A clinic and a storage shed

Here is the medical clinic here at the Goroka Bible College. The wife of the man I'm staying with is a nurse there. She is in the States awaiting the birth of their first grand child.


And here is a storage shed. You'll notice that it looks distinctly like a shipping container ... because it is. If you know the "Pineapple Story," you have some feel for the trouble with the concept of 'ownership.' These shipping containers are actually one of the most secure ways to store things. If it's not bolted down...

So today we finished the first week of class. Many of the pastors are heading home to their families and churches. Because of that, on Monday we won't start class until 1pm so they can travel on Monday to get back in time for class.

One of the challenging issues of teaching this class is the experience level of these pastors. The average time as pastors for them is something like 15 years. So the question is what they are going to learn by taking this class. I've challenged them to use this class as a time to try something new in terms of their preaching, and I've suggested a few things. This is a safer environment than experimenting in their own pulpits! And taking the DMin courses at Gordon Conwell did the same for me ... it pushed me to try something I would never have tried, and now I can't imagine *not* doing what they challenged me to do. So I am excited about having them try things out this next week.

This weekend for me, I am preparing to preach on Sunday. I am also working to get feedback to my students on draft outlines they turned in. An amazing thing in this country that has such remote places is that cell phones are now pretty broadly available. So for those who are going home, we are going to TEXT their feedback to them. So even here in PNG, we're using educational technology in innovative ways!