September/October 2013 commit to faithful men And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

September/October 2013 commit to faithful men

And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.  2 Timothy 2:2

Sharing the Good News, the telling, is one thing; the process of committing and entrusting to individuals is quite another. The former can take place in an instant; the later often takes more than a lifetime and involves training leaders rather than personal followers. This New Testament key to church preservation and growth of the Kingdom, the one-on-one mentoring of future torchbearers, has been breathtakingly evident in Tepic lately. Here are a couple of samples:

David and Caleb both just turned 15. They are excellent students in their public schools and in the school of music. David plays violin and Caleb plays the sax with the IBBM-Tepic worship team.  See a reminder of Caleb’s story here and here. 

The boys are older now than their fathers, pastors Martín and Nacho, were when they first heard the Gospel message. They have both recognized their personal need for forgiveness and a Savior. They have heard the Truth for 15 years, are learning well, and have committed themselves to be faithful teachers of others. They

both finished the entire 12-year course of OANSA, including the 2-year prerequisite as leaders in training, and now each of them wears the official red shirt as a full-fledged mentor of a group of his own. Twice during the course of the year, each OANSA leader is given the privilege of teaching the weekly “council time.” David and Caleb did excellent jobs teaching their first lessons this month.

With the beginning of this OANSA school year, instead of always meeting at the church, we planned for one Saturday of each month to take the Club to the Los Sauces neighborhood on the other side of Tepic. It’s a very needy area for which we have been working and praying for an open door to begin a satellite of IBBM-Tepic. The enemy was determined to discourage the effort on the first designated day last month. The tail of Hurricane Manuel soaked every corner of the city and especially the community game court that we had been given permission to use. After an extended illness, Erén’s mother passed away that same morning, and she and Pastor Martín and their sons had to make a sad trip to Culiacán. 

 In spite of obstacles, the rest of the committed, faithful OANSA leaders refused to give in, the promise was kept, and no person left without feeling loved by the team and without hearing a clear presentation of the Gospel.  Last week was the second Los Sauces OANSA meeting.  Though there is lots of resistance, not everybody is opposed. Several new children and their parents came. Pray for continued training and commitment of faithful OANSA leaders to teach others in Los Sauces. See some pictures of the Los Sauces OANSA meetings here,   

Among the Huichol believers there are also multiple examples of parallel commitment of faithful men, and women, who have learned to teach others what they have learned and are learning. Manuel and Zacarías are students of TEE (Theological Education by Extension) taught by pastors Martín and Nacho from IBBM-Tepic in the village of La Bendición. Last week UIM-Aviation pilots, who now have a base in Tepic, airlifted Manuel to La Quemada and Zacarías to Los Aires to teach what they have heard and learned to eager students in those villages. They spent the entire week studying the first of five segments on the Life of Christ from the book of Matthew. Emilia, from the village of Zapote, is also a student and a teacher. She, along with two of the young people from her village (Fernando and Jeremías) whom she has been helping to disciple, asked if they could “hitch a ride” on the UIM plane to the remote village of Los Aires. From there, they hiked another three hours to a neighboring village, Guamuchilillo, where a baby church has recently been born.  Emilia prepared discipleship classes for the women of the village every morning, and with the help of Fernando and Jeremías, she taught the young people and children of the village in the afternoons and evenings. Enjoy the pictures of their mission trip toGuamuchillo here. 

Paul’s exhortation to Timothy affirms that obedient and successful followers of Christ must effectively and intentionally “plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.