Bonjour!
I am writing from Sangmelima, Cameroon during the second day of training for a group of about 20 pastors and prospective pastors. Most of these men are less than 40 years old and have been leading churches with very limited resources. In many cases the Pastor is the only person in the church that has a Bible. These men have never had the opportunity to train in a Bible institute or Bible College and very few have any Christian books. French Missionary Yann Jouan is teaching a course on the role and qualifications of a pastor. He and I have been privileged to bring these pastors some books, Bibles, John & Romans, and even some medical supplies. In the evenings we are preaching in village churches and God is blessing as people in most of these churches have responded for salvation.
Two weeks ago we began a similar week of training for a group of pastors in the South-East, an area so remote that ravel was arduous. As a matter of fact, we had to leave our vehicle behind and backpack 7 kilometers into the village where the training took place because the bridge is out and the path is grown over due to lack of vehicle travel on it. We carried in the training materials, medical supplies, and gospels and then spent the week training and preaching day and night. That group was smaller with about 12 students, some of whom walked more than 40 kilometers to attend the training.
We have several more villages to visit and preach in over the next week before making our way to the capital to prepare to return to France. By the grace of God we trust that more will continue to respond to the gospel. Most of those we are preaching to know the basic story of Christ and would consider themselves Christians, but are typified by the testimony of one church elder that we spoke with. He said that he had been a Christian since the day he was born. Cultural traditions, ignorance, unregenerate church leadership, and the spreading influence of charismatic practices in some of the churches make our work both necessary and very challenging at the same time. Our main goal now is to preach the gospel in as many of these ‘Baptist’ churches as possible and challenge the pastors to take a stand against immorality, drunkenness, and unscriptural religious practices. By God’s grace we can continue to work with those are willing to submit to the authority of the scripture to establish strong Bible believing churches for the glory of God.
Sincerely,
Mark & Anne Gostlin
(Printable PDF on Letterhead – click here)
Tags: Older Prayer Updates