Soul winning a Sunday school Swahili slip and a goat offering

As we were handing out the Romans booklets at the bus stand near our church I watched a police officer make his way towards Tyler. Jay, Tyler and I were out soul-winning on Thursday and after we got a bite to eat at the large bus stand we decided to hand out some Romans booklets to all the people in the area.

As I was boarding the buses to pass out the books Tyler was making his way along the various vending areas and small stores. I watched a police officer try to get Tyler’s attention and started to walk after him. Tyler had his back to him and didn’t understand the Swahili commands if he even heard them among the noise of the area. After a few more steps the officer took hold of Tyler’s shoulder, turned him around, looked him straight in the face and asked if he too could have a booklet. Without missing a beat or even a hint of fear Tyler gave him one and continued on down the way.

These Romans booklets are really nice. They have a very detailed gospel tract in the front including some nice illustrations. We know of several people who have been saved as a direct result of these Romans booklets. It was a very hot and dusty day and I am sure the Word of God will not return void. Prayerfully, some of those people will be saved.

Sunday was interesting. In the Sunday school hour I taught on the virgin birth of Christ. Looking back I don’t know how I missed this mistake but I did. The word for pregnant in Swahili is mimba. While I was teaching the lesson I wanted to say that when Joseph and Mary met one day, behold she was pregnant (Mimba). Instead I said when they met one day behold, she grabbed a crockadile! (Mamba) You should have heard the roars of laughter. It was a simple typo but I missed it and read it as is.

Later in the worship hour, a man brought a special offering- a goat! Now, what in the world do you do with a goat? I mean why do people raise them? And especially what do you do with it if it is part of the offering? Give it to the pastor? We have no pastor or even deacons at this point.

Apparently, this is not an odd thing in many African churches so the people knew exactly what to do. They would try to sell the goat to any church member for a fair price, and if that didn’t work they would sell it at the market and add the money to the offering. Thankfully, we did sell it to a church member so now my trip to the market with a goat in the trunk of my van is postponed.

Please pray:
For our soul-winning efforts on Tuesday and Thursday
For my Swahili skills
For our nations elections