Let me start with some good news. This morning, four of the men that have been sitting in on the classes were baptized! In addition to those, four others have been baptized in previous days. These were men from various denominations that the original students brought with them. Some were denominational preachers, but not all of them. Of course, this is an unexpected and added bonus to the effort. We arranged it for training preachers who were already Christians, but their zeal is evident in that they wanted others to know the truth as well. We rejoice at the increase given by God!With just one more day of classes ahead, I can safely say that I look forward to the end of these
classes with great anticipation. The students are very good. John and Nanette Carino have been wonderful hosts. The accommodations are all that one could ask. However, I do not recall having ever been so tired in my life. Preparations for classes always require a great deal of time whether here or at home, but it is far more taxing here. Without the use of my normal library, things take much longer than normal to research. PowerPoint charts that I have used before in the US require massive reworking to be usable here given vocabulary, idioms and illustrations that differ greatly. With the new preparations I am doing each day, it is taking me 4-6 hours of work for each new class. With two new preparations most of this week, it has been very difficult. Though I am sure some of our more computer literate folks could do it more quickly, this old dog has not learned their new tricks. The only thing that revived my spirits this morning was to see that Ron looked even more tired than me!
My first class of the morning covered Job and Psalms. I spent more time giving an overview of Job because I knew it would be less familiar and more difficult for them. They were very attentive and quick to grasp the points made. We introduced the varying groups and styles of the psalms, then noted several key passages from sundry psalms. I took some extra time with this class because I could not figure how to fit even an introduction of both books into one hour.
Immediately after that class was the OT Prophets class. Fortunately, we studied Obadiah and Haggai today and were able to condense our examination of those small books and finish on time. It also helped that we had covered Ezra the day before so that the subject matter of rebuilding the temple was fresh on their minds.
My afternoon classes on NT Survey and Church History occupied the 1:30 to 3:30pm slot. The
first covered the purpose, use and duration of spiritual gifts as presented in 1st Corinthians. After finishing with that discussion, I gave a 12 minute synopsis of the book of Revelation using pictures to illustrate the main story. The men expressed great interest in that presentation as it made the story very easy to envision. The study on “Restoration” and the principles of how it is brought about ended my material on Church History. I hope to use that time tomorrow to cover more on Islam.My voice is on the edge of being lost. I had to use the microphone and speak into it very softly while constantly sucking on Ricola and Streptuss lozenges as well as sipping water. Even so, my voice went out several times and I had to stop for a moment. At this point, my throat is very sore and my vocal cords are shot. I am staying totally quiet away from the classes. In my room,
I am drinking hot tea to soothe and gargling with Listerine and warm salt water. All I need is one more day from my voice and then it can have two solid days of rest.Tomorrow night we will need to make final payment on all remaining expenses for the training program. It is clear that we will far surpass all estimates due to unexpected and unavoidable costs. Though it appears that we will be very close on our combined funds, I think we will be able to make it with only a small deficit. I am very thankful for the funds sent at the very end by several individuals and one congregation taking me over the amount requested. Without that excess above my request, this effort would not have been possible. Thank you again for your prayers, thoughts, encouragement and help in every way.
