Teaching on Biblical Sexuality

One of the joys of long-term Christian service in the same place is the blessing of watching those under my influence grow spiritually over time.  Granted, I’m only in my sixth year in Africa, but my loved ones have developed so much already!

At Boniface’s youth conference this weekend, Stephanie and I taught the young ladies about sexuality from a Biblical perspective.  That was our theme with them last year, and it’s so important that we repeated exactly the same talk this year.  Once again, I read the message in the national language and Stephanie translated into the tribal language, because both languages are necessary to make sure everyone understands.  We’d spent the previous four evenings, after work, practicing translating the whole talk and looking up words as necessary, so the interpretation was much smoother this year than last.

As described in these posts from 2020 and 2022, we face significant obstacles to Biblical sexual education in this culture.  Stephanie herself has grown significantly in her understanding of this area since I met her in 2018, and it’s a joy to now have her as a partner in spreading the truth to others.  A few minutes into our session today, a worried participant rushed to whisper in her ear that the subject matter made some feel embarrassed, and didn’t she realize there were children present?  Beaming a smile, she explained to everyone that we need to understand how our life began when our father united with our mother.  She said that she wasn’t ashamed to have her own daughter in the audience because it’s her responsibility as a mother to teach her these things.  Noting that anyone who felt uncomfortable was free to leave, she said that we would proceed with our lesson.

And that we did, for the next two and a half hours!  The church full of girls and mothers listened intently.  We felt they understood the message much better than they did last year, though unfortunately there wasn’t time for a question-and-answer session which could have confirmed this.  Stephanie and I are already dreaming about expanding this material into a day-long seminar for women of all ages, which would include both teaching and interaction on the important topic of Biblical sexuality.  Please pray that God will open doors for this if it’s His will.