Getting into students' lives

Here's another picture from last summer: Charlie's talking with Tamfu Dieudonne, a CBTS student who became a good friend. Getting to know students in more informal ways, through talking after class and sharing meals together in our on-campus house, will be a big part of our time at CBTS next year, we hope.

Some reasons we're excited to go!

Last week I (Wes) read an essay by Christopher J. H. Wright called “Mission as a Matrix for Hermeneutics and Biblical Theology.” It was so helpful for me because it reminded me of the reasons we’re excited to serve at Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary next year.

Wright taught Old Testament as a missionary in India from 1983-88. He said this about his teaching experience:

“It is the common witness of those, including myself, who have lived and worked in cultures other than their own, that reading and studying the Bible through the eyes of others is a challenging, mind-blowing and immensely instructive privilege.”

In light of this, our team can be sure that we’ll be learning way more than we’ll be teaching next year! Our reading and studying the Bible through the eyes of our Cameroonian students will certainly be our privilege.

Here’s another quote:

“‘Mission studies should remind biblical scholars that many of the writings that we study (often in painstaking and even painful detail) came to be because of the reality of mission. An awareness of, and a concern with, the key issues of mission studies may well help biblical studies find foci that will bring deeper appreciation of the meaning of the Bible.’”

In other words, the documents that make up the New Testament were originally missionary documents. They were written in the context of missions, evangelism, church planting, and discipleship in real human communities. So, by serving in the mission context of CBTS, Charlie, Tommy, and I may gain all kinds of fresh insights into the Bible. That’s definitely our hope!

Ultimately, Wright’s essay makes clear that missions is a matter of God the Father sending God the Son into the world, and then the Father and the Son together sending the Holy Spirit. It is God's activity before it is ours. The amazing thing is that we get to play a role:

“Mission, from the point of view of our human endeavor, means the committed participation of God’s people in the purposes of God for the redemption of the whole creation. The mission is God’s. The marvel is that God invites us to join in.”*

*Christopher J. H. Wright, "Mission as a Matrix for Hermeneutics and Biblical Theology" in Out of Egypt, ed. Craig Bartholomew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 114, 121n28, 137.

A glimpse of campus

Married student housing at CBTS.

CBTS classroom

Here's a picture from last summer when Charlie and Wes went to Cameroon with a BBC team. This is a typical classroom at CBTS--the kind we'll be spending a lot of time in next year, Lord willing!

Missionary Nurture Program retreat

Tommy, Charlie, and I just returned from Bethlehem Baptist Church’s missionary Nurture Program retreat. Thanks so much to those of you who prayed for us. We spent the weekend at a small retreat center in a quiet, rural area of Wisconsin (about an hour and a half from Minneapolis) together with about 30-40 other missionary candidates hoping to be sent out to various parts of the globe from Bethlehem. The theme of the retreat was conflict—and how to resolve it. We talked about conflict from several different angles and reflected on the various types—interpersonal, cross-cultural, and spiritual—that we are all sure to face on the mission field. Erik Hyatt, BBC’s missions pastor; Mike Jacobsen, a missionary with Arab World Ministries; and Tom Eckblad, BBC’s soul care pastor, led us, and it was a rich weekend, full of great conversation, warm fellowship, good “church camp” food(!), lots of games and laughter, and encouraging, challenging teaching sessions. (Kudos to Tom and Julie Varno for wonderful stories and encouragements from their 7-year missions experience in Uganda and for holding this whole retreat together!)

--Wesley, for the team

"Doing the Kingdom" in Africa

Recently, I read an interview with Anglican Bishop Tom Wright. Here's the portion of the transcript that caught my attention:

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"Jesus was going around 'doing the kingdom', healing the sick, cleansing lepers, feeding the hungry, he was celebrating at a party with all the wrong people, transforming people's lives and saying cryptic things such as: 'Let me tell you what the kingdom of God is like'," Wright says.

"The church has it the other way around. It has tended to say: 'We must say it, say it, say it as clearly as possible and if there is any energy left over, we'll do a bit of it as well."'

Wright was delighted when one of his theology students returned from a summer in Zambia and told the provost of his university that he was planning to do development work in the Third World. On being quizzed about why he wasn't studying politics and economics, he replied: "Because theology's so much more relevant."

Wright says: "He had seen that what was happening in these African villages was they were worshipping Jesus exuberantly and then going out and 'doing' it, then coming back and worshipping, and then going out, and they were making a real, transformative difference."

"That's why churches are full in Africa."

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Wright's closing statements resonate with our desire to go to Africa. We want to teach future pastors in Cameroon about the Kingdom of God, so that they can be sent out to teach and lead churches to "do the Kingdom." The gospel transforms individuals to image forth a transformed community, in which the reign of Jesus supplants the reign of deceit and anger. As Jesus prayed, may the Kingdom come and God's will be done on earth, in Africa, in Cameroon, as it is done in Heaven (Mt. 6:10).

--tg

Another financial update

We just heard from the Baptist General Conference today that we've raised $16,250.00 so far.

Please keep praying earnestly with us for God to bring in the remaining $62,971.00 that we need.

We're encouraged in the process of support raising. Last week Tommy and I sent out prayer letters to about 15 churches, and we are also talking with several Christian foundations/ministries who may be in a position to contribute as well.

One more prayer request: Over the weekend of April 28-30, Charlie, Tommy, and I will be on a retreat as part of Bethlehem Baptist Church's Missionary Nurture Program. Pray that it will be an encouraging, fruitful time for us as a team as well as for the other missionary candidates who will be there.

Thanks for reading the blog!

The Lord is risen!

--Wesley, for the team

Computers for the seminary

One of the things we're doing as we get ready to leave in August is collecting as many laptop computers as we can. Last summer, the team from Bethlehem Baptist brought several computers to CBTS for faculty (including Dr. Fon, the seminary's president) and students to use. We're hoping to do the same thing when we go over this time. So far, one church member from Bethlehem has donated a laptop, and we think we've found another one we can take too.

So, if you or someone you know has an old laptop they're not using any more, let us know!

Small Group Meeting

Last weekend, we presented the details of our trip to a Bethlehem small group--our motivation for going, what we'll be doing, and how they could help. It was a great blessing! We left encouraged, both by the group's interest in us and by their heart for missions, to see God glorified throughout the earth. As we speak with more people about next year, we're consistently humbled and amazed by the love of the body of Christ.

--tg

Clarification

In case of confusion...

The total amount we need in order to be in Cameroon for ten months is $79,221.00.

The amount we have raised so far is $9,741.71.

So, the amount we have left to raise is $69,479.29.