Tuesday 2 October 2018

Culture shock in central Scotland

Hello world,

I can't believe i'm half way through my time at Tilsley college already. It equally feels as though I've been here forever, yet I don't know where the time has gone.. This time has been a real eye opening experience for me, with the majority of that not even coming from lectures. 

For example, when I decided to embark on this journey, I had no idea that my experience of multi-cultural living would come from my time at Bible college in Scotland. We have people from Italy, France, Poland, Syria and Zimbabwe, just to name a few. And I wouldn't change it for the world. It is so amazing to spend this time with such a wide variety of people, with different backgrounds and experiences, language and culture, and yet to have a common reason for studying together. It has been interesting however, getting used to everyone's quirks and ways of living. With the college being so small, it's kind of hard to avoid people a lot of the time. Not that I want to, but working out the dynamics of how we function as a "family unit" at times have been challenging, as with any family. I do thank God that he has brought me together with this wonderful, unique, crazy group of individuals, that I have the privilege of calling brothers and sisters in Christ.

It feels really weird being back in "school". It's very familiar, yet it seems very different. For one, it is incredibly refreshing to start each lecture by praying and committing the session to the Lord. That sounds like a small thing, but for me it is really important, because in a weird way it takes the pressure off. By praying, it re-tunes my brain from the mentality that this is a purely academic exercise, and engages my heart in the learning. It makes it personal, and re-sparks the passion. A lot of the academics over the last two weeks have been about laying down the basics and foundations that will support the students through the whole year (I'm in lectures with the 1st years) and to make sure everyone is on the same page. One of my favourite lectures has been "An introduction to the bible", which has been looking at the Bible as historical book, the divine inspiration of the book, the validity and corroboration of both the old and new testament, as well as the cannon of both of these. It is absolutely fascinating.

And so life goes on. We learn, we are challenged, we grow. We laugh and we cry. We worship and praise the King of Kings, who gave everything for us. My saviour. My refuge. My hope.


"The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving" Psalm 28:7 NLT

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you really know what's in the Bi-a-ble.
    Missing you
    Fiona

    xxx

    ReplyDelete

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