exciting to start this new study. Even more exciting is to be working with Julio and Alex. This is an opportunity to get to know them better and to encourage them to grow in confidence for leading Bible studies and teaching.
Be in prayer...each Saturday at 7 pm (more or less) Atlantic time, you can remember me and a group of men who are swooshed around a table, discovering who God is and how he relates to us.
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