ECLEA

Dear Friends,

Thanks to the good work of Ivan Gumikiriza and his team, the ECLEA book on 1 John is now in the important western Uganda language of Acholi. I have posted it on the "ECLEA Courses & Resources" page of the ECLEA website (www.eclea.net), where it may be downloaded for free. Enjoy!

Best regards, Jonathan

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Last week I returned from a week in Rwanda. It was, I believe, a very worthwhile trip. I have said that I want to be more focused in my time in East Africa. Accordingly, Protais Nshogoza, ECLEA's Rwanda national coordinator, arranged for me to teach Biblical Interpretation to two different groups. In Rubavu, we did a "training of trainers" for about 15 ECLEA-Rwanda teachers and two of the principals from Democratic Republic of the Congo (since Rubavu is located in far western Rwanda, near DRC). In Kigali, I taught the course to a group of about 22 people affiliated with "We Go To Them," an evangelistic organization of primarily younger people who evangelize in schools, businesses, etc. Protais wisely said that ECLEA needs to bring its teachings to younger current and future church leaders.
Both courses went well. There was lots of Q&A and discussion in both groups, primarily in the WGTT group. In the course, I begin with general hermeneutical and exegetical principles for understanding and interpreting biblical texts, then give an overview of the biblical storyline (since one needs to have an overview of the entire Bible to be able to understand well any particular passage), cover interpreting different genres of Scripture, and end with applying the Scriptures. These were not just lectures, but we dove into a number of important biblical passages, including, among others, 1 Corinthians 12 (regarding spiritual gifts), 1 Corinthians 13 (the "love" chapter, which, given its location and the broader context of the book, is not doing what most people think it is doing), Galatians 3-4 (which give a good overview of the relationship between the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, and Jesus Christ), Genesis 15 (ratification of the Abrahamic Covenant, which points to Jesus Christ), Gen 4:17-24 (regarding the line of Cain, especially Lamech), and Luke 15:11-32 (the somewhat misnamed "parable of the prodigal son"). As Protais said, the participants got lots of insight.
As an added treat, the last night, we had time to go to dinner before I had to go to the airport to leave. We went to a very nice Ethiopian restaurant which Jake Boldig had discovered when he was in Rwanda recently. An added benefit of that is that we sat at a table with an Ethiopian couple and their infant and were able to share each others meals and have very good and interesting conversation. Thank you, Jake!
I will now be home until the end of March, when I am scheduled to return to Kenya. I thank you very much for your ongoing prayer and financial support. It means a lot to me, and I hope you realize the important and long-term impact you are having in what I consider to be probably the most spiritually significant region in Africa and, I believe, the world.