“God is in control of His work” — Langham Preaching in Sierra Leone
Chris Jonah, Langham Preaching’s country coordinator in Sierra Leone, has reported on a successful ‘refresher’ event there in May. This country has only recently recovered from the devastating Ebola epidemic, which stopped some of the Preaching Clubs that had been running in various places. But now, many of the groups have revived, and the work is back on track. Chris’ report reflects God’s kindness to believers in Sierra Leone, who are persevering in teaching the Bible faithfully. Chris (pictured above) writes:
“Thirty two persons participated in the ‘refresher’ training, including two people who led the event. It took place in Kono, which is 359 km from the capital Freetown. Diamonds were discovered in Kono in 1930 and are still being mined, but Kono is impoverished and it is only within the last two years that the road to Kono was redone and they now have some intermittent power supply.
We left a day early to visit Freeman Taylor, the leader of the Preachers’ Club, who lost his son by road accident. Our regional coordinator participated in the funeral. We encouraged, shared our experiences and prayed for the family.
Restarting Preaching Clubs
We then left for Makeni and visited Pastor Macaulay. The preachers club in Makeni has stopped meeting for a while. Macaulay had not done the training but is a friend of ours who has started a church plant. We tried and made some contacts with persons who had done the course. The current leader of the pastoral council had completed the Langham course and we have started discussions to restart the club in Makeni.
God is in control of his work. A few weeks before the training we received a call from a pastor who had listened to our radio broadcast in Freetown and wanted to be trained. Coincidentally he was from Kono and visiting Freetown. We then informed him about the training and he joined the others to plan the programme. His church building was the venue for the Langham program.
Some of the participants had not done the Langham training, as a result we had to tailor the training to show what Langham is, the importance of the preachers club and how to run one. We then worked on several passages using the principles to show how to get the best out of a text.
Prayer points
We praise God for:
- Safe travels for our team from Freetown and that the car worked well.
- The enthusiasm of the participants and the excitement to be involved in the club.
- Hospitality of the host.
- Two new leaders were selected to run the club and they are set to meet next Saturday to plan to restart.
- We agreed to run a Level 1 Langham Preaching seminar in Kono next year.
Please pray that/for:
- God will give us wisdom to know how to proceed with Kono
- Good fruit from this visit
- The clubs will be fully re-established and sustained
- The group in Makeni will restart and that the one in Lunsar will be strengthened.
- Pastor Freeman’s family: the loss of their 23-year-old son, a final year university student, is a big blow.
Join us in prayer
Thank you for your prayers!
PREACHING
- An All Asia Forum will be held in Bangkok, Thailand this month for the main volunteers involved in the Preaching work in this vast region. This will be the first forum of its kind in the region with many meeting for the first time. Pray for fruitful meetings, discussions and relationships to be built.
LITERATURE
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Pray for the new LivresHippo titles (for the French-speaking church in Africa) that are currently being published and printed; pray for the dialogue with authors and that all involved in the projects will be proactive.
Pray for preparations for the launch of the Arabic Contemporary Bible Commentary in Cairo in October and for all that needs to happen with the printing and distribution of this resource.
SCHOLARS
- Give thanks to God for all the Langham Scholars who have graduated in this past academic year, completing many years of study, research, evaluation and writing. Pray for them as they return to their home countries and continue to serve the Lord wherever he has placed them.Pray particularly for those who will start in new responsibilities, taking on increased leadership in churches and seminaries.
ADMINISTRATION
- As the Langham Partnership international organisation grows (to help meet the growing needs of the church in the Majority World), there are inevitable “growing pains” and issues arising that need to be sorted through. Pray that all who participate in the international leadership team and on national boards will have wisdom and the skills required to help the organisation grow in a way that is godly and effective.
UPCOMING LANGHAM PREACHING EVENTS
Where countries are considered sensitive re: security, the region is mentioned rather than the country.
- 15–21 July: South Asia, Thailand, Zambia, Indonesia, Ghana, Liberia, South Africa
- 22–28 July: Asia Consultation, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Liberia, South Africa
- 29 July–4 Aug: Ecuador, Peru, Zimbabwe
- 5–11 August: DR Congo, Haiti, Indonesia(2), Kenya
- 12–18 August: Benin, DR Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Uganda
Please pray for these upcoming events.
Langham Australia CEO Gillean Smiley writes…
Thank you for your amazing response to our appeal for funds to bring the Arabic Contemporary Commentary to our brothers and sisters in the Arabic speaking world. By June 30, we had received over $39,000 – and the Commentary is at the printers as I write. I have just returned from a meeting with the international leadership team for Langham, and I cannot describe the joy and gratitude expressed by our friend Dr Riad Kassis, the General Editor and also International Director for our Scholars program. (Many of you met Riad and his family when they visited in 2016.) It is a privilege for Australia to be instrumental in helping this vital resource come to fruition.
Meanwhile, the new round of Langham Scholars has been announced, and we are delighted that another scholar from the Myanmar Evangelical Graduate School of Theology is coming to study at Ridley, in order to assist our friend and previous “Aussie” Scholar Ronald lal din Suah in teaching there. We will welcome Tha Lian Ci to Melbourne later this year.
Thank you again for helping LPA to its most fruitful year ever, in the past financial year. We are encouraged that God is blessing this ministry through you, and pray that we will continue to see leaders in the majority world multiplying the benefits of training and resources throughout the worldwide Church.
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