Zambia Week Long Teacher's Bible Study Program Raises Hopeful Local Leadership
Olivet Assembly of Zambia held a teacher's Bible Study program in order to educate and raise interested members of the church to be able to teach Bible studies at their local churches. Members from several churches around Zambia including Emmanuel Church, Hope of Glory Church, and the Revival Church in Ndola City attended the Bible Studies and workshops. Missionary James guided the lectures and hoped to raise powerful Bible teachers that could help to grow their local churches both through spiritual training and improved church administration.
From the beginning, the attendees listened to lectures from Romans chapter one reinforcing the introduction of salvation and the gospel. The listeners testified that they could realize how important the book of Romans is to understanding their faith, especially to explain the difference between the gospel and the law and the need for salvation. The Romans lectures continued for four days until reaching chapter 4 when they were explained deeply the arguments of righteousness by faith instead of circumcision or by works under the law.
During time to time, the attendees also worked on learning church administration to better support their local churches and to develop their leadership. Missionary James led the new leaders in exercises to better understand organizing church events and outreach programs. They wrote reports about their goals and plans to develop Bible programs for local members and organized the material they would teach based off of the lessons they attended during this teacher's program.
The last few lectures involved the Sermon on the Mount with emphasis on Matthew chapter 5 and the golden rule of heaven. The students spent additional time to schedule a meeting for the church development until midnight, passionate with the Holy Spirit to grow their respective churches with the lessons they were learning and to preach the gospel more.
The entire program finished with a conference looking ahead to the Zambia Summer Retreat. They hope to gather all of the local church members from Ndola and other local cities. The current plans are for a 3-day retreat where they will continue to hold intensive Bible studies. While the time during for the teacher's Bible study was short, the students agreed that they could learn many important lessons and teachings and are looking forward to continuing to study the Bible. Please pray for the growth and development of Zambia's churches and for these precious Bible teachers to grow in their faith as they teach the word of God.
