Wednesday, August 30.
Today, I attended one of the sessions at the pastor's conference here at
BCEA. The main speaker is Dr. Jeffery Khoo, Academic Dean of Far Eastern
Bible College (FEBC) in Singapore. His topic for the sessions was
"Discerning the Spirit of Charismatism." I actually learned some things
about the Bible that I never knew before. Usually, when I hear a
sermon/lecture at church service, fellowship, or a conference, I don't get
to learn things that are entirely new to me, although they are often good
reminders of things I learned in the past. This time it was different. For
the first time, I learned that Fundamentalists believe that prophesies,
speaking of tongues, and such should stop when the Bible is completed (1
Cor. 13:10). Basically, there should not be any more revelations/prophecies
to be added after the Bible was completed. That makes sense.
Dr. Khoo also taught that divine powers such as healing were only given to
the Apostles. This doesn't mean that people don't get miraculously healed
nowadays (since all the Apostles are dead now). Obviously, there are people
who are healed miraculously through prayer, and that happens when the Holy
Spirit acts on them. It means that people today don't have the gift of
healing like the Apostles did. In other words, if someone tells you s/he is
a healer, run away from him/her. People don't do miracles. God does. So
nobody today can say they have the power to heal. I'm not all that familiar
with Fundamentalist doctrine, but this makes sense to me.
Eben came back from Tanzania today. He was working on the construction of
the new Bible College in Tanzania. (By the way, hello to Eben's friends back
in the US. Eben told me that one of his friends found my blog by googling
his name.) Mrs. Kim prepared some boiled kalbi (beef ribs) and rice for Eben
and I tonight, like she did when I came back. Eben and I brought the food to
Eben's apartment and ate together. We got to talk about many things
including life of a missionary, marrying a Korean girl, writing inspiring
blog entries, etc. It was really nice talking with him because I got to
laugh a lot. (I'm not just saying nice things about him because his friends
might be reading this.) Although he's a bit older, we could still connect on
various levels.
While I was in Masai Land, I could only connect with a few people, and when
I did it was only a short period. At Kiluani, Nyingei, Lemomo, and Leshushu
were the only ones close to my age, but I had a lot of fun talking with
them. When I visited Kiluani for the seminar (I bicycled from Lenkijape), I
was really glad to spend some time with them. At Lenkijape, I got to connect
the most with Keton, one of the teachers at the primary school. He's only a
year older than me. Even with the cultural differences, when the age is
close, it seems like I could connect with people here really well. Also,
people in Masai Land tend to associate more with their age-mates. So perhaps
that is why it's easier to become friends with those that are similar in
age. Anyhow, I'm beginning to really appreciate having friends that I could
connect with. Back in college, I had many friends close by, but I think I
took most of them for granted. So maybe I missed my chance of connecting
with them at deeper levels. I suppose I'm learning to value friendship more.
I found out today that I'll be teaching two English classes this term: one
advanced, and one not-so-advanced. They're two hours each every week for 12
weeks. The work seems a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I think it will
be a really good experience. I suppose teaching, especially teaching
English, would be a good skill to have if I'm going to be a long-term
missionary someday.
I got the manual for the software I'm using to build the library catalogue.
It's called ResourceMate 2.0. Does anyone know how to use it? I have to
catalogue +5000 books... I have no idea how long it would take, but I guess
this will be my main contribution to the college.
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