Sunday, March 02, 2008

A New Semester

We have begun a new semester here in Jerusalem and I am actually excited for it. All of my papers are in from the last semester so now is time to turn the focus. Because I am also beginning plans on returning to America and working as a teaching pastor somewhere, I wanted to keep my schedule light.
I have Hebrew 10 hours a week so I can improve on my sentence, "I like cake". Then I have one class specifically studying the life of Abraham and another examining Theophanies (appearances of God) in the Old Testament. One class is taught by a professor from Finland... yes I will try to play my "I am Finnish" card to get a better grade. The other class is taught by a Jewish man who resembles the appearance of Albert Einstein. He has a full head of messy gray hair that protrudes out from under his Kippa.

Both classes read only in Hebrew and both require extensive preparation of the text each week. Because my classes last semester had more to do with the background of the Bible and not the text, I am excited to spend the time diving into these books. I will likely combine my preparations for preaching next year with some of the texts we will be examining. So, for the next 3 months I will work to become an expert on OT texts and hopefully will have some fresh insight to share. If not, I will try to impress you by speaking Hebrew.

Check in later this week for the next "Shaping of a Church".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can I just say that you are the only person I know that makes the idea of dog poop into something wise. Good job Ryan. Other than that, I will continue to pray for your safety, but thanks for taking precautions. I know none of us want to see anything bad happen to you and your familia.