First Lecture

I got my first lecture under my belt today, filling in for one of the adjunct Bible instructors in his "Introduction to the Bible" course.  It is a leveling course designed for international students who are unfamiliar with Christianity, which covers the story of the Old Testament this semester. The instructor, who himself is originally from Brazil, also focuses a lot on cultural transition in the class (his father was an international student at OC many years ago, and became a Christian then).

By way of introduction, I asked the students to complete the following sentences: My name is...; I am from...; My major is...; I have been in the USA (how long)...; I first heard about Jesus (when)...

I had students from China, Canada, Japan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Ivory Coast, and an American who described herself as an "Army-brat" who grew up throughout the Middle East and Europe. Most of them had heard about Jesus at a young age, but knew little about him.  Two of the students said they knew "Jesus" from American movies (wherein His name is used quite frequently as an expletive - how embarrassing!).  However, three of the girls from China said they had never heard of Him until their first class (last week) at OC.  Wow!  All 18 of them said they plan to return to their home countries upon graduation. I told them that I hoped they would learn a lot about the Bible and Jesus, and that they would take that knowledge along with their education back home with them.

The instructor asked me to talk about Vanuatu in regard to the local culture and our adaptation to it, and why we are in Vanuatu. I emphasized that we are there to introduce people to the Bible, what it says about God, and the way in which we are called to live as we seek to imitate Jesus' example.

The students had some good questions following the presentation. They asked how our extended families felt about us leaving a modern society to live in an under-developed country, what our kids thought about living in Vanuatu, how we heard about Vanuatu (none of them had ever heard of it), and what the weather is like.

I heard a statistic last week that over 80% of international students who come to the US for university leave without having ever been invited into an American home.  I shared that statistic with them at the end of class, and told them that we would love to have them over for lunch or dinner any time.

My 2nd lecture is slated for tomorrow morning in a World Religions class, where I will be talking about traditional beliefs in Vanuatu and how they affect people's reception of and participation in Christianity.