Lost in Translation

Today in Chia we hosted the annual men's meeting, and the topic was "every man's battle." We had five sessions, two taught by Pastor Jose, two taught by me, and an open forum for the last session.

I've been a little surprised and encouraged by the number of times I've been asked to speak lately. I'm not sure if people think of a missionary as instant "expert" or exactly why it is, but I am very happy to use the gift that God has given me. I think that I've literally been asked to speak on diverse topics by five different people from five different churches in the last month.

Pastor Jose had wanted to discuss this topic for a long time with the men of the association. We received a lot of positive feedback, more than anything from people who said, "Wow, this topic isn't normally talked about. It's nice to hear what the Bible has to say about it."

As far as my sessions went, I was very pleased. The first was about our wives as the true source of joy in our life. We talked about a biblical view of the sexual relationship in marriage, and how we should work to please our wives romantically as well. I was surprised that when I asked if there were questions a torrent poured out. I had to tell the men we would return to the questions later.

The second session that I led dealt with practical strategies to overcome these temptations. From making a covenant with my eyes not to look at a woman in a wrong way, to allowing my wife to pre-read and edit with scissors any magazine that may have questionable images or adds (even Nat'l Geographic falls into that category).

What encouraged me most was to have two people come up afterwards and tell me that they were greatly helped by what I had taught and that they would like my prayers for their victory in this area.