Rev. James May and Lutherans in Africa's School of Theology just finished its first semester of classes. Over the course of 8 weeks, students from Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Burundi and Sudan studied eschatology, pastoral theology, the Lutheran liturgy and the Psalms.
Each Intensive concluded with final exams and graded marks for assignments, notes and class participation. The students were eager to get started and so I handed out the test the night before. They were also given the entire next day to finish the exam.
Writing essays and answering questions in a non-native, second language was challenging for the students but it was also very rewarding.
Binders were stacked in front of my door to be graded. The only thing more draining than taking a final exam is grading all of them.
Rev. James May gave a final assignment to the students centered on the six chief parts of Luther's Small Catechism. The top six students received a copy of a beautiful book about the Reformation.
On departure day, the "King James" matatu arrived to take the students to downtown Nairobi. From the central bus station in Nairobi, the students could then board a bus to their final destinations.
One needs to "be strong and courageous" to ride on the matatu. Ironic, but appropriately, the second sentence starts mid thought ...
... "be afraid or tremble".
Here's a little video of the traffic problems we have near the Lutheran School of Theology. The commute is just brutal. I'm going to have to talk to Rev. James May, Executive Director of Lutherans in Africa, to see if I can work out some flex time so that I miss rush hour.
The same herd, later in the day, paid a visit to the Lutherans in Africa's staff Christmas party.
Before we left the Lutheran School of Theology, we had a few chores to finish up. One of them was cutting some of the grass so that it could be used as a type of mulch (water retainment) around some of the newly planted seedling trees. Upon review of our work by Rev. James May, Faye and I didn't pass the Total Quality benchmarks. We'll do better next time.
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Credits:
Paul Arndt, Sarai May, Sofia May and LIA