From Joel McCall:    FIELD REPORT 1 - TEACHING IN COSTA RICA

I have just completed one week of teaching in Costa Rica at the School for Pastoral Studies in San Jose. I arrived Monday night, went to bed about midnight, got up at 5am and started teaching by 8 the next morning! Andrew Halbert is my translator. He is great in Spanish and it has been a joy to work with him.

I’m actually teaching in three courses here at the School for Pastoral Studies. The first course was “Homiletics” (preaching), then in the evening I taught on “Ethics.” We plowed through some challenging stuff in both classes, I started with questions, and broke them into groups. They reported back and then I taught through Acts 2 and Act 5.

It was really encouraging to see them engaged. According to Andrew, they were really moved. In fact, they were so engaged (and this would be a test of whether communication and challenge has taken place) that they didn’t want to break for refreshments. Alright!

In Homiletics we unpacked Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 as he spoke to a skeptical crowd on one hand and on the other to the believers who had just received the Spirit on Pentecost. Imagine. The folks who were involved in the crucifixion of Jesus are present. We looked at the audience; the way Peter handled the Old Testament, the need for clear exposition of Scripture in preaching, a focus on Christ-centered communication with a summons to respond. They were visually excited about such a grasp of the text. But more than that, they saw a model for how to prepare and communicate to their own people.

In ethics we focused on Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. After getting a feel for the context that led up to the sin of this couple, we grappled with what that sin really was and the impact it was going to have. We examined the following: the importance of integrity in the church, the urgency of an understanding that you can’t fool the Spirit of God, and the necessity for establishing the church on truth and not hypocrisy. The discussion and time together was really focused and again it was thriiling to participate with these students.

Thursday I taught in a course on Acts with an introduction to its setting and focus on discipleship. Andrew said it was clear that they were getting the perspective of Scripture and truly moved by what they were seeing.

Friday I taught on Progress of Redemption. It was a thrill to sense God’s Spirit at work.

Of course, it is always the unplanned stuff that keeps us clinging to the Lord. We arrived at Andrew’s house one evening. Outside a couple got in a fight in the street, there was screaming for several minutes and at the same time, two Mormon missionaries were there. Because the situation was dangerous, Andrew invited them in for safety while the police arrived.

In all the chaos, they set down and began to witness to us about Mormonism. Of course, in reliance on the Lord, we began to share the Gospel with them and focused in on who God and Jesus really are. Man was that a challenge. I can’t tell you all the details but the Lord was with us as we ended up actually sharing from God’s Word a totally different interpretation than theirs. The real issue became clear and we are praying that God will convict them of His Truth in the Word. To them, the Father is just a man who became God. They left hearing the opposite.

Please keep praying as we prepare another round of teaching at the school. However, we will also be travelling into the mountain region near the border with Nicaragua to teach a conference there, then we will also go to the beach area to teach another conference with a pastor and leaders involving around 30 in number.

Pray for protection in travel, effectiveness in communicating what God wants me to say, and for fruit of more effective leaders here in Costa Rica. What I teach has the benefit of follow-up through Andrew and Julie where we are ministering.

Pray.
Joel McCall