Joyce used to be a shop attendant. Unfortunately, she fell sick and lost her job. She is now a stay-at-home mum.We have two children, Uma Moses Shammar and Akello Faith Shalom who are eight and four years old respectively. I serve as an elder and I serve on the Church Committee. I did not know much about Veritas Training however, for the love of learning, I enrolled anyway. I not only love to learn but I also love to see others learn therefore I encouraged and supported my wife and two other women at our Church to enroll.
The Impact...
I did not know how to prepare a sermon. My points were often scattered and there was no structure. I did not know how to start or end. I simply shared the points I had and left. Now I know how to arrange the points, where to start and how to conclude and even make an altar call. During the Veritas Training, we were taught that one should at least have a title, a text and the message can be based on that title and text and other verses can be shared simply as references. I have preached twice since then and the messages were good. One of the messages was titled 'The Power in the blood of Jesus'
Further still, my preaching before the Veritas training was so full of fear that I used to tremble. Worse still, my childhood stammering would come back when I was preaching. Now there is a very great change. I have gained confidence in knowing that what I am preaching is the Word of God, God Himself, why then should I preach with fear.
Joyce serves in the Children's Sunday school class. She often used to come to me to give her scriptures from which to preach. However, recently, when she was given the opportunity to share at a fellowship. She did not have to come to me for help, she prayed, got the message and the message was wonderful.
During the Veritas class I also learnt about Exegesis. I came to know that Exegesis is a careful systematic way of studying texts in the Bible within the original context of the original people that received the message. When studying a text/ message one ought to put themselves first in the shoes of the original people that the message was intended for. It is important to know the situation of the original receivers and how the message was shared with them. Thereafter, comparison between the original receivers and the target audience should be made. When preaching, the message should portray Jesus Christ.
The Veritas training has also impacted ministry in the Church. Other ministers who attended were greatly impacted as well. There is a great change in the way they share messages. They too did not know how to prepare sermons but now they preach from a given passage (and not numerous scattered scriptures) and other scriptures are simply references. The reason I have been able to get this training is because someone else gave, prayed for and invested time in this training. It is for this reason that I too have decided to financially support Veritas so that the training will reach somebody else.
Thank you
Our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has supported Veritas College in prayer, wisdom and technical assistance.Thank you for offering wise counsel and interceding on our behalf concerning training, Facilitator training, translation work and diligence in ministry. We are at the start of a new financial year and covet your prayers. We continue to pray for you and would love to hear from you.
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