Update From Sylvester

Mr Sylvester Konteh is a student under care of Presbytery, studying online at the RP Seminary in Pittsburgh and pastoring Grace Reformed Church in Brikama, The Gambia

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am very pleased to write this letter to you all. I have often prayed for the opportunity to come to Scotland and meet you. I have this longing to see you, as Paul would say, “So that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company” (Rom 15:32).

So much has happened during the past two years of my seminary education. I am particularly grateful to God for your kind support to me and my family, as well as all the children here in The Gambia who have benefited from your kindness and love. It has not been easy to learn from a
distance, but the presence of Ian at the Seminary in the US makes me feel like a campus student. He has been of tremendous help and support to me. I pray that the Lord will continue to strengthen and keep him and his newly wedded wife.

These are challenging time for the entire world, I share in your pain and loss in Scotland over this pandemic. I am particularly grateful to God for the Monday Zoom Prayer Meetings organised by Rev. James Gracie of the FCC. This has helped me to strive together with brethren in Scotland and beyond
in prayers to God, and has given me a sense of belonging to a wider family.

The church here has recently resumed and members are glad to be back. The kids’ Sunday school is going through the Shorter Catechism and a series of teaching on creation, fall and redemption. To encourage them we are organising a graduation at the end of this series with certification. The
Pastors’ Fellowship, which usually takes place monthly, will hopefully resume shortly. Please pray for more reformed pastors in The Gambia.

Classes have now resumed at RPTS and I am studying Spiritual Development, Old Testament Exegesis, and Elementary Greek. I have to write an exegesis paper on Psalm 23, which will be very challenging. I solicit your prayers for that, and the successful completion of my seminary education.

I want to thank Scott and the Presbytery Gambia Commission for their mentorship and continued support. I appreciate Rev. Stephen McCollum, Rev. Stephen Steele, Rev. Donald Macdonald, and all the Pastors who have done my sermon appraisals. Today when I look back I see a great change in my preaching. Before it was making a lot of noise with no content, but today I can listen to my own sermons and thank God. I still see myself as a learner and pray for my preaching to improve every day.

My wife and children send their love to you. My first son John is particularly interested in becoming a reformed pastor one day and has just sat the grade 9 exams to go to grade 10 in a new school. Pray for him to pass successfully and complete his secondary education. He went for a holiday to his Aunt’s recently and started leading a prayer meeting. He reads and write the Hebrew alphabet and can recite some scriptures in Hebrew. He loves the Lord and is obedient at home. I pray that this passion of his would become a reality.

Schools are reopening mid-October. With the COVID- 19 challenges we are required to do a lot of new things in and around the Brikama Nursery School, which is under the auspices of our church. The school has opened a wide door for ministering to children from different denominational
backgrounds, and today the doctrines of reformation are being shared with both the children and their teachers in the Teachers’ Fellowship.

In conclusion, I will summarise a few prayer points that I would like you to pray for us.

1. My exegesis paper and completion of my seminary education.
2. Church and school discipleship including ministry to different groups including our Pastors’ Fellowship.
3. My son John aspiring to become a reformed pastor.
4. That all our nations will repent and embrace true Biblical reformation.
   
   May the Lord bless you all,
   Sylvester Konteh