October 2006
Bible Training Partnership
Equipping God's people to make his Word known.
News & Prayer Letter October 2006
Dear supporter,
Welcome to this update on the work of the Bible Training Partnership – equipping church
leaders in Nigeria to make His Word known…
News from training conferences in summer 2006
Adrian Watts writes about the training conference for Evangelists in the Anglican Diocese
of Kaduna in August:
"Please thank God for all the ways that he has answered our prayers. We had a
great trip and have experienced the endless kindness of God in ways we never
imagined. God gave us all safe travel. He arranged for all the evangelists to meet
with us and he enabled us to do the work which we had planned to do.
Please thank God for our Christian brothers in Nigeria. They were a massive
encouragement to us. They have a sincere love for each other, a massive trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and a passion for preaching and making him know. I was
particularly struck by their servant heartedness - they insisted on carrying our bags
everywhere. A sentence on one of the buildings summed up their attitude well ‘We
learn that we may serve’.
Our studies in Mark went well and God taught and reminded us of many things. A particular highlight was
seeing again that the cross is at the centre of the Christian message. We saw it again and again in Mark’s
gospel. Please pray that Christ crucified is the message that they would continue to preach. That what
was impossible with man, is made possible by God. Teaching to the contrary abounds and there is a
constant danger of them preaching a message of works for fear that Christians will think they have a
license to do what they want.
Another highlight was having the opportunity to link what we were learning from Mark’s gospel with our
ministry. We talked about evangelism, leading a small group, preaching and personal time with God. The
discussions were really good and many of the evangelists were planning to go
home with preaching programmes in Mark’s Gospel. Please pray that God will
use their plans and bear fruit. I also had the opportunity to go to one of the
churches with one of the evangelists called Sunday. I was massively
encouraged to hear him preach and to meet the church family. There is a
photograph in the church with about 60 faces in it. The church is now only
about 20. I asked why and Sunday explained that in the 2001 Crisis*, many
people in the church fled to South Kaduna because homes were being burnt
by Muslims. Some however, decided to stay. Please pray that God would open
a door for the gospel at Pentecost church and the other churches in this area.
Please pray too that those who stayed would be bold in speaking of Christ,
even in the face of strong opposition."
* For more background on the Crisis of 2001 see, e.g.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2579825.stm
David Huss 23
rd
October 2006
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