Greetings from Angola, Africa

May 17, 2008 - Luanda, Angola

I left DFW airport on Thursday, May 8 at 5:40 pm and arrived in Luanda at 4:20 am on Saturday. Gary Garrison, pastor of Second Baptist Church - Huntsville, and his 13 year-old daughter Taylor were with me on the flight from London. Most of the rest of the folk on the Boeing 777 were oil-field workers. There were only eleven females passengers. I want to thank FBC Garland for sending me on this trip.

I am staying in a mission house on one of the missionary compounds in Luanda, with Gary and an occasional transient. Sunday, after arriving Saturday, I preached at the Portuguese service at FBC Luanda. About 800 were in attendance. The music was tremendous and Pastor Cesar has been very helpful, among other things he comes by to take me to the Seminary every day. There is also an English service at FBC early on Sunday morning (mostly oil people).

I am teaching at the Baptist Seminary in Luanda. The Seminary is about 5 years old (started after the civil war ended in 2002). They will graduate their first Bachelors students in December. The seminary has three levels of students and the Bachelor program is currently the top level. There are 20 students in that program and they are there on time with almost no absentees. The level of interest is very high.

I was asked to teach Old Testament Theology (about two weeks before I came) and only knew that they had no books or other resources in this area. It has been an interesting week. They are used to being given material to copy in their notebooks and memorize for the exam (a lot like Brazil). I don’t do that. I challenge students to think, because the world doesn’t operate by-the-book. We are getting used to one another. They are adjusting to my way of teaching and I have altered considerably the material I will cover. I will be here three more weeks, so we have time to make some real progress. I will be teaching a good deal of hermeneutics (interpretation) and exegesis (application) along with the theology, but that is for free.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I will walk to a local Baptist church and participate there.

Pray for these students because they have so much potential, but the realities here make things hard at times.

In His service,

Houston Greenhaw