'Yo-bagawn

Check back here often to read stories of the 'Yo-bagawn preaching point and fellowship with them in the name of Christ.

6 April 2008
We have had relatively good relations with all the other groups in our area who call on the name of Christ in our area. However, lately there have been a few agitators within the Catholic church that have been persecuting Chrsitians in our churches. This past week, there were some catholics who came to \'Yo-bagawn\'s church service, and asked them to give them the benches they were sitting on because they needed them for the Catholic service. \'Yo-bagawn defended themselves and told them they were using the chairs and asked the Catholics to leave. They did but came back with a catechist who had, apparently, made fun of them in the past saying things like, \"You can\'t just learn about Jesus for a couple of weeks and then become a Christian. That\'s not a REAL conversion. You can\'t get baptized in a barrel. That\'s not a REAL baptism.\" This understandably upset the \'Yo-bagawn Christians so much that they got in an argument with the catechist and it was apparently not pretty. I drew the straw to come to this church the next Sunday. I preached to them from Luke\'s version of the sermon on the mount which tells us to be happy when people make fun of us, because that\'s what our ancestors did to the prophets and to be sad when everyone speaks well of us because that\'s what our ancestors did to the false prophets. The following texts talk about using self-sacrifice to redeem yourself and your abuser from the abusive situation. I talked about how turning the other cheek and walking the other mile and giving up your church bench and worshiping God while sitting in the dirt not only protects one\'s own diginity, but allows for the possibility that the abuser, when face with his own violence, may be convicted and repent. This seemed to be an encouraging message to them. Please pray for this situation to be diffused.

Aaron
Posted: 04/17/2008 2:51 pm - GMT

Baptism Party - 16 March 2008
Andy and I went together with Daniel to the church service in \'Yo-bagawn this morning. When we arrived there were at least 50 people there and before we left the number had increased to more than 200 from at least 5 churches. All those who had been baptized recently were all wearing clothing cut from the same type of material with the same design on it - the way Africans tend to do at weddings. There was a great deal of singing and rejoicing and we all enjoyed Andy\'s message from I Cor. 12.

Aaron
Posted: 03/16/2008 9:24 pm - GMT

10 February 2008
This morning was amazing. This village is a plant of \'Yo. Within 3 minutes of our arrival the entire church was assembled and worshiping. 20 adult women, 7 adult men, 25 teenagers and 25 children were singing in full-swing. Of course, after service they told us, \"We already met for the past two hours but we wanted to have church again when you arrived.\" Church again indeed! It was a full 1 1/2 hourr service after they had already met for 2 hours! Praise God for the energy of this congregation.

Chad
Posted: 02/19/2008 5:08 pm - GMT

28 May 2007
Severen has been consistent in his visits to help the leaders of â€˜Yo plant the church in â€˜Yo Bagawn. They have taught 10 lessons and tell me that they have around 40-60 adults at each meeting. It is a great encouragement. They have been teaching about the life and teachings of Jesus for the last three weeks. Please pray that the Spirit will touch the hearts of the people of â€˜Yo Bagawn and pray that family units will come to know Christ. This is a challenage of many of our churches. There are many husbands or wives in some of our churches but none married to each other. Thank you for your prayers.

Archie
Posted: 06/09/2007 3:15 pm - GMT

02 April 2007
Severen, a church leader from Dano-Pari, is helping the ‘Yo leaders with this church plant. The past two weeks there have been over 60 people (not counting the children which numbered at least as many) come to the meeting. They have started teaching the evangelistic lessons and the people in ‘Yo-bagawn have had great questions and enjoyed the singing. Another exciting aspect of this church plant is that it is our first third generation plant. This is church planted with no direct missionary help. There are two teachers, one who is Po-piel, from ‘Yo going and four song leaders. This is exciting to see God working in the hearts of the church in ‘Yo. Please join the ‘Yo church in praying for ‘Yo-bagawn.

Archie
Posted: 04/04/2007 9:55 am - GMT