I woke up around 5:00am thinking about how I will teach the pastors about gospel counseling, which requires both understanding the heart of a person and proclaiming gospel truths in specific and personal ways. The Lord was gracious to help me sketch out the details and approach for the two practical skills training sessions. After a tasty breakfast of Creole-seasoned cornmeal and a croissant with peanut butter, I spent the next hour and a half working with Frantz Morisset as he translated the small practical skills training guides.
During my first teaching time, I decided to illustrate my teaching points with a marriage reference-discussing the dynamics of the heart and the dynamics between an angry husband failing to love his wife because of his wife’s disrespect and lack of submission to his leadership. After covering the teaching material, I opened the floor for questions and a pastor immediately asked why I decided to pick a marital issue. I told him I wanted to show them that the counseling approach and skills we were teaching them not only apply to helping those deal with grief or post traumatic stress, but they can use the same approach to minister the gospel in any aspect of life, to include marriage. Later that day, the same pastor who asked me the question brought a fellow pastor who was struggling in the exact way I described in the training session. I was blown away by how God works … praise Him!
The rest of the day was highlighted by an energetic Q&A session where the pastors asked thoughtful questions about Christian counseling versus secular counseling, how to minister to children in their grief, how to equip members for gospel ministry given they are the only paid staff, note-taking during counseling, how to teach church members about love in tangible ways, and how to minister to those dealing with anger, confusion, and fear-especially fear of going back into homes or other buildings with concrete roofs. Whew! The pastors seemed to get a lot from these Q&A sessions.
Lunch was a choice between whole fried fish, heads and all, or goat, along with rice and beans and a delicious grapefruit casserole. I chucked because I remembered seeing Wah-Wah off load several “hog-tied” goats from the back of his pick-up truck earlier in the morning.
All throughout the day, as I kept wiping my sweat with a makeshift handkerchief, I found myself longing for home-eating familiar food, living in a plush and air-conditioned space along with a warm shower. God was revealing what I hunger and thirst for and my incessant desire for comfort. I was reminded how much my lust for comfort shaped my self-centered perspective.
I sprayed the window screens once again, laid down in bed while sticky and sweating, and thanked God for another day and for seeing us through our final day of teaching, at least for us as the counseling team.