Soul Sickness: The Bible Is The Cure

One Sunday morning, my team mate Victoria taught the Inductive Method to a congregation in Bolivia. She finished by giving a final exhortation and asked them to join us at our next seminar at another church. When we arrived at our seminar we were pleased to see that a man named Juan had chosen to come. Juan was extremely quiet but greeted all of us with a customary kiss and warm embrace. This seminar ended up being the low point of the outreach. Attendance was less and less each night and those who came didn’t seem to be particularly eager to learn. Juan was there every night though, Bible and note book in hand, hanging on every word, eager to pray and take part in ministry times. God began to lay Juan on all of our hearts and we began to thank Him for our one faithful attendee. In our team prayer times we sensed that we were to teach with all our hearts, even if Juan was the only one who wanted to learn. His genuine hunger kept us going and we looked forward to seeing his smiling face each evening.

At the end of our seminar Juan asked to share his testimony. We learned that the Sunday Victoria spoke at his church he had been contemplating taking his life. Bad choices he had made had destroyed his family’s faith in him and his wife and children wanted to leave him. He asked the pastor for prayer and the pastor told him his soul was sick because of the way he had been living . He said that God’s Word was the medicine he needed and encouraged him to attend our Bible Overview seminar. God brought Juan to our seminar that week and each night He was faithful to teach Juan about His character and to challenge Him to live a godly life. Juan was so moved by what he learned that every night he went home and taught his family all that he had learned. The family repented and recommitted themselves to each other and to God. In closing, Juan said said he was so thankful that we had come to teach and that he was dedicating his life to learn as much as he could about God so that he could use that knowledge to change the lives of other families who are hurting just as his family was. After Juan finished sharing I reflected on all that he had said and came to a better understanding of what it means to teach. I realized that teaching is never about me, my ability or my plan but it is always about God. God sent five ordinary people from the United States to teach one man in Bolivia and through that one man I know that countless other lives will be transformed.

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