Discipleship

Over the past number of years I have heard a lot about discipleship, small groups, mentors and many other terms that are basically talking about life to life transference—living your life in such a way that your life becomes a model for someone else. There is nothing really new about this idea. In fact it is biblical, Paul talks about how we are to follow him as he follows Christ.

In our household discipleship took on a whole new meaning a little over a week ago, when the woman that I have been “discipling” since last August moved into our spare room. She had some major problems with her living arrangements and after much convincing she moved into our house. The unfortunate part was that she came with all of her living room furniture and things on the same day that the living room furniture we bought from a friend arrived, so things are a bit crowded. On the positive side, what I thought was discipling, getting together a couple of times a week to study the bible and just to build our relationship has been bumped up significantly with daily interaction, (not to mention that all of our French has improved). She has a job interview tomorrow and the results from that will help to determine whether she will continue to stay in Niamey or move back to the city where her family is from. She doesn’t have much hope of a job in that city because the economic situation is even worse there than here, but this might be her opportunity to share her faith with her family.

Please pray with us that God will lead her at this time and that in this time of intense discipleship His light will shine through us, so that she learns to follow Christ and doesn’t just pick up our bad habits. Please also pray that this would continue to be a good experience for everyone involved and that we would continue to maintain our integrity and reputation.