It seems that there has to be some resistance has to come at the start, just like last year. Day one; the electricity disappeared, one of the pastors hade to suddenly return home as his wife suffered a heart attack, and one of the pastors broke two toes in a football match. But perhaps this resistance helps us to sharpen our awareness of the spiritual struggle and to stay watchful and focused.
It was wonderful to meet all those who had become dear friends of ours at the first session. The number of participants was about the same, some didn´t come this time, while others were new. Rumour had spread from many satisfied participants and hade made others curious to take part. So, it is not just about leaders from their own ministry but also from others, and here AnnaSara and Diwas are very generous. Still more would have liked to take part, but there was just not room enough for them. We believe and hope that we will be able to accomodate more people next time, as we plan to move to their new site in Dudhia. There is a little building there and for the past few weeks they have started to build a new floor (storey), which will at least double the class room area.
The contents of the lessons have varied a lot, both OT and NT, a good ”mix” from profound teaching to inspiring and challenging preaching.
This time we have been going through 8 books from the Bible, plus a few other things like homiletics, how to have visions and goals, entrepenuership with Håkan Sandberg via Skype from Sweden and a lesson on how we are created and how we can live from faith. The following books were dealt with: 1 Tim (Diwas), 2 Cor. And 1-3John (P-M), Titus (Bijay), Joshua (Suresh) and some more teachers like Dakem and Philip, close friends of AnnaSara and Diwas.
At first it seemed difficult to find teachers but God always has a plan and provided us with local people and in the end it turned out to be be a perfect mix of different gifts and sevices. This year most of the teaching was in Nepali, which gave us more time, since nobody had to interpret. The disadvantage was of course that AnnaSara and I didn´t understand anything, but we could accept that. Well, that´s not entirely fair, AnnaSara is beginning to understand quite a bit and can also cummunicate in Nepali, well done considering it is very difficult to learn.
We have spent a lot of time on praise and worship, many of the students have taken turns in leading the worship and sharing something from the Bible during morning assembly. The evening gatherings have always been freer.
Everyone has also had some practical tasks during the two weeks. Comments from the participants: ”Well, we´re just like a family, so we work together.” One of the new participants coming from other circumstances said after returning from the first free weekend: ”It feels like coming home.”
Every day we have had time for group reflections. This is new för the participants. Last year it was extremely difficult to make this work, but this time it was much better. I suppose that everything needs time to grow.
It is quite fantastic to see how the fruit of the school becomes evident. One evening in the midst of PLT a group went to pray for a man who had cancer and as an immediate result of this, both his wife and his parents received Jesus as their saviour. This resulted in the planting of a new church, and soon yet another fellowahip started with its origin from relationships to the converted family. One of the younger pastors, Bishal, had a key position in this development, and soon after he had taken part in PLT he was part in starting up two more fellowships, which hopefully will result in planting a new church. Pradip, one of the new leaders, had such a burden for his area that he asked Diwas for help to start a new church in his part of the town. Amos, one of the older evangelists felt such a fire burning in his heart after the PLT that he started up a new planting in a new village, Manja, with an Adivasi-population, a group who until then had been almost uncivilized living from hunting. He was also invited to help out in a new fellowship in Nepal.
Evaluation is always an important part after school, so here are a few samples: ” We were given all we needed for our work”. ”Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It will help me so much with my work, everything we learned was so useful.” ” When we learned about Paul, I felt I can do anything through Christ, now I will put into practice everythimg I have learned.” ”We were given a chnace to clear away things from our lives, things we should not have as leaders.”
We are so thankful for all that God did during these two weeks and all the fruit that will follow, and we are already looking forward to the third session later on in autumn.
Now AnnaSara and Diwas are in Sweden, waiting for their first baby to be born any day now, and that too is a great miracle of God to look forward to.
As they return to India at the beginning of June, they plan to plant a church in Dudhia, the place where they will eventually will move.
Many exciting things are ahead of us, and you, the reader, are of course invited to frist of all pray for all the challenges they are facing, and then of course you are welcome to contribute financially, or why not go there yourself to experience everything first hand, to be touched and return home to inspire others to be engaged in this work.
All the best!
P-M Börefelt