From Don...

It goes like this. As part of our volunteer work with Biblical Life Ministries to provide post-graduate support for the pastors who have graduated from Bible School in a Briefcase, Becky and I are travelling to two villages in rural Kenya during the next 2 weeks to teach Basic Christian Discipleship. The topics are:

·         Who is God?

·         The Holy Bible

·         In the Beginning

·         Salvation

·         The Holy Trinity

·         The Holy Spirit

·         Prayer

·         Water Baptism

·         Holy Communion

·         Life After Death

·         Resurrection of the Dead

·         The Ministry of the Believer

Why do we need to teach such basics? First, all Christians, no matter how long they have been walking with Jesus, can benefit from a refresher. Second, many of those who will be in our class have never been taught. Third, the churches need to be ready to teach new Christians that we hope will come as a result of our showing the Jesus Film outdoors in their village market place.  I did not find a single church in our target area that already had a discipleship class in place.

So, who are we teaching? We are teaching the teachers. We have 25 people signed up for the first 2 day class and 33 for the second. Each pastor that is working with us has been asked to identify 2 people in their church who can take our class and then be ready to teach it themselves. I have prepared a 46 page book that contains lesson plans for each of the above topics which I will leave with each student/teacher. They can then use these lesson plans for 3 months’ worth of weekly teaching.

The churches that we work with are almost exclusively among the very poorest people of Kenya. Many of them can barely afford the staples of the Kenyan diet: corn, chapatti (flat bread), rice and beans. To make it even worse, the area where we are currently working is suffering a severe drought. This is one reason why we are providing food for all our students (at no cost to them) at the noon meal on our class days. 

Also, many of the student teachers have no Bible of their own. I really think that if someone is to be given the responsibility to teach the Bible, it would be of great benefit if they had their own copy. Therefore, Becky and I have made the commitment that each person that completes our class will receive a brand new Bible in the language of their choice.

Our cost for all this, including fuel for our vehicle and generator and our room and board, comes to about (in U.S. currency) $1,500 to $1,600. Quite a bargain!  Thank you so much to our friends, prayer team and our financial donors who make this work possible.

Don and Becky Cameron