More Discussions with Students

By Anthony:

First some exciting fruits of my development class!  One of the assignments the students had to do was to create benevolence policies for their church (or future church).  Most of their churches don't have any kind of benevolence ministry at all.  But many of the students went back to their churches over the holiday and tried to convince their leaders to start a benevolence ministry.  This is not an easy thing.  With all of the hierarchy and authority in the Anglican church, and with these students being only students and not church leaders yet, it was quite intimidating for them to approach their leaders and tell them what they should do.  But at least one student was successful!  His home church will now start a benevolence ministry, complete with careful plans and policies, particularly in order to care for the elderly in the church and the community.

Here are some more interesting class discussions.  Some of the things the students do or believe may surprise you.  Keep in mind, as I've written these posts about class discussions, I've been sharing things I think you will find interesting or surprising.  So I don't usually share all of the normal good things that they do and believe.  They are generally good students, with right beliefs, and they love God.

In the spiritual formation session I lead once a week, we talked about different character traits and made action plans to address things that we each need to change.  Some of the students said they need more self control, mainly controlling how they spend their time.  You know how students complain and whine so much when they get assignments?  I had been under the impression that they were quite busy, but now I know the truth.  Some of the students admitted that they spend 6 hours or even "uncountable" hours a day on their smartphones and watching television.  So some of them made action plans to reduce to only 3 hours of recreation like this per day.  Other students made action plans to begin saying "no" more frequently, especially to making commitments they know that they cannot keep.  In African culture, you usually say "yes" to not hurt people's feelings, even if you know you will hurt their feelings later by not following through.  To me, this is obviously not good, and the students thought so as well.  So they are going to try to be more honest.  Other students are working on dealing with their procrastination, being more punctual, or not being too concerned with physical appearance.

In another one of these spiritual formation sessions, we talked of the need for pastors to love God's Word and read it daily.  I learned that only one of the students had read the whole Bible during his lifetime.  Each student made an action plan to begin to read the Bible daily.  Some are going to try for 1 or 2 chapters a day, while others are going to begin with at least a few verses a day.

Again, in another session, we had a discussion about bearing each other's burdens, and confessing our sins to trusted people.  This was a super depressing discussion for me.  It seems that in this Kenyan culture where corruption abounds, everyone has learned to not truly trust anyone else.  Aside from about 4 students, all the others there said that they do not trust a single person, and don't confess to anyone but God.  Disturbingly, they said you can't even trust your spouse and be open with them about your struggles (some of them are married already and said this).  The big fear is gossip.  If you tell someone your struggle, "they will finish you," in their words.  They will use it against you and tell others.  The friends I've had over my lifetime, who I could share my deepest struggles with, have been priceless gifts from God to me.  I can't imagine life without them.  My heart hurts for these students and what they are missing in friendships and marriages that have no trust.  I encouraged them to try to begin building trust with at least one person, little by little.  Pray for them that God will give them the courage to try, and to keep confidentiality themselves.

Me and the second year students:



As I taught about corruption in the Church during the Reformation period in Church History 2, I learned how corruption sometimes still happens in the church here today.  They explained to me, for one example, that when students are sent to Bible college, upon graduation it is expected that they give a gift to their bishop for helping to support them to go to school.  These are very tiny gifts just to show appreciation, but if the student gives a gift about 10 times the normal amount, it is a clear signal to the bishop that they want a particular prominent church position, which a corrupt bishop would then give to them.

In Church History, I also taught about the Reformation in England, and the beginning of the Anglican Church.  We discussed the Puritans, who were Anglicans but wanted further reform in the Church.  The students told me they are like the Puritans.  They want to remain Anglicans, but they see a lot of need for reform in the Anglican Church of Kenya.  They have committed to going home and trying to bring about change, even if it means they will be insulted or go through suffering.

Discussing reform led to a discussion about the Anglican liturgy (the order of worship in a church service).  I actually really appreciate the Anglican liturgy, with its creeds and thoughtful prayers, though I would like to have more variety from week to week.  But the students find it very boring and don't appreciate it.  They are so tired of it.  I get the feeling that perhaps most pastors and Christians in the Anglican Church of Kenya feel the same way, yet instead of trying to change it to be how they want it, it seems like everyone is trapped in the tradition.  Please understand, I am not criticizing how they do things in the Anglican Church.  I am simply observing, and listening to what the students tell me.

It is very common for Christians here, (of any kind), to introduce themselves as being "born again."  This sounds really great, but as I've listened and tried to understand what they mean by that, it is different from what you might expect.  I asked the students what it meant to be "born again" and none of them mentioned the new birth, regeneration, having a new heart, or justification by faith.  Instead, it meant for them that you are someone who trusts in Christ, but who also actually tries to obey Christ.  If you are a Christian, it just means you believe in Jesus, but you might not really follow him or obey him.  If you are "born again" it means you have a personal relationship with Jesus and actually try to do what he says.  From talking to them, I think we sort of do the same thing in the US, but we say that there are "true Christians" and people who call themselves "Christians."  But I wish they would recapture the real rich meaning of what it means to be born again.  In Kenya, pretty much everyone says they are either a Christian or Muslim, whether or not they go to church, whether or not they have a relationship with Jesus, so being born again is a way to differentiate those with real true relationships to Jesus and those without.  But what is disturbing is that the students say many of the people in their churches, and even some pastors, are not "born again" and do not want to be "born again" or call themselves that.  I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that means...

I've had multiple discussions in classes now where I learned that students thought Jesus sinned at times.  They say, "but Jesus wasn't sinless, he got angry sometimes!"  Beside the major theological problems of thinking that Jesus sinned, it surprised me to hear them think that anger is always sinful.  I explained that throughout the Bible God gets angry at sin, and that in actuality I believe you can be sinning if you don't get angry at certain times.  For example we are supposed to get angry when we see injustice, and try to make change, instead of ignoring it.  But it is sin if we get angry for the wrong reasons or if we do sinful things while being angry.

In another class, we talked about how Jesus treated public sinners and tax collectors.  Unfortunately the students feel that in the current church environment, to spend time with drunkards, homosexuals, or other people viewed as "sinners" in society, would cause them to be heavily criticized by other Christians, and suspected of those sins themselves.  But I think I convinced them to do what is right regardless of what others think.

Me with a random assortment of students during a discussion outside of class:

What Did We Do With All Those Potatoes?

By Sara:

In case you were wondering how we managed to eat my portion of the potatoes the students grew (and even though it was a small portion, out of it I gave a sack to a friend, cooked up a huge pot for the students, and there was still a lot left just for us), you can see some pictures of a variety of our potato meals at my cooking blog here.

Rabbits

By Sara:

One of the great joys of living in East Africa is having a big garden and being able to raise animals.  I was able to get started on the garden immediately after arriving here at Berea College, but I've had to wait a long time for baby rabbits.  Finally, though, they are here!  I hope you all enjoy being able to see some pictures of how cute they are.

Rabbits grow amazingly quickly!  Here they are at one week old:

Then again, at two weeks old:

You'd think that they wouldn't want to be sat on, but they all struggle to be at the bottom of the pile when they're sleeping.

And, finally at 3 weeks old when we started holding them:

This one climbed into Anthony's sleeve and didn't want to come back out!

Class Conversations and My Ping Pong Class

Before I get into our class conversations, let me tell you about my new "class."  Even if being a student dean is usually very tiring as I work on solving drama between students, and rushing them to the hospital late at night, some of my work is very fun.  Sara and I purchased some ping pong paddles a while back and have since reinvigorated interest in this sport here at the college in a huge way.  It started with the 40 year old ping pong table and just a couple students.  Now I am basically teaching an entire P.E. ping pong class and we have two tables and about 10 paddles.  We play about 3 times a week.  I have taught 10-15 students how to play from scratch, and they've gotten quite good.  In total, we have about 15 of us who play at various times.  It's a lot of fun.  Enjoy the photos and videos as you read about class discussions in this post.

Class is rarely boring.  The students and I have some very interesting conversations and sometimes they surprise me.

--Perhaps the most surprising discussion was learning that most of the students believe that God is almighty and answers prayer, and yet he cannot do things today like raising the dead, or regrowing a leg of someone who doesn't have one.  Of course, I don't think such things happen often.  But I believe God can do whatever he wants.  I think by the end of the discussion, they had come to a better understanding and could now say, "God can do those things, but that doesn't mean he always will every time."

--Another surprising topic was the issue of forgiveness.  To the students, if you forgive someone, then there should be no consequences for the person's actions.  So they would say it's basically impossible to forgive a criminal who did something wrong, if the criminal still goes to prison.  We ended up talking about this for about an hour.  For them, if a professor caught a student cheating, they should forgive them as a Christian, which means that there would be no consequences.  They compared it to how our punishment is completely taken away for our sins in Christ.  I assured them that if I caught them cheating, I would forgive them even though it would be difficult, because they would have hurt me and our relationship through the action, but that there would still be consequences through the institution - failure of the exam.  It took them some time to be convinced as it seemed unchristian to them.  But then we talked about how Christians can still be judges, soldiers, and policemen, and how you differentiate between what you are doing personally, and what you are doing on behalf of the state or institution.  That helped them a bit, but some are still really struggling with it.  It got even more complicated when we looked at God's forgiveness, at how our punishment is fully taken away in Jesus, yet we still experience God's discipline (Heb. 12).  And we can experience the natural consequences of our sins like bad health from addiction, or losing trust in a relationship, etc.



--The biggest and most important topic that we keep discussing is "justification by faith" not by works.  I'm not even teaching Systematic Theology this term.  But it has come up in every one of my classes, covering all 3 years of students here.  It's startling how many students had no idea about this doctrine.  To me, if you remove this doctrine, you are removing your need for a Savior.  Then salvation is really you saving yourself.  I've actually had students say in class that when we get to judgment day, as born again Christians, that God will weigh our deeds in baskets, and if we have done more good deeds than bad deeds than we go to Heaven.  In these cases, they mention nothing about Jesus taking our place, taking our punishment, and giving us his righteousness.  But the good news is that the students are understanding what I'm teaching and are becoming passionate about it.  When I see the light bulb turn on in a student's mind as he or she understands this wonderful beautiful truth of the Gospel for the first time, it fills me with joy and reminds me why my work is so important.  Since teaching these students about justification, some of them have already gone out and preached in churches about it.  May the good news of the true Gospel spread!

(This video shows a new ping pong game we invented for large groups of people, similar to "Lightning" in basketball.  As people get out, you end up having to run faster and faster.  By the end, if you are in the last two people, you actually have to hit the ball to yourself, which means running really fast!)

--We had a difficult discussion in Development class the other day, at least it was difficult for me.  The students said, "We have perceived that the whites are really not generous compared to Africans."  When I responded to this I choked up with tears, because I was thinking about the vast amount of aid that is given both by governments and individual caring people to Kenya and other African countries every year.  It is especially hard for me that they seem to ignore the work of NGOs in their communities.  However, I know it partly is based on a misunderstanding.  Whenever Sara and I (and most missionaries) give, we give mostly to organizations, and if we give to individuals, we give in secret.  And since so many people commonly ask for help, we have to say "no" to most of them.

It's hard for the students to put themselves in our shoes.  They don't understand what it's like to have so many people asking for things constantly just because of the color of our skin.  I was hurt by the comment because we do give very generously and I think of families in the US who sacrifice vacations and other things in their lifestyle in order to give to organizations like World Renew and help these communities in Africa.  I'm realizing that part of the problem is that giving is done more publicly in East Africa, and the reason is often not sinful pride as you might guess, but it is actually a way to show love and care and strengthen relationships and community.  So if missionaries always only give in secret, then that aspect of relationship building is missing, and also people perceive us as misers.  I'm wondering now if there needs to be a balance - on the one hand, doing what Jesus said about giving in secret, not out of pride, but on the other hand, giving publicly sometimes so that people know that we care and we can strengthen the relationships.

(A more complicated version of the lightning ping pong game using two tables)

--Also in the Development class, we talked about the importance of education for the development of a nation.  Unfortunately, education by itself does not accomplish that much.  Both Uganda and Kenya have massive unemployment with a well educated population.  There is need for more industry and more jobs.  So many people get university degrees but then go back to there family's home to do subsistence farming.  There is a 40% unemployment rate in Kenya.  And check out this depressing article from Uganda - 87% of graduates cannot find jobs.

--Another development topic we discussed was the debt of countries like Kenya to other rich nations. You can read more about this online, but much of the debt poor countries owe has become unpayable, meaning that there is absolutely no way to pay it off with the current financial standing of these countries and the huge amounts of interest.  It's a complicated controversial topic in development circles.  Some of the debt money was originally given to corrupt dictators who used the money for themselves, and now it's a later generation of the common poor people who are supposed to pay off the debt of their country.  Some people want to have the debts forgiven, which has been done in some cases and has helped in many cases.  Some people don't think the debts should be forgiven, because then it encourages other countries to stop paying their loan payments.  In some cases, debts have been forgiven, and then new debts issued right after which does not seem wise.  I actually think the best suggestion I've heard is from one of my students.  He advocated that the loan amounts could be slightly reduced, to make it more possible to pay them back.  And that instead of forgiving the whole loan, just remove the interest, and ensure the principal is paid back.