Working with national believers is really cool. I love the thrill of discipleship – watching people stepping into opportunities that have been opened up for them and then watching them begin to create opportunities themselves. It’s always awesome to hear what they are learning and thinking as they begin reflecting on new experiences.
Doing it in another culture has also shown the practical benefits for us as an organization. It has always been my experience that people who are being discipled contribute more to the process as a whole than what could ever have been expected. In another culture though, there is the additional benefit of expertise and relationships within their culture…something we do not have as missionaries.We have three young people who we are discipling from Batey Lima who help us in their village and two more bateyes. In the last two days, they have done simple things that have illustrated how great it is to have them as part of the team.
Yesterday in one of the villages, a lady approached us and told us that she needed money to go to the doctor. We are always very hesitant to give things out for various reasons, but she was very convincing and it is a new village for us – we do not have the relationships there yet. Everyone reading this probably has an opinion of what we should do in that situation, but in the moment, it is usually very difficult to determine. Add to it, that we get requests for help almost every day. So my mind is going back and forth – I really do want to help if it is a genuine need and my helping will not make the situation worse. In this case, Francis walked up to me and said in English (we have been teaching them English – the woman couldn’t understand him) something like, “Jason, don’t give her any money. She has a very large family and they are very capable and willing to help with this request. She is just asking because she thinks she can get money from you.” Wow! Wisdom…thank you Lord for providing these teammates.
Today, we pulled up to a village where we usually use a pavilion for the teaching. We taught there all summer, but have not taught for the last month. Now, a group of guys uses the pavilion to play dominos. We picked another spot to do the teaching, but it wasn’t quite as conducive to learning, so Francis walked with me down to talk to the guys and ask them if we could use it again two days a week. They know me, but they are friends with Francis. So…they said “sure.”We’ve seen this again and again. Tomorrow, they will begin to teach through Creation to Christ and we will get to watch them teach through the process that they sat through as students during the summer. Discipleship is cool.
