There’s plenty of good news coming out of our most recent trip to Southeast Asia.  Thanks to the efforts of our contacts there, we had an opportunity to take the teaching inland to a different part of the country, thus reaching an entirely new audience on this latest trip.  God even brought two previously unreached people groups to our doorstep.

Teaching in Southeast Asia

One young man (representing an indigenous people group of around seventy thousand) told us that he believed he was the first of his people to become a Christian.  It was by the grace of God, he felt, that he had crossed paths with our host.  He shared with him his hunger for more knowledge of the Bible, and since there were no other Christians in his ‘tribe,’ he’d found it necessary to seek fellowship elsewhere.  Our seminar host immediately invited him to the teaching we brought to the area in January.

He was a most excellent student!

In all, there were some fifty pastors and key church leaders present at the teaching that was held from January 3^rd to the 10^th.  They told us they had never before heard any teaching on inductive Bible study like what we brought them at the seminar.  Some had participated in inductive Bible study training before but related that the teaching had not made sense to them until they attended our seminar.

This latest audience consisted of both male and female participants from a wide spectrum of ages.  We were particularly impressed by the presence of a few older women in attendance.  This was the only time in the four seminars we’ve taken overseas that older women have participated.  During the frequent break-out sessions, we found them quite naturally leading small groups of younger women through the process of inductive study.  It was exciting for us to witness their progress.

As a whole, no other group we’ve taught—either at home or abroad—has responded as enthusiastically or productively as this one.  In the evaluation that followed, participants related excitement over taking what they had learned back to their communities.  They were anxious to share with other believers the importance of studying the Bible and knowing for themselves what it says.  All in all, we’d call this seminar a huge success.