John Corey just sent his August update to his friends and supporters:
Dear Friends,
...The MP3 project is growing, and the demands for the player are increasing. Yesterday I talked with Pastor Momo who is heading up the project in Liberia. He reported that they have set up a program where, after pastors and leaders have read Romans the required 20 times and copied it, that they come together for the presentation. They are then encouraged to continue in their reading of the Scriptures and to meet together to discuss this book and then do the same with other books. He told me, "There are many in my church who have read and reread Romans and have become excited about what the Scripture is saying in Romans and are wanting to do the same kind of study in another book. It has helped so much." Imagine how encouraging this is to a pastor. He said, "Now they understand salvation from God's perspective and not just a human point of view." Pastor Momo is so thankful for this project.
He told me "As we studied Romans in our church, when we came to Romans 13, the people realized that it was God's will that they submit to the governing authority, and they decided they needed to do so." The same is being reproduced in other churches as well. We have at least 350 pastors and leaders registered in the project in Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone with most of them still seeking to qualify to receive the MP3 player. Many others are inquiring about the project. The players contain 823 of Pastor Scott's expositions on many books of the New Testament and Genesis, Exodus, and Proverbs. Funding for this project is a big challenge. That will probably be the biggest limitation in its expansion. This is definitely helping many pastors to get more serious in reading the Word and in teaching it more plainly. For years I have sought to motivate Scripture reading, and expository preaching. Praise God!! If you want to know more, check out my blog at http://mp3project-mp3.blogspot.com/ There are some great testimonies there. Check the back posts. Continue to pray that God will prosper this in helping to build His Church as pastors are exposed to good expository teaching of the Word.
Pastor Daniel in Kenema, Sierra Leone, even though he hasn't received the player yet, told me today, "The book of Romans is a great help to me and to my church. I have actually begun teaching it verse by verse. Many people never read it because they thought it was too hard to understand, but now they are paying attention to it. Several other pastors have also begun to teach it in their churches."
Pastor Kellie in Sierra Leone, who is connected with the association of churches in the Konah district told me that reading and rereading Romans has really helped him to know the way of salvation and how we come to God, as well as giving a better understanding sanctification. Pastors in his area have been coming together to discuss the book of Romans.
What a great movement this project is creating!
Boakai Harleyson, from Kolahun is finishing up his Masters of Church Admin at JETS in Nigeria and will be returning in December. He has introduced this project at JETS and there are 60 pastors now involved in it there.
A team of 3 guys and I leave for East Russia on Sept 5. I will be gone for 6 weeks during which time we expect to hold Bible conferences in 8-9 churches teaching the book of James. Pastor Gary from SW Bible will join me Oct 9th to hold a pastor's conference. He will be teaching the book of 1 Timothy and I will be speaking on the heart of the pastor. God is building His church in E. Russia. What a privilege it is to be a part of this. I greatly appreciate your prayers during this time.
You see, I find I'm not as young as I used to be, and of course I continue treatment for that Myeloma thorn in the flesh. In the last lab test the Myeloma counts went down from 0.3 to 0.2 which was very encouraging since it had been trending up. God seems content to keep me around a little longer. As I have been working on our house this summer, I so often think of how temporal this stuff all is. Still, I do it, whether it's for a year or 20. It has been great to have 4 of our grandsons ( 17-19 years old,) when available, working for me as we tore off a wood shake roof, fixing a lot of rot and replacing it with a metal roof, as well as prepping and painting the outside and many other projects. It has been such a good learning experience for them, not to say that they didn't appreciate the money they made. It has been fun and certainly has deepened our relationship. They are neat kids.
Our family camp-out was near Florence on the Oregon coast where we had a group camp sight. Everyone seemed to enjoy it so much, and with so many teenagers preteens, and parents, there was lots of volleyball, football and soccer. But the two more "mature ones", (just celebrating our 48th anniversary) made up the cheering section. That was hard for me to take, but I valued keeping my knees and shoulders and back functional, so I watched. "Life moves on" is one of my acknowledging statements for more things than I like to admit.
We trust you had as great a summer as we did. And life moves on as Jeanette and I go our separate ways for a while, I to Russia, and she up to spend a couple weeks with her sister, Irene, in Campbell River, on Vancouver Island. Put those two gals together and you have two peas in a pod. It's great!
In His grace,
John and Jeanette
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