Ron and Mikel Ann journeyed to Nepal this spring, training 20 to 25 young singles on marriage. “I feel that we have been mining for gold… God’s precepts which are more precious than pure gold!” says Mikel Ann. “We covered topics such as communication, conflict, finances, family, roles, responsibilities, and decision making. I did very little lecturing, but introduced the topics and gave Bible verses before breaking them up into groups to “mine for gold.”
Using Bible characters such as Paul, Peter, Abraham, and Moses as examples, they could see that God uses people of very different temperaments. Mikel Ann says: “They were happy when I presented the strengths of each temperament, but took it seriously when I listed the weaknesses of each one. They understood that one usually married someone of a different temperament, thus needing to accept his/her strengths and weaknesses.
When they went into groups according to their temperament, they discussed Bible verses that would help them overcome their own temperament weaknesses. We did have some fun as a large group when I asked them to assign an animal to each temperament. The animals they picked were the tiger, monkey, dog, and ant. Wouldn’t Paul, Peter, Abraham, and Moses love to have been labeled as one of these?”
“God did give me a love for these young singles of Nepal. Here the girls get married after finishing high school at about 18. The boys may be a bit older. They have what I call ‘semiarranged’ marriages. They can see someone they like and then ask their parents to arrange the marriage. I did ask if the girl could say she didn’t want to marry a boy, and a pastor said, ‘Yes, then the marriage cannot be, if she does not like him!’ Fortunately in the Christian community here they do not ask for a ‘bride price.’ This avoids many troubles for the couple and the in-laws. My hope is that God will use the training with these singles to build strong marriages for the future Christian leaders of Nepal. Will you pray for that with me?”
