Changing gears

So the last trip was south.  I am still in contact with some folks from Honduras, and I look forward to more connections there.  I'm hoping that individuals at Central will ratchet up their support for the Manuelito Project by sponsoring the kids at Manuelito through Hope Teams International.  That connection is not going away.

And God continues to put Spanish language ministry on my heart, whether in Honduras or Minnesota.  By the way, one of the cool things that happened this past week is that I had an opportunity to meet with some potential church leaders in Melrose, MN -- about a half hour on the other side of St. Cloud.  These are all Spanish speakers, looking to start a Spanish-language church in their local community.  So far they're having preliminary meetings, praying, getting people together and building a leadership team.  It was great fun to sit with them, talk with them, pray with them, listen to them, and be a small part of what God is doing there.  In the not-too-distant future, I hope we can have a similar team meeting in Elk River!

But this week I am also trying to change gears.  Julie and I are headed north soon -- going back up to Alberta to the Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute where I'll be teaching church history from the Reformation to the present.  I have so much fun with this I can hardly stand it.  LOVE teaching church history.  This is the first time I've taught my way through things like the Enlightenment and the rise of Pentecostalism.  It's fascinating to me how these movements and many others create our present context.  We have no idea how much we are in bondage to the movements of the last two or three hundred years until we start to study our history.  Wow!

So my goal is not that these forty students I'll be teaching will memorize a lot of dates and names of dead people -- though that can be a necessary evil of studying history -- but rather that we will be able to talk through the movements that have shaped our current context and come to a better understanding of ourselves and our own time.