Studying Together

Thank you for checking in! We are so thankful for your prayers and interest in our lives and ministry.

One of my favorite parts of the morning is when Fernando and I study the Bible together through the BILD program the Garifuna Bible school has been implementing. After the week of classes in September, we have submitted our homework and begun preparing for the next week of classes, which will be held in December. The goal is for students to maintain ongoing study habits and meet together to go through discussion questions related to what they're learning.

It has been encouraging to do this as a couple, digging into God's Word and talking about how to apply it to our lives and ministry. Here are several of the many benefits of doing this together:

• Finding God's Word come alive as we talk about it
• Learning from each other
• Brainstorming about how to apply what we're learning
• Praying for each other and others more specifically
• Increasing accountability and motivation

The topic of this set of lessons is "Belonging to a Family of Families" and addresses God's plan for the church. On Saturday I shared a devotional with the discipleship group girls about how those who accept Christ are adopted into God's family (Eph. 2) and that someday people from every nation will worship Him together (Rev. 7). It is a particularly fitting topic since we represent three cultures, with Garifuna girls, one Miskito girl (another ethnic group in Honduras), and two of us from the U.S. It also is a great reminder that God has given us a place where we belong and can invite others to join.

On Sunday Fernando incorporated some of what we're studying into the sermon he gave. Here is a short clip of him preaching in Garifuna (left) with another pastor translating into Spanish (right):

Praise God for being able to study together and apply what we learn to our current ministry roles. Please pray that we would continue to grow together in the Lord, that God would show us how to put what we learn into practice, and that He would use this program to build up the Garifuna church.