It's been about a month since we last wrote any summaries for our completed classes. This means that we have a lot to write about and we apologize for the length of this update! We hope you enjoy reading about what we have been studying over the last few weeks.
Folk Islam
Back in February Cameron and I had our Folk Religions class for two weeks. We had the option of taking Folk Catholicism, Folk Buddhism or Folk Islam. Because Asia Pacific is largely Islamic, we felt that the latter would be most beneficial to us. Unlike the majority of our other classes, this one had a dress code that was worth 50% of our grade. No one could wear shorts, sandals or be barefooted. Not really a problem for February. Also, men could not shave their faces and women had to cover their heads. The picture to the left is all of us with our head coverings. Honestly, I loved it because it covered messy hair and looked prettier than a baseball hat! We learned so much in those two weeks about the Muslim world and their beliefs. Certainly one of our favorite classes!
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| DC Soldering |
Missionary Technology
This was one of the funnest classes we have had here at the
Missionary Training Center! During this class we learned how to do AC and DC soldering, use a multi-meter, do AC and DC wiring, install a solar panel rack, wire a solar panel, large system programming to just name a few! Topics that were covered include: refrigerators, wire-fuses, AC equipment, household batteries, liquid electrolyte PV batteries, VRLA batteries, selecting and mounting PV panels, wiring PV panels and charge controllers, electro-magnetic radiation, transformers, inverters, generators, hydro and wind, lightning protection, water filtration and toilets, system designs and pricing, and DC equipment. This was a very hands-on class that was so much fun!
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| Multi-Meter Readings |
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| DC Soldering |
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| Using a Heat Gun |
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| Wiring a Light Bulb |
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| Making an LED DC Nightlight |
Christian Life 2
There was a ton of good teaching
packed into this three-day class. The first area we discussed was that
of Christian mysticism. This is the belief that "direct knowledge of
God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through
subjective
experience (as intuition or insight)." The following are all examples
of Christian mysticism that you may have heard or even said yourself:
"God told me...", "I have a message from God...", "God is leading me
to...", "I don't feel peace about...", and "It's the sense of the
matter...". While it's a tension, we must strive for a healthy balance
between the objective truth found in the Word of God and the subjective
truth we may feel. As our teacher said, "The objective truth of
Scripture establishes the reality of the subjective relationship with
God." Throughout Scripture we see both subjective and objective truth
being used by the Lord in people's lives.
Another arena
of the Christian life that was discussed was that of fellowship found
in the first chapter of 1 John. We talked about the two ditches that
believers either fall into: confessional dependency and positional
leniency. The first holds that every sin breaks fellowship with God
while the second believes that nothing breaks fellowship with God.
Again, just as with Christian mysticism, we must strive for balance
though it is difficult to attain. This class contained several
small-group discussions that challenged us with difficult situations.
Definitely a stretching class!
Church Planting Wrap-Up
We referred to
Church Planting Wrap-Up as the "paper writing class" since 32 hours were devoted to writing a 5,500 - 7,000 word paper in which we explained the
Big Picture model that
New Tribes Mission utilizes. We finished ours at 6,700 words in just ten hours, turning our paper in three days after the class began! Because the class was scheduled to go for another three weeks, we had quite a bit of free time to work on homework from
Missionary Technology, write emails to our churches and other things of that nature. If you are interested in reading our twenty-page paper, you can access it
here. Let us know if you have any difficulty with the hyperlink.
The Countdown is On!
We have three classes remaining and less than a month to go until our
graduation on April 22nd! Thank you all for your support and prayers!
United in Christ,
Caitlin and Cameron
