Wednesday, November 5, 2008
One of the most important responsibilities we have while working with the LCEA is to teach in the seminary. In every region we have put on a one or two day seminar to teach the leaders of these churches. The same is true here. Our one day seminar is set for tomorrow here at our hotel, but we also plan to teach several days in the seminary. We were able to teach a short amount on Monday afternoon, but today was our first full day.
Before our day started at the sem we visited the grade school in Kiberaloni. The church there supports standard 1 and 2 school with about 35 young students. Bruce had a gift of money from his church back home that had been sent for the school, so he wanted to visit it and give them the gift of money. They had big smiles on their faces and even sang us a song they had learned in English!
Then it was off to the sem for 10:00 am class. Since Bruce had to leave at lunch time and I had another whole week to teach, I let him have this time with the class. He taught his well-prepared study on Biblical Covenant Theology. When he was finished the students asked all kinds of questions - some related to the topic, and others not! But they did ask a lot of good questions and that was very good to see.
It was after 12:30 when he finally stopped and said goodbye to everyone. He loaded up his things and Charles whisked him off to Nairobi! His flight back home leaves from Nairobi tomorrow night. Russ and I have one more week here yet. We sent Charles back home to Nairobi since most of our time will be spent at the seminary and we will be able to take the buses back and forth. We were sad to see him go - he has been a huge help on this trip and a great companion.
We took a break from class for about half an hour or so and I visited with the students. They had asked a photographer to come in and take pictures, so everyone wanted pictures taken with us and different groups of students.
We resumed classes in the afternoon. I took this time to quiz the students to see where they were at with the knowledge of Bible History and doctrine. Some of the older students did very well, but it was clear that the younger students have much to learn yet - which would be expected. It was very helpful to me to find out what the students know.
Finally at about 4:30pm lunch was ready! We were served rice with the typical beef broth with tomatoes and meat, along with oranges. It was very good! Their custom is always to serve us first and then serve the students after. I hope this isn’t their schedule every day!
We visited with the students and other visitors for a while, and then walked to the bus stop for our trip back to Moshi. Pastor Shenkalekwa, who has been serving as our translator, joined us on the trip back, and we were attended by a couple students who insisted that they carry our bags for us. We tell them "no" but they insist that it is their culture! The buses are typically very crowded. They are small 14-16 passenger "mini-vans" that usually have at least 16 people crammed in them. The cost for the 50km trip to and from Moshi is about sixty cents. They always try to get more out of white people, and sometimes even the locals. Bartering is part of the deal. We kept telling Bruce that he really can’t say that he has been in Africa until he rides the public mini-buses – but we couldn’t get him to try it!
Tomorrow is our seminar here at the hotel, and I have some work to get done for the that, so more later....
Thanks for following our trip.
In Christ
Nathanael
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