After a long and life-changing winter break we have resumed classes here at the Missionary Training Center. This time around we will be juggling classes, ministry, work detail, a toddler AND a brand new baby! Kimi is almost a month old but already we cannot remember ourĀ family without her. What a blessing she is to all of us – even Beau, who considers it his responsibility to let mommy know when she is crying. “It’s ok baby! It’s ok! Mommy! Kimi cry!” is something I here on a daily basis and it makes my heart smile.
Anyways, we have jumped right back into training and have kicked off with Missionary Technology. When I first heard the title of this class I was a little confused as to what it meant but after having an introduction to it, I realize that I really have no interest in learning any more about it =). Brent, of course, excels at things like soldering, building light bulbs from scratch, and charging (without a charger) batteries. No, thank you – I don’t like sparks and I don’t like raw electricity. However, this class has been enlightening as to all the practical sides of life in a remote location. Our church planters will have to set up their own water supply (which includes a 3 stage filtration system), their own electrical supply, and everything else that we take for granted here in the States. Brent’s natural ability with systems and building/fixing things will be a huge benefit to our church planters because he will be able to offer them assistance when he flies in with a supply drop. I’m very proud of his skills in this area – and thankful!
The other major class we have started is New Testament Church Principles. The first day we spent a whole hour deconstructing our North American churches to find out what is biblical and what is cultural. Our goal during this course will be to unravel what the first New Testament churches looked like so that when we finally have those first handful of believers in a tribe we are all on the same page as far as what their church should look like. Obviously we want them to be able to worship and meet in a way that glorifies God within the context of their own culture. We don’t want to go in telling them they should do church exactly like we do in North America.
All in all, we are excited to be back in classes. It’s been a long break and we are ready to return to a schedule of sorts. Plus, I think Beau is anxious to get back to his friends instead of having to hang out with mom and dad all day!