Teaching Phase 1 or Course 1 is a dream to many missionaries! To be given an opportunity and the audience is hard to come by sometimes, with some missionaries never getting the chance, or to find out the people reject the teaching except for maybe 1 or 2 families. That is a true history of missions, and we say that before we share our experience. We do not want to forget those who are serving God faithfully in hard places, but to also lift up God’s name alone in that He prepares the people and road to share His glorious Gospel, always being reminded that Christ is the one building His church (Matthew 16:18).
What we mean by the title “for the first time”, to our knowledge we are not sure if anyone else has ever taught the Firm Foundations teachings here in Vanuatu. If so it was not well publicized nor was it translated into Bislama. There are no large mission organizations here in Vanuatu like in other places, so when I asked a missionary who has been here for 16 years about it, he could not think of anyone who would have taught the Firm Foundations teaching. We are so thankful that we learned how to use the Firm Foundations teaching approach back in our missions training. Since then, we have taught the teaching in English and in Tok Pisin. Bislama is now the third language we have taught the course teaching.
Teaching
It was an awesome experience! The way the lessons are set up, you go systematically through major Old Testament stories, leading up to and through the Life of Christ. You finish with his death, burial, Resurrection and Ascension. It was a lot of teaching, and God blessed my (Seth’s) voice to be able to speak that long. The format of the lessons go through main points, verses in the Bible, expound, teach thematically, and then ask questions at the end to gauge their comprehension of the lesson you just taught.
Foundational Bible Teaching
It was so exciting to teach each class, even in the time of the day when the sun hits the aluminum roofing and we are all sweating. My (Seth’s) favorite time was the time for questions after each lesson, I asked specific questions to gauge their comprehension, were they tracking with the main points of the lesson, and so on. But then I left it open for them to ask questions that pertained to the lesson that was just taught, it was an amazing time for people to personally apply what they just learned. Many would ask questions what everyone else in the room was thinking. The Light level grew and the people’s understanding of how the Bible is one cohesive story became more and more clear, they realized the focus is God and His grace, not man and his work. Many people felt so free afterwards.
We did the 40 lessons over a span of 3 days, we ate all 3 meals together every day, having fellowship and laughing in-between the lessons. We finished that part of the teaching and then had an almost 3 hour Bible Q & A time, during which over 40 people came. No topic was off-limits, each time a question was asked, I (Seth), never answered “what I think”, but used the Bible and showed them the Final-Authority and All–Inclusiveness of the Bible. They are used to people giving them answers through their own personal wisdom, and from opinions, along with many things from their animistic pasts that convolute absolute truth. My goal was to disciple them in how to answer questions, to show them that the Bible has the answers, not man or his wisdom, and that we can trust our Heavenly Father. After that time, many left and commented how the Bible was the focus, and if we study it, it can give us the answers our hearts are looking for, so amazing!
The 37 Students
We took a day of rest on Sunday, I was asked to preach, and we had a great day of rest and fellowship, talking about the deep truths of God. The next day it was back to work, and my favorite part of the teaching. I encouraged and asked for volunteers to re-do the teaching, but this time I asked them to do it, with the understanding I was there to help coach/disciple them through the process. Remember this is a shame-base culture, with heavy focus on male authority with women almost looked at as possessions. So to my surprise I had 21 people volunteer to teach, with 6 of them being women! 8 of the 21 people had never taught before, they were so nervous, but each one of them after they finished their lesson, they smiled and walked away with a huge sense of confidence and accomplishment. We walked through the lessons and reviewed how to teach, the purpose in the lessons, and the other minutia of teaching dealing with the audience. Everyone loved that they are now better teachers, and have printed systematic teachings that they can now replicate in their own villages.
After I taught the course, and then they re-taught the course, so many of them left encouraged in their faith. Even though the whole thing was done in Bislama (the trade/national language), there were about 6 languages represented in the room. Each one from a different people group, they are more equipped and are excited to go back to their people and share what they learned. So many people thanked us for the teaching, they loved that it was laid out in a cohesive way, it is full of Biblical facts so they grew in their knowledge, and it even was used by God to lead one person to a saving knowledge of Him! One young man told me, “The teaching helped me understand the Bible as a whole, before I use to jump around while teaching, but now I see the Bible as one story of God’s grace to man. I am so excited to teach my friends and family when I get back to my village”. So many people walked up to me and said they were now going to go through the teaching with their people. Talk about replication!
One of the students teaching
We could go on and on with testimonies, because God’s Word is amazing. Many people are asking us to go teach it in their villages, host conferences, and asking us to finish translating the other lessons. God really used the teaching to take ahold of people’s hearts. God is too good to us, His Word is powerful, and we know your prayers were quintessential to the success of our time. Thank you so much for your involvement in our ministry.
Your feet to the unreached, Seth & Nicole Stokes
