First Impressions

Wow. Getting settled in at the college has been hectic. I’ve almost been here a month now. It feels a bit late to write a first impressions, but there have just been so many new people; such a new schedule; and so many new things to get used to that I simply didn’t have the spare energy earlier.

Quarantine

For the first ten days here, I had to quarantine. Not because I was sick or anything, but just because the UK has some strict Covid-restriction rules. It wasn’t too bad though. I was the only guy who had to quarantine, so they gave me a room, my own kitchen, my own bathroom and my own little garden outside. Add the corridor in between those, and it was more spacious than the house I had been living in before I came here. Occasionally, when I was outside in the garden people would come up and greet me. This always felt like a real treat. Especially when all of the single guys decided one evening to come and sit just outside my garden to have our Sunday tea together.

This was my first experience with Covid-isolation. And I really wasn’t prepared for how good it would feel to walk around freely after being stuck for ten days. It felt so good, that the very first thing I did was go for a run around town yelling “FREEDOM”, while holding my fists up. OK, maybe not quite, but I did go for a really nice run. And right after that I got to meet a whole bunch of friendly people who gave me a tour of the campus.

Freedom and First Modules

And that is when the full-blown busy-times hit me. We had started with classes the day after I arrived. But on Zoom I couldn’t do any of the practical programme. Or join social gatherings in the evening. Now I had to join in on both of those. Moreover, on my last quarantine day we had finished our first module: Bible Study Methods. It was only a ten-hour module, but the assignment – an inductive study of Philemon – must have taken me at least twenty hours to complete. And even then I felt like I still could go deeper.

By now we have actually finished two other modules as well. Bibliology, which is all about the verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible. That is, the completeness and authority of the Bible. And Hermeneutics, a short module on different styles of interpretation – whereby we hold vast to the literal-historical-grammatical-rhetorical-interpretation. Meanwhile we are working on the Pentateuch and Doctrine of God.

Prayer Requests

• Thank God for the blessing of being in His Word daily, and spending time with brothers and sisters daily.
• Thank God for all the opportunities to hear testimonies and stories of God at work.
• Pray for the busy schedule. It is certainly manageable, but it is difficult to get used to the new schedule and decide where time needs to be spend.
• Pray for everything that I am learning here, and that I will be able to carry it with me throughout my life.