|
June 13, 2006: Our
summer programs are well under way and the campus is bursting at the
seams. Enrollment for the May Geographical and Historical
Settings of the Bible course was 122, with 3 busses in the
field. The bulk of the students came from Wheaton College
(with Drs. Hassell Bullock and Mark Husbands), Western Seminary
(with Dr. Carl Laney), Denver Seminary (with Dr. Rick Hess)
and Gordon College. Instructors for the program were Drs.
Elaine and Perry Phillips (Gordon College), Dr. Bob Mullins (now of
Azusa Pacific University) and Dr. Paul Wright. We provided a full
schedule of field experiences, with trips throughout the land of
Israel and to Jericho, Bethlehem and Jordan. Students from Denver
Seminary had an additional component on globalization and missions.
The June Geographical and Historical
Settings course, with 65 students (including groups from
Northwestern College and Central Baptist College as well
as students from other schools in the JUC consortium—LeTourneau
University, Bethel University, Calvin College and Columbia
International University), begins June 12. Instructors for this
course are Dr. Carl Rasmussen (Bethel University) and Dr. Perry
Phillips (Gordon College). Enrollment is still open for the July
course Jesus and His Times, taught by Judith Fain. In
addition we are pleased to facilitate two special programs this
summer. The first, currently under way, is a combined group from
Covenant Bible College and the Joy of Abiding women’s fellowship
from Columbia, SC. This group is instructed by Dr. Bryan Beyer of
Columbia International University. The second is a group of seminary
and Bible college professors from schools in various eastern
European countries, instructed at JUC by Drs. Wes and Cheryl Brown.
This summer we are also busy making a number of
improvements to the physical plant and gardens of our Mt. Zion
campus. These include a new dishwasher and elevator for the kitchen,
a new railing for the stairway in the inner courtyard, a security
fence down slope from the classroom building and a solar hot water
heating system to back up our old fuel boilers. Of course we must
make special mention of two new pine trees in the garden, donated by
Helen Lebar of the Church at Hemlock Farms, Lord’s Valley, PA, in
memory of her dear husband.
It was a pleasure to host the spring meeting
of the Jerusalem University College Board of Directors on our
Jerusalem campus May 1. The board celebrated the strength of the
school and affirmed its vision and efforts in facilitating the
premier graduate and university-level educational experience for the
evangelical world in Israel. The board was able to meet JUC’s
faculty and members of our Jerusalem Advisory Council. In
conjunction with these meetings, members of the board also
participated in field trip experiences typical of those offered in
the JUC curriculum. Some of these trips related to courses in
Biblical geography; others to courses in the Modern Middle East. A
wonderful, informative and productive time was had by all.
With fall semester enrollment quite strong (we
may have over 60 enrolled in classes) and a clear road ahead (one at
least that is clearer than it has been the last several years), a
new day has dawned, by the grace of God, for Jerusalem University
College. There is good reason not only to be optimistic about the
future, but also to choose now to support our work and ministry with
prayer and financial resources if you are not already doing so. Much
of what we have been able to accomplish is due to the unflagging
support of our friends and donors, and I would again like to offer a
public thank you to all.
Our primary goals on the financial side are
twofold: to create a scholarship endowment that will encourage
high-quality candidates to pursue the JUC MA degree, and to pursue
an aggressive strategy by which we can ensure the security of a
long-term presence on the property that we have already enjoyed on
Mt. Zion for the last 40 years. Our academic reputation in Israel
and among the evangelical Christian communities in the West is
already strong; meeting these financial goals will provide that
extra measure of credibility that will allow us to flourish. We are
seeking partners in these exciting endeavors.
|
|
Among the toys and such scattered around the
house when I was a kid it seems that there was always a cardboard
kaleidoscope lying around somewhere, tucked in the back of some
drawer or squeezed under a couch cushion. I remember holding the
round tube up to the window, looking into the small eyepiece and
twisting the end. With every twist was a splash of color as bits of
transparent cellophane or plastic fell into new patterns, each, like
the proverbial snowflake, different than the one before. Of course
once in a while the colors fell into an unattractive blob, but I
only had to twist the end again and hope for better next time.
I haven’t had the pleasure of looking into a
kaleidoscope for many years. I wonder why I didn’t buy one for my
own kids? Never mind. Now that I live in Israel, I’m sometimes
reminded that the mix of people who live here is something like a
kaleidoscope—countless folk from all over the world, as well as many
whose families have lived in the land for centuries, each with a
unique combination of social, cultural and religious qualities and
each, at any given time or place, rubbing shoulders with others,
equally unique in their own right. Splashes of color forming
patterns, and then, down the street or over the next hill, similar
folk forming different patterns with others, sometimes in surprising
and pleasant ways but unfortunately all too often overlapping in a
manner much less attractive or even repugnant to see.
When my children were in elementary and middle
school they attended a camp in Israel sponsored by the Southern
Baptists. For several years the camp was held on the grounds of a
kibbutz (an Israeli collective farming community) just south of the
Sea of Galilee. One year, my son Ben invited Yousef, a school friend
from a Muslim family, to camp. So there we have it—a Muslim
attending a Christian camp on a Jewish kibbutz. A splash of color.
Unexpected? Here, not really, but certainly pleasant in any case.
When she dropped Ben and Yousef off at the
camp, my wife Diane started chatting with Itzik, a fellow who
happened to be on the kibbutz that day. He was from Haifa, a large
Israeli city on the Mediterranean coast, a city which, unlike many
others in the land, was not built on ancient Israelite or Jewish
remains. No, Haifa is thoroughly modern, without any specific
attachment to the past. And so Itzik, in his native Israeli Hebrew
accent, commented, “I like living in Haifa. It’s a place where Moses
wasn’t, Jesus wasn’t, Mohammed wasn’t. People get along there.”
Ouch.
The fact that Haifa has seen its share of bus
bombings is irrelevant. For Itzik—and for many others living in
Israel today—the colors of the kaleidoscope fall into an ugly mass
only when religion gets involved. Take out Moses, Jesus and
Mohammed, together with the deeply exclusive feelings that the Jews,
Christians and Muslims have for their own understanding of God and
His will for this world, and life will be the way its supposed to
be—bright splashes of harmonious, beautiful color. In our secular,
humanistic world, God’s will—and whatever expressions of religion it
may contain in the hearts and minds of people—are usually seen to be
part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Appropriately, my pastor in Jerusalem once
commented, “This land is full of people with religious hearts, but
not loving hearts.” I dare say that I agree, but hasten to add that
this is not a problem unique to the Holy Land. Indeed, the words of
the Apostle Paul strike home wherever we live:
[I pray] . .
. that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith [and]
that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be
able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and
width, height and depth, and to know the Messiah’s love that
surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness
of God (Eph. 3:16-19).
There’s something here that is deeper than mere
human expressions of religion. The love of Christ, the Messiah,
working miracles of color in our lives, surpasses knowledge—even our
feeble knowledge of what it means to “be religious.” While God
desires that all of us acknowledge his grace with a response that is
heart-felt and Biblically-based, he wants most of all that we know
and experience his love as it is revealed in Jesus. How else can
unattractive blobs display the brilliance for which they were
created? |
