The Beginning

Dear Friends and Family,

Today was the beginning--my first day of teaching. I hardly slept last night thinking about my first day with the students. I had Old Testament Introduction from 8:15AM-11:20. It was a wonderful time. I must remember to speak very slowly, being that not all of my students are native English speakers (some are Francafones (French speakers)). The class was very interactive, which i encouraged at the outset. The students appear to be very bright and very eager to study the Old Testament. I was quite surprised at how quickly i was able to move through 6 pages of notes. There are 32 students in the class. Today was more of an introduction and we will begin in the Genesis 1 this Thursday. It's gonna be sweet. Tomorrow I have Introduction to Biblical Hebrew and the Gospels. I am very excited about my Gospels course, and am equally excited about Hebrew and yet am approaching this course with a bit of fear concerning the large amount of material i have been asked to cover in a very short time. Pray for the students. Ok, so this past Saturday tournament soccer began. There are four teams made of students from the seminary. These guys are unbelievable football (soccer) players. We played on what resembled a war-zone. There were massive holes and grass knee high in certain places on a pitch 120 yards in length. It was awesome. Within the first 5 minutes of play I was served a sweet cross from the left side about 18 yards away from the goal keeper. I lept forward heading the ball into the left corner of the goal. I stood up a bit surprised that i had actually made contact and was immediately accepted by the Cameroonian players. My legs were bleeding from the fall, but I was so excited I didn't have time to notice until after the game. Please do not misunderstand. For the rest of the game I was pretty much dominated by these players. It was just sweet to get a goal for my team--praise the Lord! When I arrived home Saturday evening I had about 30 minutes before the youth arrived for our weekly youth meeting. I made a decision to take the students through the gospel of Mark. Although last week we studies chapter 2, i began afresh in chapter 1, verse 1. It was a good time, and the students seemed pretty engaged during the study. After studying God's word we went outside for a small fire and snacks. The kids told stories, most of which I could not understand, but they enjoyed themselves immensely. Once the fire died down, we headed inside for Remember the Titans on my laptop. The kids loved it. They would laught hysterically whenever the players came out in their uniforms and gear. They could not get over the shoulder pads and tight pants--they thought it was the funniest thing ever. I told them that they better not disrespect american football in the presence of a Texan--heck, shoot! I must go now.

For His glory,

Chris Taylor