Sunday, May 22, 2011

Preach Until You are Hungry

"Preach until you are hungry, then we go to lunch." And with that, my day started.

I was scheduled to preach at a church in the morning, then I was the last speaker for a mini conference in the evening. Flexibility, that is the key word for missions. Well, I was told to preach, not given a time limit other than my own hunger pains and off to the races I went.

We first visited a school for orphans that was being built by a local pastor. They were making their own bricks. It was quite a sight to see. Plus, the school house they were using was very dilapidated. It reminded me of how blessed most of us are in terms of just our education.

Then we went to the church. It was a church plant, vibrant African worship and very friendly. I was told at the last minute that there would be translation, so I had to edit on the fly. Preaching and translation can be an interesting combination. Plus, it was a rural area with limited education...so, what I had prepared wasn't gonna fly the way I had structured it. So I had to make some last minute editorial changes. God is good and reminded me of prayer and dependence.

For you that read and pray, thank you! It was evident that people were praying for me.

Tonight went well. I spoke to a group of pastors and church leaders on Sin and the Gospel. It was a topic assigned to me as part of the conference theme. I took them through Romans 1-3 and highlighted 1) the problem of sin and 2) the provision for sin. It was a great reminder to me of the essentials of the Gospel and our need to keep the "essentials" the "essentials!"

Tomorrow, I am the last speaker in a long day. Please pray for all of us, including the pastors/church leaders as we all learn. My topic is "Why Christians Still Sin." It is an important topic so please pray with/for me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey J! Glad it went well! When Logan read "Preach until you are hungry," he told me that if that were him his sermon would've been 5 minutes! :) We all prayed for you in big church today! Thanks to you, Thomas, and the rest of the team for your faithfulness to the gospel!

Anonymous said...

The previous comment was from me, Lynn Greenfield! I forgot to "sign" my name!

Eric Z said...

So, how long did you preach for? Praying for your trip.