Recently* I finished the first of three years of Bible college. I would like to take this opportunity to look back at a year which has been a wonderful blessing and real joy to go through.
*Recently being a few weeks ago, because life got in the way – but thankfully only with good stuff!
Fun fact: We had a total of 46 modules.
On average, a module took about 15 classroom hours.
Over the span of 10 months, we covered every book of the Bible except for Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. On top of that we had six doctrine modules, five evangelism modules and some additional small modules regarding minor topics. Going through the classes like this we definitely covered a lot of content of the Bible.
However, I feel like I learned a lot more from the assignments we had. Most of them were around the size of a 1000 word paper, but no two assignments were ever the same. This constantly kept me on my toes. One week we would write a detailed commentary on six verses in Romans. The next we would explain the flow of a whole book. Sometimes we would focus in on a thematic question across the Bible, other times a thematic question based primarily on a specific passage.
I may have been tempted to do my inductive Bible studies in a single set way before coming to Bible College. But after doing all these assignments, I feel like I have learned so many tools for answering Bible questions. Whether it concerns explaining a specific passage, answering a specific question, summarising a passage, or something else. I may not know everything, but I feel so much more equipped to research everything – and that skill is so much more valuable than the pieces of information I remember from class.
Fun fact: we had 3 teachers.
But we also had many guest-teachers who would teach 1 or 2 modules.
This first year was a real blessing. Thinking about it, I will probably never again have a year during which I will have so much time to study the Bible. During this year, at least forty hours of my week went into reading and studying the Bible. Going into the second year, we will have classes concerning the Biblical foundation for missions, but we’ll also have many other classes. Even while working as a missionary, there will always be things to do besides personal Bible study.
This does not mean I don’t look forward to the coming years though. In fact, I think the years ahead are all the more exciting. Starting in September, we’ll have the Cross Cultural Communication Course. Following that the Applied Linguistics Course. And shortly after that I’ll be heading to a jungle country to put what I’ve learned into practice. But until then I will always seek to serve the Lord in all I do.
I’m really happy you’ve progressed through bible school, and truly hope you will bring the light of the gospel to the unreached!
I’ll pray that God may guide you and that all the pieces will fit together.
God bless!