In October and November I also took two trips to Lausanne, Switzerland, again to teach on the core course. This school was bilingual in English and Korean, but nearly all the students were Korean. I don't understand a word of Korean, so my teaching was translated. The first trip was to teach on the Book of Romans - such a wonderful book, and one that all Christians should know very well. The second was to teach on Genesis and Deuteronomy - a challenge to fit both of these into one week!
In early June I went to teach again in the YWAM centre outside Lausanne in Switzerland. This was to teach on the Core Course, a twelve-week school, during which they read the whole Bible, and study a selection of different books. I gave an introduction to the books of Kings to help the students get to know Old Testament history. I also gave an introduction to the prophetic books, explaining how to read and understand the prophets, using the Book of Amos as an example prophet. This school was just in English, so I didn’t have to be translated.
Also in June I made a second trip to Switzerland, but this time to the German-speaking part. This was to teach on the full nine-month School of Biblical Studies held in a little village called Wiler, between Biel and Bern in the centre of Switzerland. I was invited to teach on the books of 1 and 2 Kings. The school was bilingual English and German, so I was translated into German. There were a good number of students from a variety of different nations, including Switzerland, Germany, England, and even Ethiopia. The two books of Kings give an important historical foundation to the study of the prophets, each of which the students will study in subsequent weeks. While I was in Wiler there was torrential rainfall and severe flooding, the month before we had the same in England.
Russia
It was a delight to be able to return to Rostov-on-Don in Russia, where we lived for a year about nine years ago, when we ran the first SBS in Russia. Rostov-on-Don is a big city of about two million people, about 600 miles due south from Moscow, not far from the Black Sea.
This time they were running just a four-month New Testament SBS. The school was being led by a young Russian couple. The husband came from Siberia, and his wife was from the village south of Rostov, where the YWAM team had planted a church over ten years ago. I was invited to teach the Book of Romans, which is always such a privilege to teach. It is so important that the students gain a real understanding of the Christian Gospel, which is laid out so clearly in this book. They also asked me to give an introduction to the study of the Psalms, and teach about the canon of Scripture. Since we were there before, YWAM have purchased their own training centre (picture), which they have been renovating.
The school was bilingual in English and Russian, so I was translated into Russian. I could still recognise many of the words which we learnt when we lived there. The school was mostly Russians from the local area, with students from Siberia, Ukraine and Belarus as well.
It was interesting to see how much Rostov had changed in nine years. It is far more busy and prosperous than when we lived there, and the roads are now packed with cars. There are many more expensive shops, and even McDonalds has arrived! However the news is not all good, as there is still much opposition to evangelical groups, which are seen as foreign and therefore suspect, by both the authorities and some of the local population.
Latvia
In April I returned to Latvia for my fifth visit there. Latvia is the middle of the three Baltic States, formerly part of the Soviet Union, but now in the European Union. This nation has certainly gone through major changes in the last fifteen years, and is very different from the first time I visited there in the 1990's. The nation of Latvia only has a population of under three million people, and only two million of those are actually Latvian. The rest are Russians, so in some parts of the country the majority of the population are Russian, including in the capital, Riga.
The YWAM centre is near a town called Talsi in the western part of Latvia. They run a twelve week school called the Bible Core Course every other year. I was invited to teach on John’s Gospel, which tells us so much about who Jesus is, emphasising both his divinity and his humanity. Most of the students were Latvian, but there was also one young man from England! My teaching was translated into Latvian. It is good to see how the YWAM work there continues to flourish under local leadership, and have a significant impact on their nation.
Holland
At the end of February I went to teach on the SBS in the YWAM base at Heidebeek in
Holland, about 50 miles east of Amsterdam. They had quite a large school, from several different nations, although most were Dutch. I taught on the Book of Deuteronomy, giving an explanation of how to understand the Law of Moses and the way we learn from its wisdom today, without slipping into legalism. Deuteronomy is a foundational book for the rest of the Old Testament, so it was important that the students understood it well, before continuing on their studies through the rest of the O.T. books. The flight back to England was very bumpy and uncomfortable. The first attempt to land in Birmingham was aborted at the end of the runway because of the high winds.
In early February I was invited back to The King’s Lodge where we lived for 15 years. In one week I had to teach on two different schools, which was a bit confusing! They asked me to teach on Exodus to one school, and Romans to the other. I missed one morning’s teaching because of heavy snow. I arrived at our local station to find that no trains were running, so had to wait until the afternoon to travel to Nuneaton.