Why we are here.

It has been far too long since I (Todd) gave a blog update. But today I have time, and this week I have good reason to give an update.

We have chapel four days a week here at Scott. That gives us an opportunity to hear the testimony from all of the new members of the community. As a first year teacher, I gave mine the first full week of class. Anyway, this week several more of the first year students gave their testimonies. One student in particular made me say, "Yes! This is why we are here." This particular student is from the country of Sudan where, as many of you know, Christians are in the minority and can experience severe persecution. At any rate, this student began his testimony by saying, "I do not come from a Christian family, and my life before I met Christ is not something I am going to talk about. But the day I gave my life to Christ I sold my gun!" This young man went on to tell the story of his conversion and ended his testimony by saying, "I know God is calling me to be at Scott so I can learn and go back to Sudan and teach others about Christ. I want to teach the Bible in Sudan."

That is exactly the reason we are here in Kenya teaching at Scott. We cannot travel to the many countries and regions our students are from. We cannot meet all of the need here in Africa, because the need is too great. But we get the privilege of equipping men like this student to travel throughout Africa and train others to be Christ's followers. It is a joy to have that very student in one of my classes and I pray that the Lord will multiply my efforts through this young man when he returns to his homeland to teach others the good news of Jesus Christ.

A few other thoughts that I want to share with you. We attended our first Harambe on Saturday. Harambe's are fund-raisers where the whole community pulls together to support something financially. Scott Theological College is in desperate need for financial support this year (but that's a story for another blog), so they held a Harambe. While we saw the various individuals giving money to Scott, I couldn't help but be thankful for so many of you who have pulled together to support us being here in Kenya. We could not do this without you and I gave a special prayer of thanksgiving for so many of you yesterday and today. I don't have the words to express my thakfulness to all of you for your prayers and financial support. So I'll just say, "Thanks."

Also, I gave my first quiz on Wednesday. I was nervous because I want to challenge the students but I also want to be fair. I'm learning that Scott is serious about preventing grade inflation. The mean grade is supposed to be a B- for every class. Anyway, I was pleased with the results. Although two of the students scored a D or below, I had one A- and at least one student got each question right. The mean grade was a C+. That made me feel fairly good aobut my teaching so far.

Hope you all are well. I will try to post another update (about Scott's financial need) later in the week.

-Todd