MARRIAGE SEMINAR
One of the needs that we have seen come up over and over among the new
Christians is for some teaching on marriage. Many are experiencing
trouble in their marriages, and there is nowhere for them to go for any
help, advice or guidance (let alone counseling!). To try and meet this
need, and to strengthen the marriages of the believers here, our team
hosted a marriage seminar. At first we just planned to have a few
couples, maybe 10 or so, but as word got out, more and more people were
interested in signing up. It got to the point where the principal at
the local high school started signing up parents that he thought needed
some help! Another purpose was added to our seminar - reaching out to
families that have never studied the Bible before. The high school let
us use their buildings for the seminar, and we flew in a pastor from
Manila (from the same organization as our team leaders) to do the
teaching. 28 couples came to the 2 day seminar, which finished off with
a "date night" romantic dinner and dancing, as well as a renewing of
vows ceremony. Overall, everyone was very positive and we still hear
reports of how this has helped their marriage, and there are at least 2
new families who are studying the Bible as a result of the seminar!
FIRST AID
My teammate Tom came over the other day and asked, "Can I borrow your
motorcycle?". I said, "Sure. Oh, wait, let me wash all the blood off
first". Tom looked at me in surprise and said, "OK, what's the story?"
After returning from a Bible Study one night, I came upon a group of
people and motorcycles in the road. It just happened that the location
of this disturbance was in a known terrorist hang-out, so I was very
quickly trying to figure out what was going on and what I should do. As
I got close enough to the people on the road, I could see that the
expression on their faces was not good - the situation was tense. They
noticed me and motioned for me to come closer, and as I did, they
carried a young man over and put him on my side car. A couple of other
guys jumped on and they were telling me very urgently in their local
language "lets go!". As we got further away from the apparent accident,
I looked down at the man they put on my side-car, and he looked like he
was in a lot of pain. I asked one of the men where they wanted me to
take them, and I guessed form their answer the hospital. When we got to
the hospital, as usual there was no doctor or nurses there, so they
would not let us in. My passengers were not coming up with other
options, so I said I would take them to my house. When we got there I
was finally able to get a look at the man's injuries: a good size chunk
of his knee was gone, and there were several deep gashes in his leg.
This went way beyond the little first aid kit that I got out, but with
no other option I decided I would do what I could for him. As the dirt
and rocks washed out of the wound, I could see the bone showing
through. I poured a little peroxide on it and covered the wound with
some bandages and neosporin. One of the men had a cell phone and pretty
soon half the town was crowded outside my house. There was a discussion
about what they were going to do, and from what I could gather from it,
there were some who wanted to go and retaliate against the other party
involved in the accident who were from a different town, but the men who
suggested this were drunk so they didn't listen to them and decided
instead to take him to the hospital the next day. After that, they all
thanked me and left. Later, I heard that the 2 motorcycles collided and
that the driver of one of the motorcycles got angry and punched one of
the men on the other motorcycle. He then got his machete and started to
go after the guy, at which point I think I arrived on the scene. I
heard later that the young man with the injury was healing well,
although he was not able to walk for a while.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
"Why would God give us laws that we are unable to follow perfectly?"
That was my question to a new Bible study in a coastal town last week.
As they struggled to answer the question, I thought about all of the
other Bible studies this week where we studied about the Ten
Commandments. There has been a variety of reactions, from those who
would rather hold to their traditions and idols, to those who in
response to the lesson ask, "what should I do with all the idols in my
house?". Probably the most surprising reaction came after one group
finished reading a passage in Jeremiah 10 where it says, "They are
altogether stupid and foolish in their discipline of delusion - their
idol is wood!". There was a long pause after they read the passage.
Then the most respected man in the town said in a loud voice, "We are
all stupid!". In the discussion that followed, the believers traced
back their roots of idolatry to the Spanish who imposed Catholicism on
the people as a means of control, and who punished anyone caught reading
the Bible with a beating - 100 times with a large stick. Pray for the
believers who are struggling with their traditions which are opposed to
the Bible, that they would trust God and not bow to the pressure of
family and community.
Thank you all for praying!
Bryan
