Missionary Update

I have a wonderful, interesting video that you would all love but it doesn't look like it's going to work right now.

This is where we live in South Africa. No, that's not true. It's just I like the picture so I put it on the thing.

But are we on or? But just a second, a little, it's going but I don't think the, yeah, see it's not,

I got volume here. That's all right.

And we got volume here. See, we're playing. All right.

Well, while they work on that, what I want to do this morning is we're just going to talk about Africa and I'll leave some time at the end for questions.

Although Mike did a great job. One thing, you guys know Chris Williams, right?

And he was just here not too long ago, I think, wasn't he? No? No? Yes? Oh. But he's in India because I think,

Mike, has he been to India? I know he's been to Russia, hasn't he? Well, I'll give you just a little bit of background on the ministry, what we do, who we're involved with and I'll tell you,

I've got some cool missionary stories which you'll like. When God saved me when

I was 21, it was Missions Month at our church and I always loved the mission stories. I got there and I listened to these guys and their stories from all over the world and I thought, that's the coolest thing, but I never wanted to be a missionary.

So that's a big story how we got there ourselves. But like Mike was saying, we've known each other since seminary and I was a pastor down in Newtown, Connecticut for nine years and God took us to South Africa.

It was about a four or a five year process. I actually told him no a couple of times because I was a pastor and that's what

I was doing and I was here in New England and I thought God was going to keep us here for the next 40 years or however long, but he up and moved us to South Africa where I'm part of an, it's an awesome ministry and I got to say, we've been, well we've been in the

States now since the end of last year and we were at some missionary meetings in Los Angeles and I've talked to a lot of churches, been to a lot of places, visited a lot of people and ministry is tough, it is.

It's good, but it's also tough and some missionaries are not having the best time of it out there and I can understand that.

It's difficult going cross -culturally. It's difficult being taken away from friends and family and being plopped in a new place where they do everything different, they think differently, they speak differently.

Africa is not America, not even close. And, but I got to say, things are going really, really well and I almost kind of feel guilty sometimes because people say, oh, you know, it's tough there in Africa, isn't it?

And it's hard and, you know, the ministry and, you know, you're out there sort of slogging away and you guys,

I get like immediate gratification. You know, in the pastorate, Mike has been here now,

I think 10 years, right, or thereabouts? And he's, I know he's been faithful and it's been great and it's been not so great sometimes.

Same thing with me down in Connecticut. And it takes, you know, the old saying, it takes all year to grow an apple. You know, you don't always see fruit immediately from your ministry.

And there's good fruit now coming from Mike's, you know, decade -long ministry here and, but where I'm at, what

I'm doing, it's like I get to minister, I get to teach and then immediate results, it's like this.

I am a seminary professor. That's what I do. I have been the theology guy.

I was teaching theology for the last four years, but now we're switching because we're changing some things in our school, structurally changing a few things.

I'm going to be taking over the New Testament department when I get back in January, which is sort of my preference anyway.

Is this, I'm getting, is this, are we up? Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm on a roll.

Thank you. Now, but I've got a, I've got a little three minute video, which is just basic introduction.

Like if you've never heard of me or you've never heard of Africa or you've never heard of our school or anything we do, that's what kind of video this is.

Now just so you all know, you've heard about TMAI. Yes. No. Are those, those initials sound familiar?

Our school down in South Africa is part of an association of,

I think about 16 or 18, at least 16, maybe 18. Now I don't, do you know the number of Karen schools around the world?

The one in India where Chris Williams is at is a TMAI school and it's like a church association.

It's not a denomination where there's one central organization controlling everybody. We're all independent, owned and operated in our own culture, but we associate with one another.

Most of the instructors are from master's seminary. And so we mutually support each other.

So that's our school is a part of that. And so this video

I'm going to show you is just a basic introduction to the school, to us. And then

I'll, I'll talk some more when it's done. So we're going to give it a shot here. All right.

Okay. So there you go. You got a little bit idea. That's an introduction to us and our ministry.

Now I want to tell you just about what we do and why we do it like Pastor Mike was talking about.

We're there and we train local indigenous pastors. In fact, our target demographic, if you want to call it that are the pastors from the rural villages and towns, because that's about 95 % of the churches in Africa.

And it's about 95 % of the believers. But these guys don't have access to education and they don't have any funds, even if they could get access to education.

And these guys are going to be pastors no matter what, whether they get educated or not.

Now the church in South Africa is Pentecostal charismatic. And that's because of the culture.

The culture is a very experienced, spiritually oriented culture.

If anything happens, it's because the witch doctor, the San Goma, you know, you know, sacrificed a chicken or did something, you know, rolled the bones or, you know, you know, did whatever and made it so that, you know, if you got a job, then he influenced the guy who's hiring you or you pleased the ancestors.

And so then they made it that, you know, while you were walking down the road and that car barely missed you, you know, that they made sure the car swerved.

The reason anything happens in the African culture is because of some spiritual, metaphysical reason.

And so when they see TBN and Benny Hinn, like they do over there, they look at that and that is right where they live.

That's the way life works. They're used to seeing all that kind of stuff from the San Gomas.

So they show up at our school just right there. I mean, they, we've had guys show up with posters of Benny Hinn, you know, and saying, you know, you know, all you instructors are going to get the spirit and we'll be speaking in tongues by the end of the first semester.

You know, they try and convert us. But that's the culture that we're dealing with.

So what happens is these guys, you know, somebody prayed over them one time or, you know, they had a dream or a vision, you know, or, you know, the

Holy Spirit spoke to them and poof, you know, by magic, all of a sudden you're the pastor. So they've gone out and they've taken some little church or they've started some little church.

And since they're called, they're convinced that's what they're going to do. And they're going to do that whether they get educated or not.

And no one is really targeting these guys. Now over there in Africa, there's, it seems like every organization has got some sort of training ministry or whatever going on out there.

But we give these guys the education for free. We charge them a little administration fee, about $125 a year.

And the reason we do that is not because we need the money, it's because before we did that, their attitudes and the grades were kind of low.

But as you know, as soon as you've got to pay for something, then you value it. So as soon as we started charging an administrative fee, their grades and their attitudes went way up.

But even then, we give them the books for free. We give them the education for free. The way we do it is we don't take them out of their ministry.

We have the first and the third year students. You saw it's a four -year degree. And by the way, when we made this last year, we had 70 full -time students.

This year, we have 85. We're set up for 102. So every year, we accept between 25 and 30 guys.

And just through natural attrition, guys dropping out or can't continue on for whatever reason, we usually hover around 80 students, you know, plus or minus.

So but this year, we've got 85 full -time students. Anyway, so we have the first and the third -year students come in for 10 days a month.

And classes start at 6 .30 in the morning till 1 .30 in the afternoon. And then they do homework.

And then they're there with us over a weekend. And so they go to our church and they get to see, you know, expository preaching in action.

Then they go back a few days later. The second and the fourth -year students come in for 10 days a month.

And we go through the same thing. So the way we structure it is they're in class, they're at school for 10 days a month, then back out at their churches and their ministries for 20 days a month.

Because we've also found that if you take these guys away from their ministry, like if it was a regular four -year school where they stayed with us, they don't go back to the village.

Because in Africa, if you get an education, you get a degree, then you move to the cities where you can get a good job.

So we want to leave these guys in their villages. And so far, it's been very successful at that.

These guys are not leaving their churches because they're maintaining their ministry there. So that's how we work it.

Now, like I said, I teach, I have been the theology guy. We're changing our structure a little bit because Lord willing, in about four or five years with some logistical things, we'll be adding a master's degree.

If you saw, we're a four -year, it's a bachelor's degree, but it's a seminary degree. It's not a liberal arts degree. It's just, it's seminary education.

And so in order to add the master's degree, we all have to specialize in... So I'm going to specialize when

I get back in the New Testament. The theology, when I first got there, well, gosh, it's almost five years now.

It's been five years since we've been here. I took the theology classes, sort of got some continuity and some shape to them, sort of, you know, tightened it up a little bit.

And we handed it over to, like, a little bit like what Mike was talking about, one of our graduates, really sharp guy, graduated about six or eight years ago.

And he's a black gentleman, Charlie Ramfamedze from Venda, a local tribe there.

And in the black church in Africa, there's a perception where it's, okay, we know that that's what you white folks believe in your white churches, but this is what we believe in our black churches.

And there's that sort of wall there. So when you've got a black man, a local South African black man teaching the theology, the good theology, that wall is just gone.

It doesn't exist. And he can stand there and he says, hey, look, this is not a black -white thing. This is a biblical thing. So Charlie's taking over the theology classes.

I'm doing the New Testament. And just a little bit about life, like I told you, it's really good.

I mean, you guys, I get paid to teach the Bible and preach just all the time.

That's what I do. You know, like I said, school starts at 6 .30 in the morning to 1 .30 in the afternoon, just teaching the word of God.

I'm also a pastor at our local church. Our church is about 375 people, plus or minus.

We're fully integrated, about 50 -50 black -white. And I mean, we've got black pastors, black elders, black deacons, black seminary professors, all through the whole structure of the church.

I preach most of the Sunday nights back home. So I'm very used to the situation, exactly what

I do. And also, that's just at the church. I counted up, I preached about 70 times last year.

So, you know, I'm teaching all the time for my job just during the week. I preach a lot.

And then we have, like, our own shepherds' conferences. We've got two major conferences a year, where they're three days each.

One's shepherds' conference, one's our graduation conference. We also have monthly pastors' meetings, where we bring in the pastors from the area, and we feed them lunch, and then have, like, three or four seminar kinds of things.

I mean, I am literally sometimes, quite literally, preaching and teaching seven days a week.

I mean, and it's, they just show up, you know, and they listen. And it's, and I got to tell you, like I told you, immediate gratification.

Just before I was leaving, there's this one area where we've got about six or eight graduates.

And, you know, the black church, it's very, you know, they still do tent revivals, and they do all that kind of stuff.

That's the way they do it. So these six or eight graduates in these one, this group of three villages, were having a conference.

And the theme of the conference was Lift Jesus Higher. And so they invite all the different churches, and all the different pastors, and everybody from the whole area.

And for all week, our graduates there just divided up my

Christology notes, and just taught it all week long to about 600 people.

And it was like, yes. I mean, that's, I get that. I get, in ministry, you don't get that.

I mean, it's like a church, you know, you, and I'm not trying to make it sound bad.

And I want to say, Pastor Mike has had nothing but great things to say about you guys. So I'm not talking about you guys or the church.

But I can tell you, I've been a pastor for nine years. And that kind of, I'm getting people in trouble.

But I mean, you know, it's, ministry is a marathon. It's a long haul.

But we get to teach guys, you know, for, you know, 10 days a month.

They turn around, and immediately, the other three Sundays and 20 days of the month, they start teaching and putting into practice what they get in school.

And then they have these big conferences where they just take your notes and just divide it up amongst, like, you know, about 10 or 15 sermon times during the week and teach it to like 600 people.

I mean, that's, so, and that's why I'm there not planning a church.

Because I'll always be the white guy from America, even if I'm there for 50 years. And that's just the way it is.

But our students, they're, like I said, they're already the pastors or the church leaders or the associate pastors of these churches.

They are the culture. They are in the culture. What I tell people all the time is we give them what they don't have.

They have the word of God. They have the Holy Spirit. What they don't have, and they just don't have access to, unless it's a ministry like ours where we give it to them for free, is education.

Now, I say that and people think, well, gee, you know, gosh, if they got the word of God and, you know, they already got the

Bible, then kind of what do you really need to be there? You know, they've been evangelized, right? It's like this, a little church history lesson.

Okay, I'm going to ask a question who, like, Pastor Mike cannot answer. It's like this.

And well, okay, now, I haven't been here for a long time. So I'm going to say, I assume that the teaching here is that Jesus Christ is fully

God and fully man, right? Is that safe to say? Okay, all right. He's been out of seminary for a while.

So I don't know if, you know, it's all right. So, okay, good.

I'm glad. Now, how long? Now, think about this.

How long did it take the church in the West to clarify that statement, that biblical truth?

Does anybody know? Council of Chalcedon, which was about 451

AD. You guys think about this. 400 years after the death of Christ.

Now, that had always been believed. That is the biblical truth, you know, by believers. All right. But it took the church in the

West 400 years to clearly formulate that and make the orthodox biblical statement.

And think about what the subject is, the nature of Jesus himself. Okay, 400 years.

Now, here's another one. Okay, I'm also going to assume, I hope, you know, you know, the teaching here is that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Does that sound somewhat familiar? I hope. Okay, all right. Now, again, how long did it take the church in the

West to formulate clearly that biblical truth?

It's called the Reformation. 1500 years after the death of Christ.

Now, like I said, that had always been believed by true believers. But, you know, to get it formulated and the clear statement that this is the biblical teaching and think about what the subject is, salvation itself.

Okay. So I tell people the reason I'm in Africa.

Yeah, we get to immediately strengthen these churches. They start teaching good biblical truth.

But you know what? Why should the church in Africa or like Chris Williams over in India or any of these other schools around the world?

Why does the church in the rest of the world or why should the church in the rest of the world have to stumble along in error and false teaching for 400, 800, 1500 years like we did in the

West? So that's also a big part of why I'm there. Hopefully, you know,

Lord willing, we can just sort of jump through, you know, you know, jumpstart the church so it doesn't have to go through all that kind of error.

And because, like I said, the church there, it is charismatic. It is Pentecostal.

Benny Hinn is the man they and what they do is they see that on TV, which that is there. And I am not kidding.

Our students come in. They think that is church in America. Everybody is like that because that's what they see.

They have no idea, no idea what it's really like. So so that's that's kind of the ministry in a nutshell.

Now, if you have some questions, good. I'll save them to the end, OK, because I want to talk about some things. So, I mean, that's what

I do. That's the ministry. I got some really good stories, some cool stories.

I'll tell you one right now. I do this every year. This is, in fact, I have a very calculated, very, very scripted out thing

I do in one of my classes because I teach the theology classes. So I teach the angels,

Satan, demons, you know, spirit world. All right. And so the students, they can't wait to get to that class because they think

I'm going to teach them how to, you know, cast out demons and, you know, whatever, all that kind of, you know, spiritual warfare and all this kind of stuff.

So so and I do this every year and I go back and forth whether I should or shouldn't because our student every year, there's some students that seriously get freaked out about this.

So so this is here we go. This is a cool missionary story. All right. So I'm standing up there in class and you saw me up in class.

And yes, I hope you're not offended, but I do teach in a polo shirt. OK, without a tie.

I mean, this is Africa, right? I asked the coolies, I said, do I have to wear a tie tomorrow? And, oh, yeah, yeah, you better wear a tie.

So, you know, so I'm here. That's, you know, I can eat meat sacrifice to idols or not.

It doesn't matter. So now I lost my groove.

OK, yeah, no, the story. All right. All right. So I'm up there. I'm in class and we get to this and, you know, we get to, you know, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

And, you know, Matthew 18 there. And so I'm there in class. And I go, OK, now, you guys know, listen, you know where I'm from.

You know, we don't bind Satan. And they go, yeah, Pastor Steve. We know. And I said, but now come on.

And this is this is at the beginning of their second year. So they know us. You know, they know us pretty well.

And I say now, but I know now. Come on, you guys tell me how many of you last Sunday at your church were binding Satan? You know, it's

OK. You can tell me, you know. And so, like, you know, everybody raises their hand. I said, no, listen, it's all right. I understand. I understand.

And listen, I understand your motivation. Nobody wants Satan loose, wreaking havoc amongst the people in their church, you know, sowing disunity and discord and confusion.

I said, believe me, I'm with you. And you want to protect people because, listen, it's true. You know, Satan does prowl around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour all this stuff.

Listen, I am with you. I understand. And, you know, but, you know, you know where we're from. You know, we don't do that. I mean, you understand that.

And they go, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I said, well, you know, listen, I mean, you think about it.

I mean, not only do you not want Satan wreaking havoc in your church, but I mean, think about it here at school.

I mean, you think about it. Here we go. We got like, you know, 80, 90 guys. And we're teaching, you know, the truth.

And we're, you know, teaching guys how to minister. And I mean, and you guys are the church leaders. You think,

I mean, if there's one place also where you certainly don't want Satan involved and getting error in there and causing all kinds of problems.

And, you know, you don't want Satan steering the leaders of the church wrong. I mean, then the whole church goes, you know, in the wrong direction.

Like, yeah. So I say, you know, I mean, have you, any of you guys ever like bound

Satan here at church? I mean, here, here at school? And they go, well, no, no, we haven't.

So then I go, you guys, listen, if this ever gets out,

I'm going to lose my job. I say, you guys close the curtains, close the door.

And they're like, they're like, we got one. I say, now, if this gets back to America, I'm going to lose all my support.

I better pull up out of this by the end of Sunday school. I say, I'm going to lose.

Don't you dare say a word to the other instructors. Don't you dare. So they're excited.

So I say, now, now help me here. OK, help me understand this. And so we go to Matthew 18 and they pull all these verses out of thin air.

You know, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And they put all this stuff together and say, see, it's an authority thing.

And, you know, and he's our conquered foe. And, you know, we can, you know, he's under our heel and blah, blah, blah, blah, all this kind of stuff.

And, you know, they explain all this stuff. And I say, so, you know, we look at it in Greek. I say, wow, you know, whatever you bind, whatever you lose.

And I say, you know, the secret Greek meaning to the term whatever is whatever, you know, so, wow,

I guess, you know, look at that, you know. And so, you know, they're showing me. And so it's like,

OK, now let me get this straight. So it's whatever I bind on Earth is bound in heaven, meaning like, you know,

God's done it himself. And I go, yeah, yeah. It's like, so also like whatever I lose, you know, and it's yeah, it's a parallel construction, you know, all this kind of stuff.

I go, well, OK. And I mean, you know, I take like all class period to build this up.

I mean, and it's like they're at the edge of their seat. And so I say, now help me out. How do I do this? What do

I say? Is there a right way to do it, a wrong way to do it, all this kind of stuff? And I say, now, not only on Satan, but does this work on like the demons?

And they go, yeah, you know. And so they tell me about all the kinds of demons and all this stuff. And there's the tokolos, which are the little household demons.

They're about a foot high. That's why African beds are up on stilts. So at nighttime, when they run around, they can't grab you.

So these little household demons that they got and territorial demons and all this kind of stuff. So I say,

OK, now, you know, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound on heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed on heaven again. All right, man, here we go.

And I mean, and by this time, most of them are like standing up, you know, there. So I get up there and I go,

I go, Satan. And any any of you territorial demons and you tokolos and any other evil spirit within the sound of my voice and like this,

I go. I now loose you on these men in this room right now.

And it's it is just, you know, that dead silence for a second.

And then as well, I mean, and that's I am not kidding you. It is a serious freak out.

And then, you know, they're like, oh, and then I start naming names, you know, timber, you know, yes, here.

And then I tell him and tonight they will be sleeping in the hostel right next door, you know, and you are free to work your evil there and attack them at will and all this kind of stuff.

And they're just, you know, you can't do that. I said, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We looked and it said, whatever you bind and whatever you loose, you told me that like no.

And then there's always some guy over here, you know, that's always like, no, no, Satan, I bind you. I said, no, I lose them, you know, so we go back and forth, you know, bind, loose, bind, loose, bind, loose, you know.

And I did this one year and there was a guy in the front row. It was, I mean, it's a black guy, but if he could have gone white, he would have, he would have gone white.

He was seriously freaked. I mean, he was shaking all. So I said, OK, go ahead and bind him. I won't lose him.

Go ahead. It's that's all right, you know, so. And so then like, I mean,

I've had students go, have you gone apostate? You know, I mean, it just and I say, now, wait a minute now, because listen, remember, like we talked about.

There is a spiritual reason for everything in their culture and their culture is an experiential culture.

All right, they they understand abstractly and they process abstractly.

That's not the problem. They're plenty smart. They get it. OK, they figure it out. But in their culture, it's not it's not really incorporated until there's an experience associated with it.

OK, now this is why in black churches in Africa, probably like churches here in the

States, like you've seen, you know, the guy gets up there and he says, today we're going to talk about our great

God. And they say, somebody says, amen. Thank you.

Amen. And I know I don't mean a great God. I mean, our God is the the almighty, most powerful

God. Amen. OK, yeah. All right. So you know how it goes. And, you know, they do that.

They say the same thing and they repeat it about 10 or 15 times. All right. You know, I'm sitting here saying,

OK, I got it the first time. I understood, you know, and they got it the first time, too. But it's the experience part of it that is their culture.

OK, so so I'm trying to bring them an experience. And man, this is an experience for them.

So, you know, they're they're freaked out. And I say, you know what? Let me tell you guys something. And they've been there, you know, they've been remember, this is beginning of their second year.

And I say, you know what, you guys, the fourth year students. So these are second year students.

So the fourth year students are there. I said the fourth year students went through the same thing two years ago. And I said, guess what?

I've been loosing Satan probably three or four times a month around school here since I got here.

Now, let me ask you something, see, because you have to tie it to an experience. I say, you guys, by your own admission.

You're binding Satan and demons all the time in the village. But there's nothing but demonic activity going on out there, right?

And they go, yeah. And I say, I've been loosing Satan and demons here at school all the time.

Let me ask you something. Is there more demonic activity going on here at school or in your village?

And they go, well, there's no demonic activity here at school.

And I go, you're right. So maybe that verse doesn't mean what you think it means.

See, what I did is I took their experience and I took this theological issue and I tied it to their experience.

And I work it so that's the end of the class. And I say, OK, so tomorrow we'll look at that passage and see what it really means.

Because at this point, they're still too freaked out. And I tell them, OK, when you walk out that door, the fourth year students know what today is and they'll be right out there.

And because I know you're going to be up all night talking to them, you know, and what's going on. So, I mean, that's just the kind of,

I mean, that's as exciting, I guess, as it gets. You know, I'm a seminary professor in the classroom. And, you know, so you've got to do these kind of things too.

It helps you to connect and it helps them to to understand that, you know, you're not just attacking them or their beliefs or the things they do, but you have to expose them and show them what the

Bible teaches on these things. You know, and anybody, you know, it doesn't take any it doesn't take any brains to just get up there and just lecture somebody and say, you know, you've been taught, therefore, you've been sanctified or whatever.

I mean, it doesn't work that way. You've got to have the relationship and they've got to trust you and they've got to see see that you care about them.

So that's one of the things that we do. And I'll tell you, by the end of the fourth year, you know, we usually have about 22 graduates each year, plus or minus, you know, in that neighborhood.

By the end of the fourth year, this is sort of the percentage, probably about two thirds of the students have just like bought into everything that we're trying to teach them.

You know, they realize that Benny Hinn is, you know, that's that's not it, you know, and the whole name it and claim it group.

That's not it. You know, they they understand now and they see now that, you know, they they see when they hear those guys preach and they hear the other pastors in their area preach.

They're just pulling their hair out. They can't believe, you know, they were so unbiblical just a few years ago.

And so, you know, methodologically, theologically, probably about two thirds of, you know, are there with us.

You probably got about another, you know, 20 percent or so that are OK. Benny Hinn, he's not a good guy.

That's I got that. But maybe some of this stuff is maybe not quite so bad.

So, you know, they've they've bought in theologically, but maybe methodologically on a few things there.

They're still and, you know, that's that's just where they're at. But you always got about maybe one or two that are just like holding on, you know, like I've just dug in their heels and just, you know,

I'm not going to go with it. So actually, that's not a bad percentage. And there's another thing we do.

I want to end in just a minute, but I do in the first year is probably about the second or third week after they get there.

I got this little like magic trick I do because they they believe in magic, 100 percent.

And another one of our professors, also from America, also he's got this card trick, which is a really great even

I haven't figured out this card trick yet. It's a great card. I'm like, show me that thing. He won't show me. But he does this card trick and freaks the students out.

Oh, you know, and I got this little trick that I do. And, you know, it helps to build the relationship, especially early on.

And I sort of play it up, you know, like, yeah, I got the secret power kind of thing. But I really don't. And, you know,

I kid him. But there's always again at the end of the fourth year, there's maybe one that's holding out. You know, there really is some sort of magic here.

And so I tell these guys, you know, your last week, your fourth year, I'll show you the magic trick.

And so like some of them are holding on, you know, to for the secret magic, whatever. And so I show him and it's just a trick.

And it's just a trick. Yeah, it's just a trick.

It's no there's nothing to it. There's nothing to it. It's and, you know, there's no trick, you know, for being a pastor, no trick for studying for a sermon, no secret magical nothing because they do that.

Remember, that's their culture. I mean, they're they literally, you know, are sitting on the front row and, you know, knowing

God's going to zap them with a message as they walk up to preach. So that's how we get them.

And but they they don't leave that way. All right. So that's that's in a nutshell what

I do. Any questions? Any questions? Anybody have anything?

Yes. Yeah. Good question.

Good question. We do. In fact, we teach in English in South Africa. Everybody speaks

English. It's their second or third language. And in most of Africa, people speak

English. And in fact, when you go there and you talk to people, they find out you're American. They want to speak

English because English is the international language of business and commerce and education. And so they want to sharpen their skills.

And in Africa, in South Africa, just the nation of South Africa, there's 11 official languages. So even if we spoke like Sutu, which would be the main language in our area.

I mean, the vast majority of our students are not Sutu, so they don't speak it. In fact, in the hostel, our students all speak

English to one another because they all understand it. Although we do once in a while have students.

And in fact, the group that you guys sent over, was it two years ago, right? Was it two years ago? They went over to Mozambique.

We've got two of our students from those churches that they visited in Mozambique. Two of our students, they came over Mozambique.

Excuse me. Mozambique was a Portuguese colony. So they speak Shangaan, which is their native language, plus Portuguese.

They showed up not speaking a word of English other than, you know, hello. And we've had guys from the

Congo where they spoke French because it was a French colony. And a few other countries around Africa.

And what we do, see, remember, they don't pay for the education. So we just throw them right into class, knowing they can't understand a word we say.

And we give them the books, knowing they can't read a word of it. But by three or four months in class, they understand us.

They can hear us. They can't really speak it yet. By the end of their first year, they can read

English. They can write English. And they can converse in English. And we just tell them, you're just going to do the first year over again.

So we just throw them, because they're not paying for it. And they don't mind. So that's just how we do it.

Because we're not going to turn them away. We're not going to say, go someplace else, learn English first. Then come here.

You know what? We'll still give you the books. We'll feed you. We'll house you. The other students will help you.

We'll throw you right in the classroom. You'll learn English in a year. You'll learn it. And so you'll be here five years instead of four.

And they're, oh, OK. And we have two students now like that. But we also, like I said on the video, we are fully accredited.

Our degree is recognized here in the US and in Europe and all around the world. And like I said,

Lord willing, we'll be adding a master's degree in maybe four or five years. We've got a few logistical things we've got to do.

Got to build a library, bigger library, another classroom or two. But it's fully accredited so that these guys, we give them the education.

They now have something that's valuable and recognizable in their culture. It's a big deal.

Now, we also, though, have students. We have two students from America. One is a missionary in Africa.

The other one, he's a 20 -year -old guy, really great guy from Illinois. He wants to be a missionary. So he's getting his education in a ministry -slash -missionary context.

We had a guy from Germany graduated a couple years ago. Those guys pay for the education because they can come to school.

That's fine. But they're not who we're focused on. They're not who we're trying to reach.

But they can come. That's fine. But we just tell them coming in, you're going to pay for the education. These other guys that can't afford it, they don't have to.

And we also have some white South Africans and some other

South Africans that have a little more means, that have some more funds available to them. And we just talk to them when they come in.

Sometimes we say, OK, well, you'll pay for the books or you'll pay 10 % of the tuition or whatever.

But the vast majority of the guys just pay the administration fee. And in fact, it's interesting. We have a guy, just started coming last year,

Afrikaner guy, Chris Buta. It's the Steinmans, right, that are from Africa? Yeah, we had lunch with him, was it day before yesterday?

Or dinner? Day before yesterday. And I'm telling you, that guy, he is Afrikaans, man. You don't have to go to South Africa to meet an

Afrikaner. That guy is Afrikaans. But Chris Buta is also going to our school, hardcore

Afrikaans. I mean, this guy is as Afrikaans as they come. And the Afrikaners are

Dutch reformed. It's like if you're, I guess, like if you're Italian, you're Catholic kind of thing.

If you're Afrikaner, you are Dutch reformed. And this guy, Chris Buta, white

South African guy, he's in his mid -30s. He already has his doctorate in theology from an

Afrikaner Dutch reformed seminary. He's pastor of a church in our town of about 400 people.

Okay? And we've known him for a couple of years. He's come to some of our pastor's stuff and he's talked to us.

And he's talked to some of our students. And at the beginning of last year, he came to us and he said, you know what he said?

He goes, you know what? He said, I learned all kinds of theology, but I did not learn how to preach and I did not learn how to minister.

Can I come to your school? And can you guys, he says, because my whole education was just theoretical and it was all knowledge based, nothing practical.

He says, I've been a pastor of this church now for three years and I don't know how to minister. Would you teach me how to minister and how to preach?

And we're like, yes. So he's also one of our students and he pays. We told him, yeah, you're going to pay for it, the education.

And that's, I guess, I don't know how long Mike goes, but you think Mike goes long. This guy was preaching for two hours

Sunday morning. So, and he's in, he's in like my discipleship group. And I said, you know, Chris, you could dial back on that a little bit.

You know, that's, they don't need two hours, but he's also coming. And they're, it's interesting, their organization, their

Afrikaner organization, though it's Dutch Reformed, is the Armenian wing of the Dutch Reformed Church.

And so the first class he took was soteriology for me in seminary. But he's like one of these guys, he's, he's, there's, there's no, you know, it's off or floored with him.

You know, there's no like second or third, you know, gear in there. It's like, so he, he, you know, we went over, we went over election and he was like, yes.

And so he goes and the next Sunday, it was a two hour lecture Sunday morning on election and the church.

And I said, slow down, Chris, it's okay. You know, they're not going anywhere. But so anyway, okay,

I rambled on. That was, that was a great question, though. But any other questions? Anything else?

Yes, by churches. That thing is, we're, since we, we don't charge for the education, the school and the instructors are supported from the

US. So that's why I'm here on furlough. You know, making, yeah.

Hi, people. I love you. You know, doing the missionary kind of thing.

So that's how we, that's how we survive. And I got to say, it's, it's been a, it's been a really good trip across the

US. God is, is working.

He is blessing the ministry. It is going. And, you know, I'm not just saying this.

It's, I mean, I got a great situation. You know, it's going good.

The school, I mean, our graduates, we're unified.

All of the instructors, you know, theologically, philosophically, why we're there, what we want to do, you know, we're there to produce pastors, not, you know, just some big

Bible theology brain, you know, I mean, real pastors that can preach. And, and God's using it.

And, and I just get to teach the Bible all the time. I mean,

I got no complaints, you know, it's South Africa, but that's where God wants us.

You know, it's, I mean, South Africa, it's, you know, the World Cup is there now.

It's, you know, I wouldn't mind being there watching a soccer game or two. But, you know, we just passed, last year, we passed

Columbia for worst crime in the world. So, you know, when you're worse than Columbia, you're, you're pretty bad.

So, you know, that's no good. We live on the same street as church, about a half a mile away.

And, you know, won't let our daughters walk alone to church during the daytime.

You know, it's just the way it is. In fact, there was a crime spree in our area about a year ago or whatever, wouldn't let any of our kids, even my two sons, you know,

Stephen's 6 '5". Timothy is, he's sick this morning with Steve Cooley there. Maybe, I think they just wanted to watch the soccer games or something.

But, so, Timothy, you know, he's 6 '4". You know, I would, I wouldn't even let them walk to church during the daytime because of the bad crime that was in our area.

But that's just the way it is. You know, you, you deal with it. You just, you know, that's where God has us.

So, yeah. No, it's, it's everybody, everybody.

In fact, the worst crime is the black -on -black crime, is the worst. But it's spread out even amongst everybody.

So, you just be careful. You know, they, you know, when we first got there within, what, three months, you know, somebody broke into where we were living, stole computers, stole cell phones.

If it's, the average is every four years guaranteed you're gonna be broken into.

Gonna happen. And whether you're home or not doesn't matter. They'll come in when you're there.

So, we're due, I guess. Great. But that's, you know, that's life.

That's just the way it is. Everybody we know at church has been broken into numerous times.

Stuff stolen out of their homes. You know, it's not unusual to, you know, every couple of months, somebody's, you know, been mugged at gunpoint.

You know, that's, that's just the way it is. But it's good there.

I mean, you know, we're being used. That's not good. But the ministry is good.

Anything else? Yes. Oh, yeah, good question.

Well, it's a, we just interview them. All the, all of the instructors sit down and we've got some basic questions.

They fill out a, like a three or four page application. That's the first gate that they go through.

If they don't answer clearly, you know, their, their gospel, their, their testimony. And also, if they're not associated with a church.

Because we require that. Because we want them to be in ministry. You know, those guys, so probably at least, you know, half.

We probably get about 50, 60 applications a year.

So, you know, just in the, the initial filling out the thing process. It gets us down to probably about 30 or so.

And then, you know, just an interview. Find out my question that I always ask.

Because it's, I think it's very telling. You know, I just look through if there's, if I have a clarification question.

Or something on their, on their application. But I always ask, you know, okay, let's say you come here to school.

And, you know, God's gracious. And you make it through the four years. And you graduate. What do you want to do?

What I'm listening for is. I want to be at my church pastoring.

God's called me to the ministry, pastoral ministry. I want to hear something like that. If I hear, well, you know,

I'm going to be the next evangelist. Great evangelist. Whatever, you know, traveling Africa in the world.

Or, you know, I'm going to, you know, I, I, there's a big church in Johannesburg. That, you know,

I, I'm going to be. And we've heard it all. You know, those guys, I'm like, I put them at the back of the line.

You know, what I want to hear is a guy who is, you know, in ministry. Or he's an associate or whatever heading toward there.

And that's where I want to be. So that's, that's how we do it. And we just, we take those guys first, obviously.

So. No, in fact, that's, that's another great thing is we don't advertise at all.

And we never have. How we get most of our students. The vast majority of our students is they have heard our graduates preach someplace.

And they come up and they say, where did you learn how to preach? Because they go like, for the first time,

I learned something. How I know what that passage is about. And it made sense. You know, it was, it had some structure to it.

And also we're not, we're not trying to, you know, I mean, like I said earlier. And I tell the guys in the preaching class,

I say, you know. I'm the white guy from America. I'll preach like the white guy from America.

You know, in my class, if you preach like the white guy from America, you're going to fail. You know,

I mean, you know, if your thing is you're foaming at the mouth and jumping up and down, running around, fine.

Do that as long as you've got something to say while you're doing that. I don't, you know, that doesn't matter to me.

That's their culture. They need to stay who they are. They just need to bring the content.

So what happens is they hear our guys preach. That's the vast majority.

And other things we've had guys, you know, just, you know, in conferences, some guys, a couple of guys a few years ago, they were applying to a different seminary.

And one of the students at that seminary was quitting because he says they weren't teaching me how to minister and to preach.

And he was coming over here, and he met these two guys on their way into the admissions department and told them not to go there, but to come to us.

Now, we don't that's poaching. We don't, you know, we don't encourage that. But I mean, that's how we got it. I mean, a couple of guys.

So it's all different ways. But mainly, they hear our guys preach. So, OK, it's 10 o 'clock.

I need to stop. I don't want to, but I will. So we're going to be hanging out.

We'll be here tonight. So and I think we got like a dessert or something afterwards tonight, I think.

So we'll be here. If you've got questions, you know, great. We'd love to answer them. I do have updated prayer cards.

The other one are really ugly and old pictures. So get some new ones of these. I guess we'll pray.

Yes. Yes. Yeah, I remember.

Yeah. And then it's kind of neat because some of our folks went to Christ Seminary to go to Mozambique.

And I'm just thrilled that we can partner with the Plotniks and have them preach the word there. Steve is a preaching machine.

And so you just give him the hours to preach and he preaches much better than Newtown, Connecticut, the home of the first insane asylum in Connecticut.

But that's a good story. OK, let's pray. Father, I thank you for today,

Lord. God, I ask you that your people would be encouraged and built up and, Father, be good ministry to one another.

Lord, I ask you that all things we do and say this morning and all day, in fact, our whole lives would be,

Father, glorifying to you. Lord, I ask you to make it a good day for your people and especially a good day for you.