FGM Goes to South Africa

Carol & Wayne Mack

Dr. Wayne Mack is one of the most respected leaders and authors in the Biblical Counseling movement. In 2006, Dr. Mack and his wife Carol moved to South Africa to begin Grace School of Ministry, dedicated to providing a seminary level education in Biblical Counseling. This ministry is under the direction of Grace Fellowship Church of Pretoria, South Africa and the curriculum and teaching is led by Dr. Mack.

Dr. Mack invited Faith Baptist Church, Lafayette, IN to assist him this year by providing teachers for the Theological Basis of Counseling course in Pretoria or Cape Town, South Africa. Our leadership considered it a privilege to be invited to participate in such a ministry with our friend, Wayne Mack. We naturally jumped on the opportunity in Cape Town because that would allow us to visit our missionaries there. Faith Baptist Church is the sending church for Marc and Judie Blackwell and their son and daughter in law, Marc, Jr. and his wife, Nancy and their two children, Nicole and Matthew. Pastor Andy Woodall and David Selvey were sent in response to this request and this is our story.

Andy Woodall & David Selvey

Visiting the Blackwells
Missionary Marc Blackwell, Sr. met us in the Cape Town airport where we arrived about 9pm Friday night after travelling 28 hours. We enjoyed good fellowship with Marc as he drove us to the airport. It seemed a bit strange for the driver to be on the right and for us to drive on the left side of the road, but the roadways are modern and in good condition.

Saturday we enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the clean hotel followed by a walk around the area ... lots of sunshine and pretty warm. Marc picked us up at the hotel around noon and took us to lunch and tried to fill us in on 36 years of ministry in a few hours. In the afternoon, we had the privilege of attending the ordination counsel and service of two South African Nationals for service in the gospel ministry. It was a tremendous privilege and blessing to see Llewellyn and Dean, two dedicated South African men, ordained into the Gospel ministry. One of the men is a very successful insurance executive who is now dedicating his life to serving as a pastor of the English speaking church in Blue Downs, a Cape Town suburb.

After the ordination council we drove out to the camp facilities that God has provided. We praise God for providing facilities where young people can go for a concentrated time of biblical teaching and discipleship.

Blue Downs Baptist Church

On Sunday morning Marc, Sr. picked up Andy and took him to preach in one of his church plants. Marc, Jr. and his family picked me up a few minutes later to take me to preach in his church plant in Blue Downs. The last time I was here was in 2005 when I preached Marc, Jr’s ordination service and the dedication of the new building that Victor Pereira and I helped complete with a CWE team. The building is shared by two churches. Marc’s Afrikaans church meets first and then the English speaking church meets after them. The people were warm and accepting, listening attentively to the message from God’s Word. After that service, we stayed for the English speaking church which was installing their new pastor that had been ordained the day before. What a marvelous privilege to see a local church install a national pastor.

 On Sunday evening Pastor Woodall and I each taught in the Church Ministry Institute (CMI) that they have in each of their churches for training national church leadership. We enjoyed the teaching and fellowship time together. After our time with the Blackwells, Marc Jr. drove us an hour or so across Cape Town to the place where we would meet with Dr. Wayne and Carol Mack.

Grace School of Ministry

There we met Ian Murray, an elder in Grace Fellowship Church of Pretoria. Ian has assumed the administrative and logistical responsibilities of enabling Dr. Mack to teach at various times and in various locations.



Andy, Wayne, Carolm David, Ian



The ministry in which we were to participate is Grace School of Ministry, which provides a two year seminary education in the area of Biblical Counseling. The program is offered in Pretoria and Cape Town. The course of study includes 4 classes per year for a period of 2 years. Classes are all taught in the form of 5 ½ day modular classes in each of the two locations. These modular courses are not for the faint of heart. Students have extensive pre-course assignments and post course work to do, as well.



Class

Dr. Mack taught all the sessions on Monday so Pastor Woodall and I could see how he taught and how the class functioned. Pastor Woodall picked up the teaching Tuesday afternoon. For the remainder of the week, Pastor Woodall taught 3 hours before lunch and I taught 3 hours after lunch. Andy also prepared and taught 90 minutes each evening on counseling youth. Saturday was a half day with Andy teaching the first half of the morning and Dr. Mack teaching the second half.

 

We had a regular attendance of around 35. Pastor Doug and his wife, Ann had travelled 900 miles from Pretoria to attend the class. A single woman, Anna travelled all the way from Sweden … I think she said it was 14-16 hours by plane! The people were so incredibly hungry for the practical theology of God’s Word that we were a bit overwhelmed by their thankfulness for the Word and the teaching of it.

Here are some of the comments we heard.

• God has taught me a lot this week.  

• Today I realized that I need to apply these principles to my life before using them to help others.
• God’s Word brought great conviction to me this week.• I must reevaluate my ministry and even my whole perspective of life.
• Please thank your church and your families for allowing you to come and teach us this week.
• I have a degree from a prominent, well known seminary in the USA … I teach in a Bible College in Pretoria … I am a pastor and I teach in a Bible College yet this theology is eye opening for me. Thank you so much for leaving your families for a time and teaching us God’s Word in this way this week ...

We even managed to squeeze in a little bit of fun with a visit to the harbor Saturday afternoon and a quick trip to the beach early Sunday morning before leaving for the airport. After our quick swim we heard they closed the beach due to great white sharks in the area!  The flight out of Cape Town was delayed an hour, but we had plenty of time between flights in Johannesburg. God was so kind as to have the 16 hour flight only partially filled so we had room to work and move around a bit. Total travel time from our hotel in Cape Town to Lafayette, IN was 35-36 hours. It was a long trip, but well worth it.

We want to thank our wonderful church family, Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, IN, for making it possible for us to partner with the folks in South Africa and to begin building a relationship with the church there. Teaching with and for Dr. Wayne Mack all last week was a humbling, but wonderful experience for Pastor Andy Woodall and me (David Selvey). He and his wife Carol and his assistant, Ian were greatly encouraging to both of us.

Please pray …

• For our missionaries in South Africa, Marc and Judie Blackwell, Sr. and Marc and Nancy Blackwell, Jr. along with their children Nicole and Matthew.
• For Marc and Judie Blackwell, who are now in the US reporting to some of their supporting churches through the end of April.
• For the new South African pastors installed last week, Llewelyn De Kock and Dean Kramer.
• For all the Blackwells’ church plants that God will raise up national pastors to take over those works.
• For the students who were in the Theology of Counseling class that the Word of God will take root in their hearts and lives and make long lasting change.
• For Ian Murray as he faithfully serves Grace Fellowship and the Macks.
• For Wayne and Carol Mack as, after more than 50 years of ministry, they continue to serve God faithfully in spite of their physical challenges.
• For the ministry of Grace School of Ministry in South Africa.
• For Andy and David as they attempt to catch up and get back into busy schedules and recover from jet lag over the next week or two.

Comments from Moldova

Here are some of the comments we received regarding the teaching in Moldova March 7-12.

• "You have made the Word of God so practical for us..."
• "The teaching you have shared with us has helped us personally prepare to be parents..."
• “We have been nourished by the Word of God this week.”
• "I understand now that I must apply this to my life and then use it to help others."
• “Will you please come back and help us more with your teaching?”
• “Never before have I heard the Bible taught in such a practical way.” (Regarding biblical principles of sex)
• "It has been good to hear from God this week."
• “Missionaries came and taught us over a period of years how to evangelize. Now we are good at evangelizing and we need more help to be good biblical counselors. Please come back in future years to help us learn to be good biblical counselors until we can do it on our own.”

Please continue to pray for the ministry in Moldova and for our leadership team as we determine how this fits into our strategic plan.

A Weekend in Anini Noi, Moldova

Scott and I finished teaching two 3-day conferences on Pre-Marriage and Marriage Biblical Counseling in two locations in Moldova.  We began in churches in Cahul in southern Moldova last Sunday, followed by 3 days of teaching to a group of about 70 hosted in Emanuel Baptist Church.  Then we drove 3-4 hours to the village of Anotonest (Ahn-to-nesht) where we taught a group of 35 people for three days.  Saturday afternoon we drove to Anini Noi where Igor and Mariana live and pastor a church.

We spend the night in a guest room at the church. The accommodations were simple but nice. The church is in an excellent location, very central to the activities of the town and surrounded by hundreds of apartments and thousands of people.  The story of how God provided the property is interesting, but too lengthy for this post.

The highlight of our weekend was to share a meal in Igor and Mariana's home Saturday night.  they are wonderful servants of the Lord and Mariana prepared a wonderful Moldovan meal for us with fresh salad greens and other wonderful foods.  With internet connection at the guest room where we spent the night we learned about the terrible earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan.

Sunday morning Mariana prepared breakfast at the church for us and Igor described their ministry and remodeling plans for us.  They hope to finish the rooms upstairs so that they can host teams that may visit and also to host church-planing trainees.  He wants to have a church planting school where Moldovan missionaries can come for a period of months and learn how to evangelize and how to plant churches.  He also has plans to expand their ministries to families and children as well as their outreach to the poor in their area.

After our time together at breakfast and our tour of the property, we attended their church service where Scott shared a greeting on behalf of our church to theirs and I preached to the group of about 40.  Immediately after the sermon, we left with Igor for the airport in Chisinau where we began our travel back home arriving at home about 18 hours later. 

We thank God for your prayers and support.

In the service of the King,
David Selvey & Scott Meinema

Moldova Update Mar 11, 2011

Thursday we ate breakfast at the church with the others who traveled here for the conference.  It was absolutely delicious!  Some kind of omelets with fresh bread.  We made sandwiches that beat McDonald's or Burger King's breakfast sandwiches any day of the week.  We each had at least two. :)

It was still cold enough that everything was frozen in the morning but it seemed like today may be a bit warmer.  The sun was shining and the sky was pretty clear so it is a nice day.

We had a great time today in the counseling conference today.  I, David, finished up the husband's role and the we shared the wife's role.  Then I taught the four rules of communication and Scott taught a session on forgiveness.

In the evening we were invited to preach in the church in Cogmaz.  This church has been without a pastor for 10 years!  They are maintaining at over 100 in spite of losing almost 1/3 of their congregation in the last year to emigrations to other countries such as the US.  Scott preached an excellent sermon on Psalm 1 and I preached again on Romans 14 and building unity in the church.  Afterward the pastor insisted that we stay for refreshments.  We were served hot dogs and potatoes and some other Moldovan foods ... our fourth meal of the day!  Don't worry, we are not going hungry! 

We praise God for a good day of ministering the Word and look forward to tomorrow.

Moldova Update Mar 6-10, 2011

Sunday, March 6 in Southern Moldova

Nadie prepared a great breakfast for our first morning in their home. It is nice getting to know Anatol, Nadie and their three boys, ages 13, 11 and 7. The boys have a lot of energy, especially young David!

My good friend, Misha, picked me (David) up at 9:30 to transport me to the village of Vidul lui Isac where I preached in Brother Andrei’s church. Andrei is Naty Tully’s father. The church building was pretty full, about 200 people. After preaching on Romans 14:1-12 and building unity in the church we went to the home of Andrei and Lydia Ciobanu, Naty’s parents and enjoyed a delicious meal. I enjoyed the fellowship with the Ciobanus and with Mish and Angelica Caraivan. I especially like Lydia’s stuffed red peppers!

After resting a bit, Misha drove me to the village of Colibasi (Ko-lee-bahsh) where I preached at 3pm to a group of about 350-400. The people are very warm and friendly. I met Scott and the Dunas family back in Cahul around 6pm.

Scott left a few minutes after I did and preached in the First Baptist Church in Cahul. Immediately after preaching he was taken to Emmanuel Baptist Church to preach. This is the church where Brother Anatol Dunas is the pastor. Afterward he returned to the Dunas family’s apartment where Nadie prepared and served lunch.

After I arrived back home, Scott and I compared notes and worked on getting ready to teach Monday and we enjoyed a light supper with the Dunas family.

Monday, March 7 in Southern Moldova

Nadie prepared breakfast again for us. This dear lady just had surgery last Wednesday! The conference began with Scott teaching the group of 70 people an overview of Pre-marriage Counseling. Then I taught on the Bible Basics of Marriage and Progressive Sanctification. With translation this took six hours. These folks will sit and listen intently for two hours, but coffee break is important to them so we learned not to cut into the coffee break with our teaching.

When they take coffee break, the all gather around small tables, maybe 4x4, without any chairs and remain standing the entire break. There is a man in the church that makes tea so he provides tea for all the church functions. It has an unusual flavor that is quite tasty.

Like the coffee breaks, lunch was served in the basement of the church … yes, they sit down for lunch! Brother Anatol kept the schedule moving with only 20 minutes for the coffee break and 45 minutes for lunch.

After the conference sessions we returned to the apartment and repeated our evening routine.

Tuesday, March 8 in Southern Moldova

Today we shared teaching on the Wife’s Role and the Husband’s Role and I (David) taught on the Four Rules of Communication. Some of the folks have been through at least part of the training we have provided before while others have not been exposed to biblical counseling before.

Several young pastors came to me today telling me about some of the struggles they are having in counseling and asking for suggestions on how they might get more training to be better prepared. When we began working with the church in Moldova, our hope was that at least three churches would take the teaching seriously and begin doing biblical counseling and at least one would eventually become a training center.

Today is Mother’s Day in Moldova so we took our host family out to dinner. They chose a local pizza place. It was fun and the pizza was good.

Wednesday, March 9 in Southern Moldova

Today we covered Forgiveness and abbreviated sessions on Parenting and Finances. We finished off the conference with Biblical Principles of Sex. Response overall was very good with lots of questions on the last session.

At lunch we shared a table with Anatol, Andrei and Lydia. The discussion was centered around their observations about how the churches in the Southern Region had taken up the challenge of biblical counseling. They told us of various churches doing biblical counseling and of the need for more training. They have invited us to return to do a series of conferences and perhaps set up some consultations via Skype. They think that if we would work with the handful of churches that are serious about biblical counseling for a few years they could take up the gauntlet and carry on the ministry.

After we finished our teaching, they honored us with small gifts to express their appreciation. Then we got in a van with Brother Igor and he drove us to the village of Antonesti (Ahn-to-nesht). We stopped in Chisinau for pizza. Igor’s two older boys, Theofil (11) and Marco (7), seemed to particularly enjoy it.

We arrive in Antonesti at about 10:30 and settled into our new home of the next 3 nights. Antonesti (Ahn-to-nesht), is a village southeast of the capitol city of Chisinau (Kee-shih-now). We are staying in the simple 4 room home very dear young couple who speak very little English. We are grateful for their willingness to open their home to us and serve us with what they have.

We had tea and visited with them until after 11pm. We understand that he is a farmer and a pastor. He farms potatoes, sunflowers, corn, wheat and walnuts and they also have 21 pigs and four young bulls.

Thursday, March 10 in Southern Moldova

It turns out the tea we were served last night had plenty of caffeine so we did not sleep so well.

We were served potatoes and meat for breakfast. Yum! Everyone showed up at the church at about the same time so set up for the conference took place from about 9:45-10:15 Then we got off to a relaxed start in the basement of the church. There were about 35 men and women in attendance representing about 10 different churches. Scott started us off with an overview of Premaritial counseling. I followed with Bible Basics of Marriage and Progressive Sanctification. Somehow my grandson Jacob seemed to come up as an illustration in all my sessions.  He is now an international celebrity! 

Scott ended the day with the first part of the Husband’s Role.

The outdoor temp is in the 20s to low 30s while the temperature in the basement of the church is about 60 degrees. I don’t think the dining room we ate lunch and supper has any heat. The temp in there is cold enough to see your breath.

It’s good to be back ‘home’ where it is warmer. I probably won’t update the blog tomorrow night as I have been invited to preach in one of the churches. We covet your prayers as we continue to serve the people here and will send updates as we are able.

David and Scott

Bilical Counseling Observation

Faith Global Ministries announced plans to produce the Faith Bibilcal Counseling Ministry's DVD series on Biblical Counseling Observation with language subtitles.  David Selvey, director of Faith Global Ministries, made the announcement in the Annual FGM dinner last night.  Each February Faith Baptist Church hosts a Biblical Counselor Training Conference on its campus in Lafayette, Indiana.  The conference hosts aroudn 1,600 attendees from around the world.

Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries has produced a set of 12 DVDs, each depicting a one hour mock-counseling session to provide opportunities forcounselor trainees to see what happens in the counseling room.  This has been an invaluable tool for helping to prepare trainees to counsel.

Faith Global Ministries has begun work to translate these DVDs into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian and Czech and provide a language selectable subtitle for the benefit of those who speak languages other than English.  A proof of concept video clip is available on YouTube.

At the FGM dinner last night, Sacha Mendes, a biblical counselor, trainer and pastor in Brazil, said that having these DVDs subtitled in Portuguese is a much needed part of the training process in Brazil.  FGM director, David Selvey said, "This is a big project, but like-minded people and churches are sharing resources to get the job done."

View a sample proof of concept video here.
Learn how you can make a tax deductible donation here.

Don & Pat Block - missionaries with Bibles International

Please pray for Don and Pat Block who are leaving this Thursday, January 27, for India. They have a heavy schedule of teaching and preaching. They arrive in India at 9:45 AM and Don is scheduled to preach at an 11:00 AM church service that is 30 minutes from the airport. They also will have the privilege to be at the special dedication ceremony of the Manipuri Bible in Northeast India. Don will be teaching in a workshop for three weeks as his wife, Pat, works with ladies and will be doing some children's ministry.