Orientation at Tyndale

Yesterday I went to Tyndale with Peter Hayes, who is the missionary we answer to while we are here in Holland as well as a professor at the school. Though I have already been going to Tyndale for the past month or so on Fridays to work with one of the students, this time I went in order to take part in the students' orientation so that I could meet and get to know more of the students and to see who would be interested in utilizing my services as a tutor. It was a very enjoyable experience getting to know the students and the professors, and it turned out that there were many students who were interested in extra help with reading and writing. For many of them, English is their second or third language, and many of them have no formal post-high school education, so you can imagine how difficult it is for some of them to read and write in English at the seminary level (it's not so easy for many of us who have been using English all of our lives).

Tyndale is a very interesting place. The students are men and women who come from all over the world to learn the skills they need in order to become effective Christian workers in their home countries (or in other parts of the world). Along with a couple of Dutch students, I met students from Slovakia, India, Pakistan, Gahna, The Ukraine, America, Serbia, and many more places all over the globe, all living and going to school together for the purpose of taking the Word of God to those who need it. Not all of them are planning to be pastors - some would like to be teachers and youth workers, and some want to be missionaries - but they all have a sincere desire to reach others for Christ and have dedicated themselves to this cause.

Part of the orientation was a talk from another professor about the fact that the education the students would be receiving during their time at Tyndale is not education for the purpose of knowledge, but rather for the purpose of obedience. He was talking about obedience to Jesus' command to go and make disciples. But he further pointed out that their obedience is not to be in the future when they return to their home countries, but rather that it is to be immediate obedience in their current situation. In order to start this process of immediate obedience, we went out in groups of two to do Spiritual Mapping in the neighborhood surrounding the school. It was a great experience, and a good reminder that we need to immediately put into practice the things that we learn. I think we would be much more effective in living the Christian life if we were to immediately implement the challenges that God lays on our hearts, in church and during Bible study for instance.