In September, SIM missionary John Woldhuis organized a preaching conference for pastors in Loja province, Ecuador. This is his report:

	The preaching conference in Loja drew over 50 people from all walks of life.

Teaching Bible 101

With three days to go before the preaching conference began and with few enrollments, we were praying that people would just turn up on the day. Well they certainly did, 58 of them, bringing our enrollment numbers up 150%.

During the three-day conference we covered topics such as how to prepare thematic, textual, and expository sermons. The visiting speaker was Alex Donnelly, a lecturer from a Bible college in Trujillo, Peru.

As most people at the conference generally had a basic level of education, with some never having attended a Bible course before, Alex did a good job of gearing the talks appropriately.

The conference was held at Malacatos. People came from many parts of Ecuador, including Portete, Yacuambi, Yanzatza and Catamayo. One couple with a four-month old child traveled five hours to get to the conference. Some people are very keen to be taught how to use the Bible!

Not just for Pastors

Although we thought that the majority attending would be pastors, there was in fact a wide variety of people; pastors (both full and part-time), farmers, welders, store owners, miners, public servants, a printer, and even a nun, all wanting to learn how to read and teach the Bible well.

The evening talks were held in one of the cultural centers in Loja. Alex gave examples of the style of preaching he had been teaching about during the day, preaching from the book of Titus. This was open to the public, and we had over 150 to 170 people each night. Considering the relatively small evangelical population in Loja, this was a large amount of people.

Some of the highlights during the three days included having the opportunity to sit down with an older gentleman and spend 20 minutes looking at what the Bible said about certain issues that were arising in his church. It was great to hear him say, “We need to hold onto what the Bible is teaching us, isn’t that right?”

Another man said to me, “I have read about this stuff in books, but I have never had it explained to me like this. Are we going to do something like this again?”

It was so exciting to see all the preparation of the last few months come to fruition during these few days. God certainly answered many prayers, bringing along a great group of people with hearts ready to learn.