Dear Friends and Family,
I just wanted to take a few minutes to let you all know how Awa Believers Conference went this year. We didn't get a chance to send out an update beforehand, but some of you heard about it from the note our partners the Bruces sent out, and have been praying.
Our theme this year was "Being Like Jesus" and our theme verse was "He who says he abides in Him outght himself also to walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:6). We talked about different aspects of Jesus' life on earth, such as how he resisted temptation, his compassion for others, and also how he taught people His Father's Word. This was the part that excited us the most. This year we did something new during our interactive time by splitting them into groups and having them choose one of the drawings that go with the chronological Bible lessons. Then as a group, they had to have one of them read the Scripture that goes with it, and then discuss the story to understand it better, and then choose one from their group to teach the story to us all. It was neat to see the enthusiasm they showed for this activity. All during the afternoon free time, we could see little groups of believers huddled around their drawing, reading their Bibles and talking about how to teach it the next day. (We made sure each group had at least one reader and one person who had shown a desire to teach.) The next day there were some pretty tense moments as some of them stood up and shared their story, but they all got through it.
What happened afterward was the best of all. We had some time left over, so we opened it up for questions and answers, about anything that might be on their minds. After a pause, Kevin asked, "Whose responsability is it to gather the people together to hear God's Word?" "Is it just the missionaries?" interjected Kathy. Some heads nodded, but a few were shaking, and finally one of them said, "No, we need to do it!" It was like a snowball. More and more people began talking and saying, "Yes, we need to teach our own people!" The session went way overtime as they all kept talking about how they could teach their own people, and in the end they were making plans for going in groups of three or four to go and teach in other Awa communities. Needless to say, we were thrilled.
Then this morning we celebrated the Lord's supper, and the prayer time turned into an outpouring of thanksgiving from the hearts of the Awa that we have never seen before. Person after person prayed aloud, thanking God for their salvation and for the time they had been having together for conference. Then at the end, many willing hands joined in to clean up and put everything back in order. To sum it up, we all pretty much felt like this was the best believers conference we have ever had. Thank you all for praying, and for your continued prayer for these precious people as they go back out into their world, wanting to be more like Jesus, and to tell others about him.
In His Name
Doug and Dorcas Williams
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