First Week at BBC

26 September 2009


Well I just finished my first week of classes here at Belfast Bible College and I am quite happy. The classes that I’m taking are great and the professors all seem to be very competent in their subject and good at teaching. In fact, there are so many good things going on here that when I first arrived I was overly anxious about getting the most out of my time here. I have been looking forward to this for a year now and I’m only here for three months so I wanted to get everything perfect. I wanted to make sure that I took the right classes, hung out with the right people, and went to the right places at the right time. I was nervous that I would get something wrong until I finally realized that if I just have good communion with God then it will all be ok; he’s in control and He knows what’s best for me. If I make Him my top priority then everything else will be ok and I don’t have to worry about it. The deepening of my faith in God is a constant process that is always clear when I look back at different episodes but the process is never easy at the time.

For those of you that are interested, here are the classes I’m taking:

Biblical History-New and Old Testament
Biblical Discipleship
Old Testament Prophets
Youth Ministry
Missions in the Bible and History
Pastoral Ministry

We also have a mid-day prayer Tuesday-Friday, a devotional service and a world focus prayer on Tuesdays, and a fellowship group on Thursdays.
I
t’s great to be at a college that has such a sound theological understanding of teaching and community. The planned events throughout the week and the year are all geared towards creating a strong community that learns from the classes and each other while we each play a role in the community. The college courses are able to be offered a very low price because of donations from the community as well as work that we do while we’re here. Every student has duties to do such as cleaning up after lunch, serving tea, or locking up at night etcetera in order to keep the costs of the upkeep to a minimum.

The atmosphere created is much more relaxed then I’m used to in an educational setting. The professors are very approachable and I’ve been able to talk to some them during our daily tea break. It’s very much a community focused on real education in the many forms that it can take place and I appreciate that very much.

Dave