Learning

This semester has been amazing for all of us. The information we recieved has been so practical and challenging. We have really enjoyed our classes. Most recently we had a class on animism which I found to be especially helpful. Joel, having grown up in an animistic culture, was not as amazed by it as I was, but he still found it useful.

The thing that stuck out to me the most was that Satan has done his job well. Animistic people are much less concerned with large ultimate questions (like what happens when we die, and what is truth), but are more concerned with the daily things that are affecting their lives like sickness, fertility, crops and hunting. Therefore they have no problem accepting Jesus, but then still going to the witch doctor for healing, because it has worked in the past. It is very difficult to get people to replace their worldview with a Biblical one. Our trainers have a lot of advice here about how to do that and that is why we train for so long, but in the end it is a work of God that needs to be bathed in prayer. We need God every step a long the way.

On top of that, this same speaker took an extra afternoon to share his struggles on the field. It was so neat to hear someone who has had such an effective ministry, share the struggles he had a long the way. He had some funny stories, but mostly had some very practical advice. There will be many hard days ahead for us, but God will be faithful to get us through them.