Dear partners,

I’m halfway through a very challenging training time in West Africa. (There is an update to this initial entry shared below, upon completion of the training.) So much has been happening I’ll just hit some of the highlights.

God put a Nigerian man next to me on one of the flights who observed me studying Philippians during the long flight from Seattle to Paris. His name is Emmanuel, and I found out he loves the Lord, lives in Washington D.C., and is a full time advocate for the persecuted church in Nigeria. He left his law practice to help the hurting in his country, where he shared more Christians are killed than in any other country. The strongholds of Boko Haram in the north are actively trying to wipe out Christians. We shared our stories with each other, and I prayed for him as he engages in his critical work, giving messages to Congress, partnering with Open Doors and VOM, and many other ways. We have been in touch several times since that flight.

After arriving in Kinshasa, the next morning I began working with the familiar group I’ve worked with before. But they requested a refresher course this time as it has been over a year since we were together, due to ebola and other challenges. After sharing some deep heart issues and praying for each other, we engaged in lively, dynamic study of Philippians, and the pastors soaked up the training.

There were many comments about how Pathways has changed their ministries and their lives. Pastor Mosongo who flew down from Gemena shared that he has a fire in his heart to train others with Pathways, which is desperately needed, and he is a great model of training others. Several of the pastors shared how confusing most preaching is in Congo, but Pathways preachers are easy to understand because they preach the Word, verse after verse. Pastor Joel recounted the key components of Pathways from memory, so clearly he has been using them.

Pastor Bate shared that since receiving Pathways, he has a thirst in his heart to share what is in the Bible. African preachers oftentimes struggle with what to share with their churches, and end up reproducing what they see on television or hear preached down the road, which is often a prosperity-based message of works. People want to hear this message, so that brings in people and money into the church, which is further incentive for pastors to go down this “wide path” to destruction. My translator Mudidi shared that the president of the ECC (main evangelical union of churches in DR Congo) was present for a training and despite having studied much theology, he said he had never seen anything like Pathways, and it is desperately needed!

While all this was happening, it was clear the enemy wanted to stop the good work God was doing, for my family was experiencing unusually intense spiritual attack. One night Holly and Alyssa separately sensed the spiritual assault, so the next day they mobilized people to pray, and God gave victory.

Although my next training location in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire is not far from Kinshasa (three hour flight), there are no good connections, so I have spent the night flying all the way across Africa to Nairobi, and then the flight to Abidjan has been delayed eight hours so far. Part of the occupational hazards, I suppose. At any rate, in God’s time I’ll get there and take the group through our Genesis workshop after preaching in churches (Lord-willing) on Sunday.

May God continue to honor the preaching of His Word among all the peoples of the earth.

June 14 Update now that I’ve completed Ivory Coast training:

I’m on my way back home after completing the Genesis workshop with the group in Abidjan. Wow, talk about an animated, vocal group hungry for grasping God’s Word! Frequently during the training, this group was on their feet shouting and verbally processing the new information they were learning. Although there were four regular participants not able to attend, the 11 who were present made up for it as we all thoroughly enjoyed going deeper in the process of learning how to study, understand and communicate God’s Word well. Pastor Silva said, “This training is helping me so much. My way of preaching has been transformed.” Prophet Ekra shared that preaching in his church has become interesting since starting Pathways. Now he preaches God’s Word, and the people love it. Ekra’s wife, Carmelle, also a preacher, shared, “When you practice Pathways, you discover the truths of the Bible. We used to preach and pass over many things, going straight to the message to us (without understanding the text.) Now we know better. As I passed the training on to others, I was training myself. Many have become clear in Scripture through this training.”  Carmelle was certainly one of the top students in the class. Pastor Paul, who is a prison chaplain, shared that he has opened a Pathways school in prison where he teaches prisoners how to study the Bible. Asho said that since receiving Pathways, when he hears preaching now, he is able to tell if it is from the Bible or not. Our coordinator, Pastor Sahin, shared, “I like Pathways because when I’m in the bush and only have a Bible, I can still preach a good message.” Sahin knows what he’s talking about as he takes Pathways training many hundreds of kilometers to the north in Ivory Coast to train rural groups.

While in Abidjan, I also preached on Sunday morning during a 3.5 hour Pentecost service (that included much worship, prayer, testimonies, communion, deliverances, multiple offerings and my sermon) and on Wednesday night in a church service.

One fun concluding element to the time in Abidjan happened on the drive to the airport. My host Modest brought a friend with him for the drive, and we got to talking. His name is Abdul Kareem and he grew up as a Muslim. His wife is Christian, but he says he doesn’t believe either. I learned some of his story, and after some dialogue (slow drive with lots of traffic), I walked through the Gospel with him, hitting key points that addressed issues and questions he had. He was very receptive, and so we prayed. He said he felt a warmth in his heart as I shared, like this was the right thing to do. He said he knew God set up this meeting. I gave him some helps for the future, and he is eager to begin reading the Bible. You just never know when an opportunity will arise to share the greatest Hope in the world.

Praise God for kingdom growth happening all over West Africa.

Pressing on by God’s grace, Eric