The spring 2008 semester has ended; most of the underclassmen are home; the senior class of 2008, all 97 of them, have graduated. A lonely silence has descended on our Waukesha campus until mid-August when the returning and new students will arrive.
The graduating class of May, 2008, is the largest ever, breaking the previous high by 15. But numbers aren’t the only encouraging fact. In an informal polling of the students, roughly two out of three indicated that they plan to be involved in foreign missions.
What impresses me most about this is that our faculty and staff go to great lengths to paint for our students a realistic picture of missions, both the good and the bad, the highs and the lows.
Here’s an example of making tribal missions real to our students. It came from a missionary family in Papua New Guinea. I’ve condensed it slightly.
We wish you could be here to experience everything that we are, during the teaching. If you could only create the same environment that we have here, it might help you experience it with us. Here’s the step-by-step process for creating your very own mock teaching setting!
- Find a large dirt area and flood it with water. Include potholes and puddles.
- For seating, get pieces of firewood. Make sure they are rough & splintered.
- Set 3 pigs, dogs, chickens, and toddlers in the middle where you will be teaching.
- Roll 25 cigarettes using newspaper and tobacco leaves; hand them to important men in the crowd. Hand out buai, (local chewing tobacco) to the men who don’t get cigarettes.
- Make sure the pigs, chickens, dogs and children use the dirt around you as a bathroom.
- Get a crazy old lady to dance and swear in the back of the crowd.
- Pair up everyone so they can pick lice from one another’s heads while listening.
- Finally, with 200 lost people around you, get ready for what God is about to do.
Thank you for your prayers and for supporting our ministry to future missionaries and Christian leaders.
Please pray for our graduates:
- that they will continue to walk with the Lord as they pursue their ministry goals.
- that others will pray for them and support them financially as you have done for us.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.