2018 Pittsley Post 1

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February Flies By

I find it incredible that I'm already looking at the end of this month! Life has been flying by in Nairobi. Here are a couple of highlights:

Jonathan Moore and I have rebooted our regular curriculum development meetings. It is our hope that we will have completed development for 4 new courses for EABST before the end of the year. We were already halfway through one course when the year started and made some serious progress on it even today. It's a privilege to be involved at this research and planning stage hunting down the perfect reading material and deciding which class sessions will discuss what. It's one of my favorite parts of the week.

A Potential Church Meeting Place
(with some work to do!)

Early this month I had the opportunity to travel with one of the deacons of EBC and one of the church planting interns from last year to scope out a few potential sites for church planting in the town of Nakuru about 94.4 miles (3 hours drive) from Nairobi. Nothing is settled yet, but we would love to continue to see EBC planting churches in the country and beyond.

EBC graciously invited me to preach twice this month. I covered the books of Zephaniah and Haggai in one sermon each. While these unfamiliar books may refer to ancient customs and foreign institutions, our God, our human nature, and the biblical worldview don't change, so it has been both exciting and convicting to explain and apply the message of these prophets to our modern situation.

Classes continue to go well, as do our weekly meetings with EBC's interns. In Intro to Biblical Theology, we are preparing to tackle important discussions such as "Salvation in the Old Testament," and "the Mosaic Law and the New Testament Christian." In our intern meetings, each of EBC's three interns are preparing and delivering weekly Bible messages from various genres throughout the Scriptures. These sermons have been encouraging and challenging. It's such a privilege to be involved in the lives of these gifted servants of Christ!

We're so grateful for your continued prayer and partnership with us in the gospel of Jesus!

Getting into the Swing of 2018

Our Lord has brought us into a new year, and new opportunities abound.
In Kenya, Christmas season is often also wedding season. Since my last update, Jenny have attended three weddings; we had the privilege of being involved directly in two of them. It's such a joy to see the way the Lord is bringing people together to reflect his name and the gospel. Please keep these three new couples in prayer as they adjust to life together as one and seek to honor Christ through their loyal love for one another.
Emmanuel Baptist Church had the exciting opportunity to send out its first church planters earlier this month! Dan Huffstutler and Andy Matoke were officially commissioned from EBC to start a church in a nearby area called Karen. We're so happy to see God using these gifted men, and, while it's sad that we won't see them around EBC as regularly, it's an undeserved joy to participate like this in the progress of Christ's mission. Please pray for Dan and Andy, along with several EBC members who will be joining them, as they strive to reach this new area with the true grace of God.
Classes started again two weeks back. We kicked off with two Q and A lunches (pictured right), one on the sufficiency of the Scriptures and another on biblical church leadership. This term I'm teaching a unit called Introduction to Biblical Theology. The students are encouraged to summarize the message of the whole Bible in 100 words or less and to tell the big story of the Bible in 500 words or less. These projects lay a foundation for the students for a lifetime of studying the Word, fitting the pieces of the biblical puzzle together. Please pray that God would use our full schedule of classes to equip men for local church ministry.
Last week, Ekklesia Afrika, a ministry that promotes the health of churches through solid biblical materials, hosted a Charles Simeon Trust workshop to help pastors and others hone their skills in expository preaching. I had the privilege of working with one of several small groups who tackled the book of 2 Timothy to practice the principles taught in the course and to receive encouragement from the Word itself to, "Preach the Word!" Please pray that God would continue to provide such opportunities through this new ministry.

Merry Christmas!