A story from our team in Central Asia-
Upon getting to Karakol, we quickly learned our contacts had big plans for us! Karakol is the fourth largest city in Kyrgyzstan (though it has a population of just over 60,000, so it feels quite small), and it is the largest city on Lake Issyk-Kul, in north east Kyrgyzstan (we’re not too far from the Chinese and Kazakh borders!). There are about 180 villages around Lake Issyk-Kul. Our contacts here, who are leaders in their churches in the surrounding area, have a big goal: a house church in every village, with two leaders in every house church. They hope to see this goal fulfilled by 2020. So where do we fit into this?
When we met with the leaders, they expressed their hope that we would train twenty believers identified as having a teaching gift, to teach inductive method, so that these house churches would be able to study the Word in this way! In addition to training these teachers, the leaders asked us to do mini “outreaches” with them – watch them teaching other groups, evaluating them as teachers.
While this is a really exciting opportunity, there are some significant challenges. The leaders asked us to teach three separate groups of teachers, on three separate days. This means we had about five hours with each group, to train them as teachers, before sending them on “outreach.” A few of them have seen the Philemon seminar, which is the best tool we have to equip them with learning the inductive method in a short amount of time, but most of them have not studied using inductive method before. This is significant. When we train our Titus Project participants (like Sasha and Julissa) in teaching inductive method, it is after they have spent nine months studying the whole Bible for themselves, using the method. They know the method very well, and are prepared to pass it on to others after three weeks of training. The group in Karakol wants us to train three groups of teachers after one day of training each. Sasha summed it up very well when he said after our meeting with the leaders, “They are asking for a miracle.” Fortunately, our God is in the business of miracles! We are doing our best with the time we have, emphasizing that good teachers are first good students. We want them to realize that to teach the Bible, they have to study it for themselves. We want our new students to understand we can provide them with tools they can use to study and then teach other books of the Bible. Yesterday (Friday) was our last day of prepping our “students.” On Sunday, we start mini outreaches with them – watching them teach the Philemon seminar to others, and evaluating them so they can grow. We have done our best, and pray God uses what we taught to expand His Kingdom, and that He speaks to our students about being studiers and doers of the Word, before they can be teachers. Please be praying for us and them!!!
Michael, Helen, Sasha & Julissa (Team Stan-Stan)
Teaching Adventures 