Hey Guys!

><>Thursday Night, February 19, 2009

Earlier this week we had made an appointment to meet and study through the Bible with Beaufils (bo-feez), our friend I told you about last update. Through this he could practice his English and reading comprehension and at the same time learn truth about the teachings of Jesus. Beau is in the picture above. He's the guy sqauting in the front with the red and black shirt.

Well we just finished our first meeting with Beaufils. When he just arrived I had to take a shower b/c I just finished working out…Anyways in the bathroom I was just like okay Lord, Beau is here and I have no clue how to do this. I was like just anoint us and give us wisdom, understanding, and clarity.

You see, Emily (our HandsOn Coordinator) and others have told us about a method they use to study the Bible with the Africans. They go through stories and have the people reiterate the story over again after their told that way they learn it. They then ask them questions about the story and some lesson they have learned from it. They then ask them who that they know needs to hear this story and lesson and ask them to go out and share it.

This method is very interesting and we wanted to kinda integrate it into our meetings with Beau. I think that we kinda followed it but kinda didn’t haha. Anyways here’s how it went.

We prayed and decided that we should go through the gospel of John. Basically what we did was go verse by verse through the first 18 verses I believe. We broke up the verses into sections and just made Beaufils read the little sections over and over and over. Then I would ask him questions about but the text and what it was saying, trying to work on his comprehension. I made him explain to us what was going on in the text. It was awesome! We went verse by verse, just asking questions about who said what, what was going on, why it said that, what it meant. It was amazing the Spirit was just moving. We would make him summarize after every portion to make sure he understood it in the context of the passage. It was great because usually when he reads things he has no clue what he’s reading in English, but this time we wouldn’t move on until he had a clear grasp of what the Word was saying and why. Every so often I was like okay well that’s really good we can stop here and he was like no we must keep going, I would be like you sure? And he was positive. I did that about 3 times to see if he was really engaged. It was great. When we finished, we closed the Bibles and I asked Beau to summarize the passages we had just read and discussed. He basically went verse by verse summarizing what we just read and discussed. I told him to go home and practice because the more he practices, the more he’ll remember and understand it. So we said that he must practice until we meet next week and every time he sees us, he must explain the first half of John chapter 1. My brothers and sisters, isn’t God amazing!

Here are some things that stuck out tonight.  We went over Jesus being in the beginning with God and how He was God and how all things were made through Him. We also hung out at the passage speaking about though all things were made through Him, they did not know Him or accept Him when He came to them. Another one was when John who was a prophet called Jesus higher ranking and existing before him.  According to Islam Jesus is just another prophet, a mere man, so to hear these things about Jesus being God and the world not knowing and rejecting that was very interesting to Beau. I also asked Him why John would say that about Jesus being that Jesus was a man younger then John. Beau was like “because in the beginning Jesus was there long before any of these men”. I can’t really put into words how the spirit moved. Beau says that He was amazed at the teaching of his religion, how it doesn’t teach this truth and how what he learned tonight was the time ever for him to see and study for himself the truth of who Jesus is. He has said time and time again that He has seen the truth between both religions. He considers himself Muslim but I believe he believes in Jesus as God and the teaching of Jesus. He just has to make a decision to commit his life to Jesus.

That is the great dilemma. The social ostracizing, the family shame, the persecution, it’s all being weighed out in his mind I believe. Islam is the way of life here. It’s not just a two day religion; it’s how people interact socially. I can’t explain it. So please pray for Beaufils. Tonight as I walked him out of our compound, he said he’s going to going home and ask Jesus to come to him. I believe God is moving in his heart and it’s just a matter of time. The Word won’t return void but it’ll accomplish the purpose God intended for it. We see him almost everyday and we’ll continue to meet with him. Hopefully this meeting may expand to more people interested in the teaching of Jesus.

I love you guys, thank you so much for all your prayers.  I’m not going to write a lot about this because it isn’t necessary but we were robed last week by “police men”. Everything’s all good, we’re safe but I would like you to pray for our continued safety and also that Matt’s black berry and camera is recovered. I got the guys first name and we’re working on getting his family name right now. But pray that the whole situation can be used for God’s Glory and a witness to all our African friends who are very upset. Also thank you very much for all the little encouraging comments, you all know who you are =) but if you can’t leave a comment because you don’t have a blogger id, you can always email me @ rockykomatsu@gmail.com

Your brother in Christ, rocky