until you sin and then you have to be saved again. Or so was thought by ten precious hearts until just recently. A year and a half of Harold & Coni sowing Truth is starting to suggest a fruitful harvest.
We just finished a 4 day retreat with the Kids’ Club leaders: six guys and four girls 18-28 years old. They lead a “kids club” once a week – like a day camp every Tuesday afternoon, originally focused on the street kids who have very little to be doing with their time. About 180 kids come to the house every week to hear stories from the Word, sing songs, learn in small groups, and leave with homework to work on and bring back the next week. At the end of the year, they have a test and everyone who passes the test gets to go to camp – a new and enthusiastically received experience for Tanzanian youth.
We ran the retreat in the same building that will be used for the Hope of the Nations Bible College. We had an amazing time. For Brooke and I it was a return to the dorm life. Late night conversations, honest questions, hours of quiet time, reading, and journaling - these leaders want to know, want to grow, and feel a weighty responsibility to teach accurately.
The curriculum was prepared based on what the leaders had told us they wanted to teach at Kids’ Club over the next few months. But within the first seminar and throughout all devotional times, their questions focused very specifically on God’s Grace. True Grace is simply not taught here because the churches are afraid that their people will simply take grace and run, continuing to live their lives doing whatever they want. So salvation is what is always taught because if you sin, you are no longer saved until you again ask for forgiveness. Salvation they have, but they have been stranded like a 2 year incapable of an honest, mature relationship with their Creator - thus their spiritual depth runs no deeper than the top soil. It struck me in these conversations that while we know this form of “Grace” to be untrue, and we spent these four days taking them through the Scriptures (Ephesians 2, Romans 5 and 6, Hebrews 10, etc.), we still often live our lives this way. I still feel pressure to earn the love and gift of God, though He has already given it to me. I still think I have to make myself worthy, though I will never be worthy of the gift He has given me. Instead of allowing myself the freedom of digging into a relationship with Him, I keep myself at a distance because I don’t feel worthy to have that which He has already given to me. How sad for God, how sad for Kigoma, how sad for me. It was a poignant reminder of the need for the Bible College that we are working on beginning here. Hopefully 15-20 pastors will be here in March beginning English classes (they need to have a decent understanding of English to make themselves available to the many resources that exist - resources in Swahili are basically non-existent) and preparing their personal hearts for a program of in-depth Biblical training. They need to understand all the Word teaches about who God is, and in light of this, who we are, so they can in turn teach their congregations from a strong foundation. They treat the Bible the way Israel treated the Law, as scriptures focused on our life and behavior rather than scriptures that reveal a beautiful Creator. Please keep Africa before the Father; He has many very young children here who don’t know that He loves them enough not just to save them, but to have them grow into His mature sons and daughters.
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