This weekend we just completed a 3 day training seminar on
how to use Bible Storying in evangelistic home Bible studies. Jon did the teaching and our primary students
were three couples from our churches in Jefferson and Salem . Our plan is for Jon to teach three Bible
studies – one in Salem , one in Jefferson, and
one in Albany –
with one of the three couples involved in each one. The idea is that after teaching them how, they
could watch him do it in a real life situation. As weeks pass they will have opportunity to
teach parts of the Bible study until, by the end of a 37 week progression of Bible
stories they will be well equipped to lead Bible studies on their own.
Our goal is to teach the same seminar in 10 months, next
time with each of these three couples having their own learners watch them as
they lead new Bible studies. Hopefully,
next year we will be able to identify 6 new couples that want to teach Bible
studies. We can take three couples and
our current three couples can take one couple each under their wings. That is the plan now. We will see how God leads and blesses.
Right now we are in the process of finding homes to have
these new Bible studies. Two new studies
are on the calendar. On Wednesdays we
will be in Albany
with co-leaders Juan and Remedios. On
Sunday evenings we will be in Jefferson with
co-leaders Baltazar and Herlinda. We
want to find two more homes to have Bible studies in. We want one in Salem with co-leaders Luis and Jessie. We also want one more in Albany
or Lebanon
that Juan and Remedios will teach on their own. Juan and Remedios were in a Bible study
Jon taught for a year and a half in Lebanon and Juan also taught that
Bible study when Jon was not available. So…
we actually want 4 new Bible studies. Jon
will teach three and Juan will teach one.
In the next few days, Juan will be visiting prospects in Lebanon and Albany
and Jon will be visiting prospects in Salem .
Pray that we can arrange these two Bible
studies quickly. Pray for us as we teach
them; and pray for the people that are going to be attending these studies. If you would like to pray for these people by
name Email Jon at sousaj@bauercom.net as we do not want to share their names
here for privacy reasons.
Just a brief note on Emanuel’s condition (see previous
posts): We have been taking Emanuel to
dialysis three times a week. He is
slowly getting better as he is learning to eat the right kinds of foods. Emanuel has had to spend a night in the
hospital from time to time because of high blood pressure.
