Ethnos NZ

View Original

"All our churches are so very far from this teaching!"

Jamie and Char Hunt minister as Bible translators in Paraguay. “Jamie, along with our co-worker Erwin, went to a community about an hour away to do a comprehension check with a young man. After hearing about God's design for church leadership, the man exclaimed, ‘Wow, this is all so new to me! I have never heard this before.’ He has been serving as a leader in his church for years, and this was the first [time] he had heard with understanding the qualifications of elders and deacons. The next day, Jamie and Erwin headed to a different village to again check 1 Timothy with a different individual. This young man has pastored his church, [has] held evangelistic campaigns and has been a youth pastor for more than ten years. The reading of 1 Timothy was a shock to him. He said with a heavy heart, ‘All our churches are so very far from this teaching!’ He couldn't believe what he was hearing: ‘Parents are to make their children obey? That's what the Bible says? My people have never heard that before!’ He then added, ‘This book needs to be read right away from start to finish in all our churches!’ He was amazed at all the truth contained in 1 Timothy that he was learning for the very first time. To see eyes opened and understanding dawn in the hearts of these two young men as 1 Timothy was read to them is evidence that the powerful Word of God is communicating to the minds and hearts of the hearers.”