We Love What We Do – Part 4

by Rachel

Besides teaching, there are a number of other things that occupy Matt’s time as Associate Pastor for International Bible Fellowship Church.

 

Administration

First up: Administration. Matt’s the guy who keeps the church accounting books, who organizes the extra things like church picnics and camps and men’s events, and who makes sure that everyone shows up on Sundays for all their ministries – from setting up chairs, to the sound guy, to the children’s Sunday school teachers. He’s the behind-the-scenes guy who strives to equip our church members for the work of service (Eph 4:11-13).  This role works hand-in-hand with…

 

Discipleship

Relationships and Discipleship.  It’s hard to equip someone for service if you don’t know them. Matt spends a lot of time with people, getting to know them, walking with them as they learn and grow. He intentionally invests his time and the wisdom God has given him into these many people who serve in our church. Sometimes this means helping them figure out what their spiritual gifts are and where they’d like to serve. Sometimes it means training them in the skills they need.  And sometimes it means just living life with them, whether they got a good grade on their Greek quiz or their 4 year old daughter just passed away unexpectedly.

 

Matt Kondi and Brian

The last major area of Matt’s ministry at IBF is church leadership.  Matt gets to work on pastoral staff with Brian Biedebach and Kondwani Nyanda, and these three get to work on a steering committee with four other men to make decisions and set the course for the church.  We’re just starting the process of identifying and appointing elders, so the coming months will be exciting for the church leadership at this role changes from a “steering” ministry to a shepherding ministry.  Please keep the pastoral staff and the steering committee in your prayers as they make this transition, and pray for wisdom as elders are appointed to guide the church in the best direction.

 

Can we say it again?  We love what we do!

Hobbies

by Rachel

A wise missionary once told us that we should have hobbies. This was at a time when we were all excited about ministry and moving to Malawi within a few months.  We were focused and ready to go, not really thinking about hobbies other than the fact that Matt’s photography business was about to revert to being a hobby.

 

Matts Photography

But then he explained.  Ministry doesn’t stop until heaven.  Until then, there will always be more to be done, more discipleship, more counseling, more serving.  Hobbies are different.  They have a beginning and an end.  One ship built in a glass bottle – done.  One hand-carved toy – done.

 

Hiking

The wisdom we’ve discovered in this is that when we have a hobby that gives us that sense of completion on a small-scale, we’re not making ministry a to-do item that we just want to check off the list.  We can give the time and attention and patience to those relationships and ministries that they really need, without trying to just get it done and move on as quickly as possible.

 

Thanksgiving Turkey

So we have a few hobbies that we like to do on the side.  For Matt, it’s photography.  For Rachel, cooking.  Ironically enough, these both help us in ministry.  Matt’s photos give us (and other missionaries) presentations to explain life and ministry in Africa.  Rachel’s cooking feeds guests in our home every week and, at times, every day.  But these are still our hobbies.  We love to do them, we love to exercise creativity in them, and there’s a sense of completion and satisfaction that goes with them.  They don’t take the place of the ministries that we do here, but they come alongside those ministries, and they ward off discouragement on the days when the road of ministry seems long and dreary.

 

Beef Stroganoff

Matt’s photo of Rachel’s dinner – done and done.  Now back to work.

We Love What We Do – Part 3

by Rachel

Months ago we started a series about what we do and why we love it so much.  Part 1 and Part 2 were about what Rachel does, but the guy who is really busy around here is Matt.  Here’s a little bit of what he does every week…

 

Sunday School Group Praying

We started an adult Sunday School class at International Bible Fellowship Church last year, and Matt taught through the attributes of God and how to know the will of God.  As far as we know, this is the only adult Sunday School class in Malawi.

 

Sunday School Matt Speaking

This year he started with a series on testing our love for God, primarily from the books of John and 1 John.  I (Rachel) know that this is not the most stellar picture of Matt teaching, but do you know how hard it is to get a “good” picture of someone teaching?!?

 

Matt Talking 1     Matt Talking 2     Matt Talking 3

Nope. Nope. Nope. I have dozens of less than complementary pictures of Matt, and this difficulty may in part be why there is a gap of 7 months between Part 2 and Part 3 of this series. Thank you for your understanding. =)

 

Youth Group Studying

Sunday School isn’t the only thing Matt teaches on a regular basis – he also gets to teach the youth group.  From a faithful group of 4-5, there are now about 18 youth who come every Tuesday night!  Matt has been teaching through the Bible, one book of the Bible every week, for the past couple years, and this past Tuesday they looked at the book of John.

 

Youth Group Funny

They like to have fun! In fact, we’re looking forward to a lot of fun with them as we head out to another youth camp October 15-17.  Matt will be speaking about idolatry and the heart, so you can be praying for those days with this great group of kids.

 

Matt Studying

Please do pray for Matt and for the many hours of study he puts in each week for these teaching responsibilities.  He loves the studying and the teaching, and we’re trusting that God can use it for His glory and for the spreading of the gospel here in Malawi!