SUNDAY FEBRUARY 23, 2014
“So thanks to The Haiti Fund, ” JT begins, “We have now been designated as a University by the Haitian Ministry of Education.” Johnny Israel, Carl Lancaster, and I are sitting at a table with JT, Bwa, and Abel at that little Haitian restaurant JT likes to take us to for Sunday lunch.
“How’s that?” I ask, not sure what JT’s getting at.
“Well, we had the College of Nursing, and now, thanks to your group, we also have the College of Biblical Studies. So since we have two separate disciplines, we were able to have our designation upgraded to University status. So according to the Haitian Ministry of Education, with the addition of this new program, we have officially created Delmas Christian University.”
“Well, that’s pretty cool…” I reply.
JT explains to us that he has designed this program to offer three separate majors/degree tracks: Theology, Biblical Studies, and Practical Ministry.
(For those of you not familiar, this is very similar to the majors offered under the Bible Departments at our Christian Colleges here, such as Harding, Freed-Hardeman, Lipscomb, etc.)
JT goes on to explain that getting the College of Biblical Studies (what we’ve been referring to as the Preacher’s Training School) fully accredited with the Haitian government was extremely important, because graduates of the program will be able to perform official proceedings such as weddings, etc. (While that may not seem terribly significant at first blush, it is huge from a credibility standpoint with the community, which is vital to evangelism and church growth).
JT also explains that the Ministry of Education has pretty high standards that have to be met and maintained, including the fact that incoming students will have to have already graduated from Secondary School (the equivalent of High School in Haiti, except that it goes through Grade 13).
About this time I realize that all of this has been a lead-in to hitting me up for one additional – previously unmentioned – action item: “Also,” JT grins, “It is a requirement that we give the students an exam at the end of your course, so I want to see if you, Carl, and John” (which JT always pronounces as Jean, with the soft J sound) “can prepare an exam for us to administer when you are finished.”
“And you need this by when?” I ask, also grinning, because this is the kind of thing I’m sort of use to with JT.
“Mmm,” JT thinks for a moment. “So we have time to take what you write and translate it into French…Tuesday is good.”
“How about by Wednesday at 2pm?” I’m negotiating for time now.
“Dat be ok too,” JT says, and laughs his JT laugh.
So…Johnny, Carl, and I have got a little extra work to do.
————————————————————————————-
The PTS is now running two classes: One that meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2pm to 6pm, and another that meets for 8 hours Saturday and 4 hours Sunday. Some students – many of whom JT says are already preaching at various Churches of Christ – are attending both classes, some are attending one or the other. While we are in town, all students are invited to attend the 16 hour short course the three of us are teaching.
We get back to the Delmas church building about 1:30pm, and I start looking over my notes as we get ready to start. As the students are arriving, I happen to ask JT what class this is that usually meets during this time.
“New Testament Greek, ” he says – and all of a sudden it hits me, really for the first time: This is the real deal – this is a serious, university level Biblical Studies program.
So now I’m starting to get nervous, wondering if we’ve prepared our material at a sophisticated enough level. But at the end of the day JT seems very pleased, and we get great feedback and interaction with the men…so I guess we’ll see how Monday goes!
————————————————————————————-
MONDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2014
“This is a very good start,” JT says. He’s not talking about me, Carl, and Johnny; he’s talking about the Preacher’s Training School in general.
It’s lunchtime, and the six of us are back at the same little place. (In fact, it just now hits me that apparently JT has his favorite table also, because he always takes us to that same spot back in the corner.) JT continues: “Five of these men at the school are already preaching at churches, so this will be very helpful to them in their ministry. But even more importantly, by the time we start the next semester in the fall, almost every one of these men will have churches they are preaching at by then – either churches that need a preacher, or new churches that these men have started.”
Again, I’m thinking that’s very cool.
————————————————————————————-
It strikes me that being in Haiti feels a little bit like the Wild West sometimes. The six of us have been riding everywhere back and forth in a Mitsubishi Montero, which has only got seating for five (and then a fully enclosed cargo area with a liftgate at the rear), so Abel has had to ride lying on his side in the cargo area with our back packs and the water jug.
So when they first pick us up this morning, as Abel is opening the liftgate to climb in the cargo area, he reaches up under his shirt and pulls a large automatic out of the waistband of his jeans. Looks bigger than a 9mm, more like a 45. Johnny and I look at each other and laugh. I’m assuming that Abel just didn’t want to be laying on his gun, because all day long, every time we’ve been getting in or out of the truck – and the whole time we’re riding in the truck – Abel’s had this (very large) weapon clearly and visibly waving around in his right hand.
————————————————————————————-
It’s quite a hoot. It’s almost midnight now, and all three of us have been sitting in the room going full blast for the last six hours – studying, writing, scribbling things out and throwing them away, starting over again, each of us trying to prepare the rest of our teaching material – AND the test questions! – in time for our next class session. All three of us are laughing that this feels like college days, pulling late night study sessions to cram for a test or turn in a paper at the last minute. “Yeah,” I say, “but at least it feels a little different when it’s something that you want to do, instead of something you have to do.”
