eNews and prayer update November 2019

15 November 2019 |

Langham Preaching Global Women’s Forum

At the beginning of October I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend the first ever Global Women’s Forum run by Langham Preaching, which was held in the beautiful village of Tochni in Cyprus. There were about 50 women of varying ages from 38 countries – from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific. It was led by Ruth Slater, Associate Director of Langham Preaching, with the help of a committee of women from all around the world. I kept pinching myself as I sat down to morning tea with a group of Christian women from, say, Mongolia, Botswana, Vanuatu, Ukraine, the Philippines and Panama, and lunch with women from Bosnia-Herzogovina, Indonesia, India, Burkina Faso, Turkey, Jamaica and Costa Rica. Where else would this ever happen?

Each of the women who attended is involved in some ministry of bringing the Word of God to others. Langham Preaching ministry is not only for regular Sunday preachers, but for anyone in any kind of word ministry who opens the Bible with anyone else. It could be one person, or 100. It could be a two year old or an old person or a church congregation. Many are involved in one or more of the many Preaching Clubs – called Escualitas in Latin America – which are such an important feature of Langham Preaching.

Valuable perspectives

Topics for the week came from the answers to a questionnaire sent by the organisers, canvassing the needs felt by women in the Majority World, and almost all of the teaching through the week was done by Majority World women. I loved hearing their perspectives and listening to their voices. I learnt so much, and their perspectives were so valuable! Everything was translated into Spanish, or when the Spanish speakers were presenting, into English, either by an Argentinian, or sometimes by a young woman from Turkey.

Devotions each morning were all around Mary’s Song in Luke 1. Tuesday was led by the African women, Wednesday by the European women, Thursday by the lovely Latinas, and Friday by the Asia Pacific women. We talked about the way that when God asks something that takes us well outside our comfort zone – as He did for Mary – He also equips us and often gives us a community of others who will support us. The Forum was one such community for the women who attended. We talked about being women of conviction, of obedience, of courage and of determination. And we talked about passing on our knowledge of God to the next generations.

Biblical examples

Other topics included the Biblical examples of the way men and women can work together under God, ways to find, train, encourage and raise up the next generation of preachers of God’s word, the values that underpin our ministries, ways to improve Preaching Clubs, to evaluate our own speaking, the importance of reconciling public and private lives so that we are people of integrity, and being wise in taking care of ourselves in ministry. There were many stories of both joy and pain told by the women, who come from very different environments. Some feel encouraged in their work for God, others feel silenced and saddened by their setting. We talked about the difficulties of living in honour/shame cultures, and about living in cultural settings where being a Christian is hard, and being a Christian woman can be even harder.

Among the stories were many from women who have been nurtured and helped to flourish by the work of Langham Preaching. I was so deeply moved by many of their stories and it felt like a real privilege to hear their words of honesty and sometimes of vulnerability. It made me even more determined to support this important work with all my heart.

Jill McGilvray, LPA Committee

Join us in prayer

Thank you for your prayers!

SCHOLARS

Pray for Egyptian Scholar George Bishai and his family in Alexandria. George has not been well and would appreciate your prayers.
Pray for Fanos Tsegaye (Ethiopian) as she studies in Scotland and Karuna Sharma (Nepali) as she studies in England.

PREACHING

Give thanks that the two training events held in the Solomon Islands in October went well. Pray that participants will form into Preaching clubs and put into practice what they have learned.
In Costa Rica, Central American facilitators will meet for a Facilitators Workshop. Pray that those who attend will be encouraged in their roles as trainers of others.
In Liberia, leadership meetings and visits to Preaching Clubs around the country will take place this month. Pray for Matthew Gonkerwon as he leads the local team there.

LITERATURE

Pray for the Langham Publishing team as they exhibit our books at the ETS and AAR/SBL annual meetings in San Diego. The team are also using this opportunity to have strategy meetings whilst they are all together. Present will be Pieter Kwant, Luke Lewis, Liz Mburu, Rico Villanueva, Vivian Doub and Timothy Sands.

ADMINISTRATION

Thank God for the recent good meetings of the Executive team and International Council. Pray for them as they lead the organisation, that God would grant them wisdom and skill.

UPCOMING LANGHAM PREACHING EVENTS

Where countries are considered sensitive re security, the region is mentioned rather than the country.

November 17-23 Nigeria, Kenya, Costa Rica, Sweden, Liberia
November 24-30 Malawi, Hungary, Liberia, Costa Rica, Switzerland
December 1-7 SE Asia, Ghana, Zimbabwe
December 8-14 Kenya, Liberia (2)

Please pray for these upcoming events.
If you want to pray for the Preaching program, contact us to request the weekly Preaching Prayershot.

Langham Australia CEO Gillean Smiley writes…

We are one body, one family as the world wide Church – something that we know and believe, but sometimes find it hard to feel, if we have little contact with our brothers and sisters from very different backgrounds and contexts. The gathering for women from all over the world, in Cyprus, must have been a foretaste of things to come as they experienced their unity and mutually encouraged and built each other up! While I didn’t have the opportunity to be there, I am writing from a Preaching training event elsewhere, where simply attending is a risky thing to do, for the participants. These brothers and sisters have chosen to attend, despite the risks, because they are committed to being better equipped to teach, preach and train others, as they seek to help their part of the body grow in maturity in the Word. I am inspired and encouraged, especially as I realise that I belong to the same Body that they are prepared to sacrifice so much for. Every time one part of the Body is well fed and cared for, the whole Body benefits (just as when one part suffers, we all suffer). Thank God that people from so many parts of the world are willing to give so much, even their own personal safety and security, so that our whole Body can thrive!