School is in for our second batch of preaching students! We began the first class of the first semester for these brand new men who will soon be preaching throughout the Rupanuni. They were eager to begin and full of questions.
We began the day with our chapel service which is conducted by the students. Then, after a brief word from Thomas George, the director, I was allowed to begin. We covered the usual housekeeping issues, schedules, expectations and so forth.
The remainder of the morning session centered on the life of the preacher. We asked why a man would want to subject himself to the struggles and heartaches of preaching. The students responded that they wanted to do the will of God and save souls for the kingdom. We continued through the morning discussing the life and character of the faithful gospel preacher.
After a break for lunch we resumed classes to discuss some of the tools the preacher will use in his work. Of course the Bible was the primary tool. We introduced the students to several other tools such as Bible dictionaries, commentaries, encyclopedias and the concordance.
Until the end of class students were drilled using the concordance. They were given words to look up and passages to find. Two words on our list, “purgatory” and “rapture” were never found. This surprised some of the students to learn that these common religious terms are not Scriptural!
An afternoon rain shower – the first rain I have ever experienced in Guyana – made teaching difficult as the raindrops on the tin roof tried to drown out our voices. Later, a power failure delayed us briefly until a generator could be activated to provide light for the students notes.
An evening of homework and memory work completed their day.
