Tuesday, November 6th

The Seminar continued throughout the day today, with the entire American team teaching at one time or another. Crystal spoke a powerful message about how to connect with God from the beginning of your walk. She used a great illustration with participants from the audience and they seemed to really connect. Pastor Mike gave an enthusiastic message on the 6 leadership standards from Acts, and taught everyone a worship song in English. Glenda spoke about caring for Baby Christians, and Nick taught again on the importance of Children’s Ministry. Mike and Jay also gave powerful messages, speaking on spiritual gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit.

While not teaching at the Seminar, we had the chance to go minister in different parts of the town. Glenda went with Moses for Children’s ministry, and she shared a few stories that the children could apply to their lives.

Mike and Nick went over to the prison with Gift, Pastor Kenneth, Pastor Fife, and Christiano. The prison is nothing you can relate to back in America. There is an open courtyard with no roof, and the area is roughly 6 yards by 18 yards. Then, there is a bathroom, and maybe 4 or 5 tiny cells. And that’s it! This is for 58 prisoners! Some of them sleep in the open courtyard on the concrete floor, and their clothes are tattered and worn. Their only form of entertainment is a game they play with some pebbles and some indentions in the concrete (kind of like the game Mancala if you are familiar with it). When we arrived in the courtyard, the one guard started to sing a worship song. Immediately, ALL of the prisoners joined in! They all had huge smiles on their face and they all sang in tune. 58 prisoners, locked up in terrible conditions, signing their hearts out for God. It was amazing! (We have found that many people know worship songs, they just don’t understand having a relationship with God.) Mike gave a very powerful message, and we found out that 54 of the 58 had never received Christ before. When Mike gave the call, all of those 54 accepted Christ! Mike had explained that Jesus had helped him get out of a prison sentence, and that Jesus could set them free too. Very soon after this, the prison guard handed Christiano a piece of paper through the door to the courtyard. One of the inmates who just accepted Christ was being released! He even let Christiano announce this in front of everyone! AMEN! Also, while praying for everyone, we realized there was a Pastor among the inmates. We did not know why he was there, but he was obviously broken down during prayer time and repenting. We prayed with him, and told him that although he was in prison, he can still be a Pastor for the inmates, and that it was his job to help and grow them when we left. He was very receptive and promised us he would do so!

Although we have not gone into too much detail about the Seminars, we do want to share this about the Pastors and leaders of the church: They are HUNGRY for the word of God! It is amazing to see how much their hearts are open to receive all the things we are teaching them. They worship the Lord in a way we can’t even understand with our traditional “western” Christianity. They truly submit to the Lord and praise and worship like it is the last thing they will ever do on this earth. It is refreshing and inspirational to see them connect in worship the way that they do! The Lord is preparing these great leaders for many wonderful things, and we just thank Jesus that he is using us for His Glory!