MINISTRY / Our family in China
Do you have someone in your family who notices when you need new clothes -- and then buys them for you?
Our faculty members have found they have family members like that among their students.
Early morning online classes
Our Bible institute classes often start early in the morning, especially in the winter. In the Midwest, during the months we are on standard time, our faculty members are 14 hours behind the time in China. A 7:00 pm class in China requires our professors to be at their computers and online before 5:00 am.
Relaxed online classes
Before I tell you the rest of this story, you need to know that online classes usually feel relaxed. Children might wander into the class. A cup of tea and a snack might accompany a student online. The wardrobe is informal.
A faculty member (actually, there may be more of our faculty that I don't know about) teaches in his pajamas and a bathrobe. He finds It hard, when he rolls out of bed a little after 4:00 am, to get dressed for the day.
Family ties in online classes
One of the groups of Chinese students he teaches has met with him for several years. During that time, he has dressed in the same bathrobe. It's a stylish bathrobe, but nonetheless a bathrobe. Imagine his surprise when a package arrived from China. The return address belonged to a student in that class. Inside the package was a new bathrobe.
More than teaching takes place in our online classrooms. Friendships develop. Family ties develop, family ties that will last for eternity.
That’s the status we share. We speak different languages; we live in different cultures; we are separated by half a planet. But we are family, brothers and sisters who have been adopted by God through Jesus. Scripture assures, Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family (Hebrews 2:11).
I’m looking forward to celebrating — with you — in heaven the international family that grace has created.
Of course, in heaven, our bathrobes will be replaced by white robes (Revelation 7:9).
Jim Aderman, Executive Director