Sunday, September 2, 2012

Shalom Bible Study

SBS at the last session for Full Armor of God
Shalom Bible Study (SBS) is the bible study group that God led Kristin and me to start three and half years ago. Its members are primarily KOICA volunteers. Its membership has evolved over time as some old members who have completed their mission have returned to Korea and new members have joined.

In July, Isaac has gone back and last night/today three members (Sungye, Minjung and Yurim) are returning to Korea. I already miss them, but I will have to let go and let God lead them to go to the next level of Christian maturity. It will be tougher to keep faith and grow mature in the first world than here in Rwanda because of the increased exposure to worldly temptations and peer pressures. Last Friday, we prayed for the three lady members. Now we have eleven members (Jihye, Hayan, Jihyun, Yoonbum, Sungeun, Deacon Sejun Park, Youngsup, Jaejoon, Jonghak, Ilmo and Keunhwa), plus Kristin and myself. The member used to be as high as 17. We have agreed not to increase the membership beyond 12, plus our couple, so that our bible study will focus more on discipleship training like Jesus did.

SBS has an interesting group of talents. Keunhwa is a guitar player (Keunhwa), leading the praise and Hayan is a great singer who helps us with our praise. Both Hayan and Sungeun are violin players. They are wonderful musicians. Jihyun and Youngsup are cooking specialists. Jihye is an artist. Jonghak is a TaeKwonDo master. And so on. I am so grateful for this bunch of people who have so many talents.

Some members request to continue receiving the e-mails and handouts for their study. It is encouraging to hear such requests. I freely provide all materials as they request.

To date, SBS has studied Ephesians, Romans, Beatitudes, Names of God, Jesus and Kingdom Life, Book of Acts and most recently Full Armor of God. We have started the study on Colossians from August. SBS has been an important part of our ministries in Rwanda. I pray that the faithful Lord will continue holding our hands in serving the SBS members joyfully and faithfully. I also pray that the good Lord will continue helping the SBS members grow stronger in faith, deeper in love and higher in hope for the life to come that will be eternal. - Jeffrey  

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