LAST LESSONS #95 – SUNDAY SCHOOL

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

One of Rafiki’s distinctives is that we do not send missionaries to Africa to tell the Africans what we will do for them. Instead, we wait until our African friends ask us for what they want and need. In Rafiki’s history we have been asked for medical help, orphan care, schools, teacher training, Bibles, and Bible study materials. We have given all these things in the past 36 years. We stopped medical clinics when the countries themselves were providing enough medical care for their people. At present, orphan care is being phased out because Rafiki countries want to look after their own orphans, and that’s good. It is anticipated that in ten years, Rafiki will no longer have resident orphans and that the buildings where they grew up will be converted into school rooms.

In 2020, African churches asked Rafiki if we could provide Sunday School (SS) lessons for them. Hmmm. Since I no longer worked in the Rafiki Home Office and had time, I agreed to work on Sunday School lessons!

It made sense to me to prepare the lessons for SS teachers using the Rafiki Bible Study lessons (already done!), re-organize them to fit within a 45-minute time-period, for students who would not come to church with prepared lessons. I’ll admit that this was fun! I started with the Book of MATTHEW and have done half a dozen other books so far. The teacher’s lessons included a few questions to ask the students, notes for the teacher to either read or tell, a printed hymn, and a suggested commentary for the teacher’s personal study. After I finished the adult lesson, Rafiki asked level writers to prepare the lessons for three ages of children including activities for the small children. We organized the SS Lessons into packets for teachers of adults and children and included the commentary for the teacher.

When the churches in Africa heard that we were preparing these packets for churches they were delighted. We sent several hundred packets to Uganda and Kenya. When Ghana heard about this, the Methodist Church there asked if we could give them ROMANS. They have 4,000 churches and they want to teach ROMANS in all of them next year! We immediately began working on ROMANS, the RJBF ordered commentaries, and 4,000 churches in Ghana will have them soon! How exciting is that?! Imagine 4,000 pastors preaching and adults and children in many thousands of Sunday school classes all studying the Book of Romans at the same time. Only God could do that!

Rafiki has made these packets of SS LESSONS available for purchase in the USA now, but what makes me sad is that many churches no longer have Sunday School. When COVID hit, many churches closed their SS classes and have not re-opened them. I know of several denominations that produce SS material for their churches, but most do not. I am praying that Rafiki can help these churches with material to encourage them to teach the Bible to their adults and children.

I have learned that many Christians are biblically illiterate. They have no idea what the Bible says. I wonder how they know how to live! The Bible tells us who God is, who we are, what the world is, and how we are to live in it. Where should we learn what the Bible teaches us? In church!

Will you pray with me that not only can Rafiki get SS lessons to African churches, but also to churches in the USA? These lessons are available through Rafiki’s website www.rafikifoundation.org. Look at the menu and select Rafiki Bible Study, then Sunday School.

I know that God will answer this prayer if we pray in Jesus’ name and for his glory. After all, it’s his Word and he’s written it for his people.