In the Workshop

Bob was sent by his church to check out a project they were supporting in Africa. At the height of his welcoming ceremony by the African people, Bob was busy unloading all of his photography equipment in order to quickly snap pictures before he lost this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“You’ve gotta take the bull by the horns,” I declared. The students looked puzzled. As an “English as a First Language” (EFL) speaker, I was talking to my class of twelve students who were all “English as a Second Language” (ESL) speakers from around the globe. Since they all spoke English, I assumed that they fully understood everything I said.

The Joneses are busy getting ready for their home assignment, or furlough, next week. Dad may have to pull a few all-nighters to finish packing. They haven’t even thought about cleaning the house and readying it for the next occupants. They’ll have to ask their missionary friends to return borrowed items.

We met friends at an Indian restaurant. As we munched warm flatbread with these missionaries, they told us how their mission agency was reckoning with looming challenges on several fronts.

From the start, Africa Equip Ministry (AEM), based in Nairobi, Kenya, was a ministry that had very little money but local Christians were enthusiastically involved in it.

Ana Silvia got the shock of her life. After five years of teaching the deaf, the young school principal almost lost hope when she discovered her students had made little progress.

As a missionary teacher in a Bible college in Kenya, one of my greatest concerns is “How can God use me to make a lasting difference in my students’ lives?”

You are pioneering the growth of an exciting ministry. You have dreams and plans and a commitment to do things right. But your partner doesn’t share your way of doing things. It has reached the point where you are frustrated and unclear about where it is all going.

The evangelical world has become enamored with the idea of multicultural church planting teams in the last few years. This approach has yielded great promise but also many problems (Roembke 2000, ix), particularly in the area of relationships.

As I sat down to reflect on my experience as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher at an overseas Bible institute, I realized that I had something to share concerning one of the important practical realities of theological education in non-English speaking contexts.