After a busy month of February, where I was involved with my daughter and son-in-law in the production of videos presenting the ministry, March has been a month to settle back into my routine of teaching classes in the Christian university and in working with the churches here in Colombia. Already I have preached and taught three times in two different churches and this week I began my teaching in the university.
The preaching is something I always have more requests for than available weekends. So as soon as my family was on the airplane, I was fully booked for all of the weekends in March and several in April as well. Also, that week I headed over to the university office to speak with the Colombian director about beginning to teach.
We set up the schedule and I will be teaching one class in Philosophy of Christian Education and another in Biblical Exegesis and then an intensive weekend seminar in New Testament Survey. By having taken the month of February off, I will have time only to teach those two classes and one seminar this semester. But they are two significant foundational classes and the seminar is very important as well; so that makes all three very important ones for the students. For one week I studied and prepared to begin teaching. Then, this week, I began with my first class.
Since Bogotá has restrictions on driving during rush hour, I had to leave early and then wait for the time for the class to begin. Also, this class was being taught in a section of town that is a warren of alleys and narrow, one-way streets. The address has been changed several times, making it all the more difficult to find. But by leaving early I had plenty of time to “rattle around†in that area until I had located the church building where classes were to be held.
My students were thrilled to see me again and repeatedly expressed their appreciation at my return to teach. Some of the classes and parts of others can be taken by extension and do no require a professor. Obviously, with the number of students and classes, I could not begin to do all of the teaching myself. So we use the extension methodology when I cannot be there. But the students felt that methodology had left them with many doubts that could not be cleared up without guidance.
Their struggles to understand this profound material made for much animated discussion and the class passed quickly. The students even protested vigorously when I mentioned that time was nearly up. I extended the class a bit to answer some remaining questions but I try not to let classes get too far off of the announced schedule. We ended as we had begun with a word of prayer and then terminated the class. As always, the students were slow to leave and there was much discussion of the topic in an informal format after class had ended. I make sure I am not in too much of a hurry to leave in order to participate in such discussions. One by one they began to excuse themselves and catch their bus back home. Finally I said good bye as well and headed back to the apartment.
Since it had been an evening class, it was late when I got home. I was tired but it had been a good day and a rewarding class. Already these students were exclaiming about how God had spoken to them through His Word during the class and about changes they were going to be making in their churches. I thanked the Lord for the opportunities He has given me to form the leadership of the Colombian church and for all of you who share with me in this ministry.