Third week of teaching at Koropa
Dear all our friends and family
In these first few lessons we are finding our feet. What are the best times to teach when people are there. We are also getting to know who the regulars are. Last week I (David) went up on my own because Heti was involved in the signing over of the old ITF property to the new teacher’s college. It was in a rainy period (this wet season we are getting periods of rain then dry) and the river was flooded so no one from across the river were able to come.
The people didn’t come until it was getting dark, which would have been okay because we have a light, but it was starting to rain. They said that we can continue the lesson in the morning. The next morning I taught the lesson on the creation of Adam. Things were a bit wet as it had rained all night. We had more rain that night and no one came. Thursday morning I taught on the placing of Adam in the garden of Eden and the warning about eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Last Sunday night I rang Heti and asked if he was going up with me this week. He said, “No, I have some work to do on the teacher’s college.” A little bit later he rang and apologized for saying “No” and said that he will go with me. Tuesday afternoon I picked him up and headed up to Koropa and he said to me, “God I sutim bel belong me” (convicted me). We arrived there about 4 PM and hardly got the car unpacked when the people came and said that they wanted the lesson now. So we rushed to get things set up and Heti taught on the creation of Eve and I gave them a quiz on all that they had learned so far. They did very well.
Next morning we taught on the fall. We made it very clear that when God said, “You shall surely die.” He was setting the penalty for sin. This is an important point, which we will be reinforcing throughout the lessons, because it tells us why Jesus had to die. We also made it clear that although Eve was deceived, Adam clearly understood God’s command not to eat it and the consequences if he did yet he blatantly chose to disobey God. There was a lot of discussion among them after that and one man was sitting there shaking his head and saying, “It’s true, he had no excuse.” That afternoon no one came and next morning it got late and the people had to go and choose a new village court judge as the old one had died. A couple of our village sons were there and they decided that they would talk to the people and mark a time for the lessons and ask them to come at that time rather than have us wait and see if anyone comes. They want us to teach earlier in the mornings which will be fine with us. It was a little disappointing but if we can get them coming at certain times it should work out better.
With love from
David and Wendy