Men's Bible Study Begins!

Last night was our first Bible study for men in the village of Montana. I left pretty certain that 2 of the men would be there and was hoping for a third. When I arrived at the home of one of the men [Man #1], his wife said told Damaso and I that he left in the morning and had not returned. She wasn't sure when he would be back. Then we yelled to the neighbor [Man #2] who was also supposed to come, and his wife looked out the door to say, she wasn't sure where he was. The third man [Man #3] was there, but I wasn't surprised by that. Damaso and I stood there and while I wondered, what are we going to do now, Damaso carried on in conversation with the first man's wife. Somehow they got talking about music and she walks out with a Micheal Jackson "Thriller" album (yes, the vinyl). [excuse the tangent, but...isn't that a collector's item?].

After a while, Damaso looks at me and says "What do you want to do?" I replied "Let's take some time and talk about our plans for future weeks." As we were doing that, Victor walks up. Now Victor is the only one that said he definitely would not be there this week, because he had to work. So, the 3 men that said they would come, are not there, but the one who said he couldn't come...is there! Maybe we should plan to meet when no one can make it?!?

Victor is a believer and so I explained to him our plan. As we were doing that, Man #3 shows up. At this point, we had been there for 45 minutes and time was running short. I am pleasantly surprised to see Man #3 and wanting to make the best of the remaining time, I suggest we talk a little about why we study the Bible and the format we will use.

I asked the question "Why should anyone study the Bible?" The men started answering right away and the 3rd man said "I don't know anything about the Bible. I haven't really read it, but I think that I should. If I study it, I will start to understand who God is." Ok...stop right there. Will you please pray that this man would discover who God is? Will you please continue to lift us up in your prayers? It is very obvious to us that we are in a war. The men in this country are missing out on the riches of knowing God. Please be in prayer that this man will continue to come to the study and that he will discover who God is.

After more conversation, I then ask "How is it that you can study the Bible?" Various answers were given and then I shared our method of using the questions [we shared these in a previous blog entry]. We then decided to try it with one verse and we looked at 1 Corinthians 10:13.

It was fun and exciting to open God's Word with these 3 men. During our study, the first man arrived home and joined us. He apologized and promised that he would definitely be there next week [but we know that that means!!!!]. Next week, we meet in the home of Man #3. We hope he is there!

Thank you for our prayers!

Are We There Yet?

You know how your kids keep asking "Are we there yet?" when you go on the road? It is a sign of impatience and sometimes a lack of understanding time and distance. We have our own version of this travel game called, "Are we ready to start yet?" We play it with Dominicans on a regular basis. Below is an example.

For Valentine's Day, Iglesia Nueva Vida in Jarabacoa planned an outreach. Anyone from church was invited to bring an unbelieving guest, or guests, to a dinner and party. Our friend, Ramona, who leads woman's Bible studies in Montana thought this would be a perfect time to invite the husbands of the women attending the Bible Study. We jumped in on this idea and agreed to help with transportation as Montana is about 15-20 minutes up a good but windy highway from Jarabacoa. Ramona had about 10 people wanting to come. What a great opportunity for the guys to take their wives into Jarabacoa for a free Valentine's Dinner and hear about the origin of love, Jesus Christ! We were all excited.

In true American form, we planned to leave our house at 6:00, round up our guests so we could leave Montana by 6:40 and arrive at the dinner on time. Hehehe. We left our house a bit late, but arrived in Montana "on time" in the pouring rain. With Ramona, we stopped in to let each couple we had arrived. Within 10 minutes a few made the dash through the rain and climbed into our truck. We counted to see who was missing. One man changed his mind, but his wife came anyway. Had anybody seen Alvaro (not his real name)? Rick went to Alvaro's house and found out his wife didn't know the dinner was tonight. She wasn't dressed for the dinner and was relaxing in a chair. She made a call to Alvaro to find out what was going on. Responding quickly, Alvaro came in on his moto, wet from driving home from work. He looked surprised to see us. When is the dinner? Now? Ohoh. I forgot, I'll go see if my wife is ready. Soon he came back under an umbrella to say that since he hadn't told his wife the time, she wasn't ready and didn't think she could go.

Well, we didn't want her to miss out. Firstly, Alvaro's wife isn't a believer. When the November team was here, Rick and some team members shared the gospel in her home, and since then, Rick has talked with her and her mother often. But Becky hadn't met her and we really hoped she would come so that she might feel comfortable to attend a Bible study. So Rick and I walked through the rain and met Alvaro's wife and cajoled her into coming. Then we sat and watched the news with her son while she got ready. There wasn't much to talk about since the rain was deafening on the metal roof. Alvaro changed out of his wet things while his wife went to work prettying up. Then the lights went out. Shoot! Alvaro's son opened his cell phone (handy flash light) and Alvaro lit lanterns and candles. The lights came one, ahhhh! The lights went out again; good thing he didn't jump up and blow out the lights.

Finally all were ready and we picked our way through the puddles back to our truck and took off for Jarabacoa. I didn't even look at my watch to see how "late" we were. When we arrived things were just getting started and a few more people came after we arrived. We had a great time and Alvaro's wife won the drawing for the centerpiece! On the way home Alvaro kept remarking what a wonderful time they had.

I kept thanking God for going with the flow and not rushing off without Alvaro and his wife in order to be "on time." Worse is when we Americans read a Dominican's lack of time consciousness (being late from our perspective) as a lack of commitment, interest, or respect. We understand that it might mean those things in the United States, but we aren't in the US. We are trying to adjust ourselves to the idea that things get started when everyone is ready, not when our watch says everyone should be ready (think about it...isn't it courteous to wait for people?). This isn't to say that timeliness should never be expected.

But out in the rural areas, life takes you through its paces without a stop watch. If you have a job, you show up in the morning and work till the boss says you can go home. Laundry gets done when there is water and electricity at the same time long enough to complete the cycles of the semi-automatic washer and the clothes will only get dry if the sun happens to be shining through the afternoon. Meals are ready when they are done and often it doesn't make sense to start cooking until everyone is home to eat. You get up when the sun wakes you and your kids come home from playing when it gets dark. You go to town to shop when you aren't working, it isn't raining, and you can hitch a ride if you don't have your own motorcycle. So when Bible Study or school, or the odd Valentine's Dinner have a specific start time, it is the exception, not the rule.

Another glimpse into our world!

Montana Bible Studies

Since the Sonrise EFC Evangelism Team visited Montana during Thanksgiving week, we have been working with the local Christians to follow-up with those who made decisions for Christ. There have been many challenges along the way, not the least of which was our bout with Dengue Fever coupled with the Christmas holidays in which everyone is either extremely busy or gone to visit family in other parts of the island.

Previous to this fall's evangelism efforts, there was a women's Bible study meeting, a kid's club (some of the kids are pictured with Rick in front of the church) on Saturdays and regular services on Sunday. There were a few new believers that we began to work with in preparing for the evangelism week. Currently there are two new Bible studies going on in lower Montana. This area is some walking distance on the two lane highway from the church in upper Montana. Both are lead by Ramona, a resident of the area. One Bible study is for the workers of the Racquetball club neighborhood. The other is for those living along the main road and is held at the home of a faithful believer.

The women's Bible study has started trying a new study method which encourages shared leadership through guided discussion of a progression of Scripture passages. We are borrowing this idea from some research we did on the web looking for a group Bible study method that doesn't depend on imported materials or a high reading ability. Basically we read the passage and ask 5 questions:

1. What do you like about the passage?
   
2. What don't you like about the passage?
   
3. What don't you understand about the passage?
   
4. What does the passage teach you about God?
   
5. What can you do this next week, as a result of what you learned about God and His wisdom for our life?
   

These questions have helped start great discussions. They allow for people to participate regardless of their education. Thus far, we have only used it with the women's Bible study in Montana. We plan to use the questions with men and women, literate and illiterate, Dominican and American. In fact, we will be using them with two other American couples that attend Nueva Vida. We are curious to see how they work with people from different education levels.

While Montana had some Bible studies and now has recently started new ones, from what we understand, there has never been a Bible study for men. The most obvious reason for this is the lack of men in the church. Culturally, women are expected to be more "spiritual" and see to the spiritual upbringing of the children. Often, the men are on the sidelines. This is a big area of prayer for all of Latin America. Pray for a revival among the men. The churches need strong believing men and women.

Rick and Damaso, a Dominican who attends the Jarabacoa church, have begun going out to Montana with the desire to start an evangelistic Bible study for men. They have been out there a few times, working to build relationships. What we thought would start on the February 13, is now planned to start in February 20. We feel pretty certain that 3 men will be there for the first study. Two are believers, one of them came to Christ in the fall, and the third is seeking. One of them attends the church every so often and the other two have never attended the church. Our studies will meet each week in a different house (they are all within a blocks distance). Last night, as I sat with all three of them at a Valentines meal, my new friend who is seeking volunteered his house for our meeting. We feel good and thankful to God for the progress so far. Things move slow here, but then, if someone wanted to start a Bible study in your neighborhood with men who don't attend church, it might not be a simple phone call to the different men.

In addition, Rick has been talking with a lady named Ingrid about creating a Bible study for the young people (ages 15-25). Ingrid lives in Montana and has some boys in that age group. Her house is the place in lower Montana in which many of the young people "hang out". In November, she spoke to us about helping her start a Bible study with the young people. So, we plan to help her with this.

In early December, we were somewhat frustrated with our role here. We felt called of God to be here, but didn't feel like we had found our place and we didn't see how we could have any impact. One day, Rick realized that the best thing he can do, is to daily say to God, "I am here, I am yours, take me and work through me however you see fit." It is a simple prayer of availability and dependence for God to work. Since then, we feel God has been shaping our work. We came here with a desire to be a part of equipping Dominicans for ministry. And now, we are seeing some places in which we can do just that. We know it won't be easy but we are faithful that God is bigger and better than any challenge we will face. He knows today what those will be and all we can do is make ourselves available to Him as He walks us through the easy and tough times.