Next weekend

Here’s a brief snapshot of what’s coming up for us and how you might be praying for us. Next weekend, the 21st and 22nd, Charlie will travel with a small team of other CBTS lecturers and staff persons to Bamenda to conduct more prospective student interviews. He’ll stay overnight and will probably speak with a larger number of candidates than he did a couple of weekends ago (check out his blog post on this below). Doing these interviews is tiring, and, while there are great stories of God’s faithfulness that you get to hear (as Charlie already mentioned below), there’s also some discouragement that can be a part of it too, since so many of the candidates who want to become full-fledged students at the seminary struggle to articulate even the basics of Christian faith. You feel torn listening to them talk. On the one hand, you ask yourself, “Should a person who has trouble explaining – even in simple terms – the Gospel message be admitted to a theological seminary in order to become a pastor eventually?” But on the other hand, you think, “This is exactly why a theological seminary exists – to help people who don’t know much about Jesus and the Christian way of life to become equipped and grounded so that, when they go out into a ministry position, they can do so with a good foundation under their feet.” I’m sure Charlie would appreciate your prayers as he travels to Bamenda and as he interviews prospective students.

While Charlie is away, Tommy and I will get to visit a nearby Presbyterian church on Sunday. One of our students attends this church, and he invited us to come. His name is Shey Zacks, and he’s one of about five or six Presbyterian students at CBTS. Zacks’ family recently went through a gut-wrenching situation. Several weeks ago his wife gave birth to triplets, one of them died shortly after being born, and then she (Zacks’ wife) started losing blood. Hospital bills mounted (they were sky-high for almost any Cameroonian), and Zacks was getting more and more discouraged, with no idea of how he would pay the bills. To make a long story short, Charlie, Tommy, and I got involved with financial assistance, and Zacks’s wife is now out of the woods health-wise, though still of course grieving the loss of one of the babies. As an expression of their gratitude for our help, Zacks and his wife have asked the three of us to name the two surviving babies and to be present at their dedication next Sunday. And the pastor of the church has asked me to preach. He even assigned me texts – something totally foreign for us Baptists! – Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34:1-10, Acts 20:17-38, and John 10:1-10. So Tommy and I are looking forward to celebrating God’s mercy at this service with Zacks and his wife (it will be our first time to meet his wife and see the babies), and we’d appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we travel and spend the day with them.

Thanks for reading and keeping up with us,

Wes