The year has held many blessings, a few tough times, and a couple of surprises along the way.
It is hard to believe that a year has passed since my wife and I arrived in Managua and began our labors here. The year has held many blessings, a few tough times, and a couple of surprises along the way. Overall, it has been fun and through it all, God has been faithful in His provision and care for us. Nicaragua continues to be the country of my heart, and it is a supreme privilege to work here with fine Christian leaders.
Sue is well established at the Nicaragua Christian Academy here in Managua as the academic principal and she is enjoying not being the "new kid on the block" this year. We had a team come recently from our primary sending church in the USA, Forest Drive Church in Columbia, SC, and the time was great. The team included construction workers, teens, and teachers this year. The builders worked on a project in Bluefields, while the kids interacted with the students at our Verbo school there. Meanwhile, the teachers did some teacher training at our Verbo schools here in Managua and donated some much-needed supplies to the teachers.
By God's abundant grace and provision, we finished well this past year in the Instituto Bíblico Verbo, even though we had less students at the end than we had at the beginning. However, we have a good number planning to continue their biblical studies this year. Currently we have around 40 students enrolled. This past year, the transportation problems and a few other difficult situations contributed to the attrition. In a country like the US, with so much abundance, it is sometimes hard to realize the difficulty that a public transportation strike or a sudden rise in gas prices can cause in a country where many people survive financially for just one day at a time. People in the US feel economic hardships, too, but in the extreme poverty here, the economic pain can be a little sharper and more quickly felt.
Our plans for 2008-2009 are to offer the Institute classes designated in our second year curriculum. We plan to offer New Testament Survey 1 and 2, a class on a Team Leadership model, and a basic class in hermeneutics and exegesis. I will make some curriculum changes in the order of the classes for the future in order to meet the needs of the students, but the overall content of the curriculum seems to be working well. We will also endeavor to develop a method for providing classes in the churches outside of the Managua area. Pray for wisdom for us in how to develop this part of the plan.
We also want to continue to pursue accreditation this year since we have a year of classes in place and a program that is a little better defined to present to the authorities. Much of this effort hinges upon how soon we are able to move into our new facility with the church in Managua. Our textbook and library situation can be solved more easily with a more permanent place to house our developing school. We will continue to share classroom and office space, but the new building will have some more options for the Institute.
All in all, it has been an exciting year for us. When you sense that you are in the place of the perfect will of God for your life, there is no better feeling. What a privilege! I often tell my wife, "I cannot think of anything else I would rather be doing." Continue to pray for our budding school. In the future, we hope to partner even more with the other Verbo churches here, and not only offer study in the Bible, but also some practical job-training, teacher preparation, and other topics so that our pastors in the rural areas can be even more of a blessing to their communities.
Blessings in Him
Artie and Susan Hall
