'There they go, and I am their leader'
Julie Martin remembers a plaque her dad had on his desk when she was young.
It read, “I must hurry. For there they go, and I am their leader.”
“I always thought that was funny,” she continues. “I still do. But here we are feeling like that plaque totally applies to our situation here with the Akolet believers.”
The Akolet believers have been growing by leaps and bounds.
First they started their own version of Sunday School with the goal of teaching young children at their own level while at the same time, keeping them from causing distraction during the Bible teaching.
“What a great idea!” Julie comments. “Maybe we should have had it first?”
Next the Akolet church started a youth group. “That’s right,” says Julie. “The believers decided to start their own youth group.” She explains that the believers had been talking about how they needed to be helping each other and meeting each other’s needs. So the youth started a joint garden to provide food for people who need it.”
Adam and Julie were delighted. “What a great idea!” Julie observes. “We should have given it to them!”
Julie shares that Akolet praise-song writing has also taken off. “We saw a young guy at meetings who we didn’t recognize. … It turns out he’s from a further away Akolet village and moved here … because he heard some of the Akolet youth singing praise songs and said he had never heard words anything like that and needed to come hear more. So he just picked up and is living here now, coming to the meetings.”
And the list detailing God’s maturing work in the Akolet church goes on.
“We could go on and on at the things we see happening here that make us feel—well—a bit superfluous. Obviously the believers are still young in the faith and need a lot of teaching, discipleship and just time to grow and mature in Christ. But the Holy Spirit is alive and active in them, and while He is certainly using us, He’s by no means dependent on us.”
“Praise Him for that,” Julie says, “Since we are daily aware of our not-enough-ness.”
Adam and Julie are asking for prayer in specific avenues of their ministry with the Akolet people. Please pray for God’s continued blessing on Akolet children’s and youth ministries. Pray that these ministries will be a light to unbelievers and a source of strengthening for believers. Please pray also for the new evangelistic Bible teaching that will be starting up again soon; for the time for Adam to do this on top of all his other responsibilities.
And Julie shares yet another prayer need. “Please pray for strength, health and encouragement for us,” she shares. “Pray that the truths Adam is teaching from Romans would become more and more true in our own lives as well.”