Actually, what Max said was that the group dove in "like a pack of hyenas...."  Amazingly, Max was describing Bible study!

Max works with people who have never heard the truth about Jesus.  They have heard the name, and maybe a thing or two about him.  But, basically, Jesus is a stranger to them.

Also foreign to Max's friends is the opportunity to learn in a situation where they are full, active participants in the process of discovering knowledge.  In their context,  teachers are authority figures who lord it over their students.  Students are regarded as passive, empty vessels waiting to be filled up by what the teacher pours out of his or her big jug of knowledge.

So, Max wondered how things would go.  He had become very excited about inductive Bible study in the Gospel of Mark several years ago when he went through the first half of the Gospel in a seminar that I led.  His excitement deepened when he studied the second half of Mark with a friend of mine.  These two experiences had been life-changing for Max... but would this approach work within the radically different culture of the people Max serves?

This week, Max sent me an email about how it went.  Wow.  Wow!  Max is higher than a kite!  The Spirit of God moved powerfully during their intensive seminar.  Once the participants understood that they were truly set free to explore and discover the meaning of Mark's Gospel for themselves, they went after the text "like a pack of hyenas."  More importantly, they met Jesus.  As the week went on, seminar participants shared many deep testimonies of how God was speaking to them through their encounter with Mark's account of Jesus' words and actions.

Max's excitement is mine... and, I hope, yours!  What a privilege it is to work with folks like Max, who live out the model of 2 Timothy 2:2!  I am delighted to learn that there are people half a world away whose lives are changing, in part, because of the time I spent with Max.

Thanks for your support of this ministry!

Stan