Teach Others

“…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim 2:2), said the Apostle Paul to his student Timothy, encouraging the young man to teach others who in turn would instruct yet another “generation” of students. Fast forward two millennia… Back in the mid 2000s, I enrolled in the Master of Divinity program at Concordia Seminary St. Louis and a decade later in the Doctor of Ministry program at Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne. One decade after that, I am serving as a missionary and theological educator at Luther Academy, Riga, Latvia, a European Union-accredited online seminary, alongside my missionary colleagues Rev. Dr. David Preus, Rev. Jerry Lawson—here accompanied by LCMS Office of International Mission Executive Director Rev. Dr. Cory Rajek—and Rev. Dr. Quintin Cundiff (from L to R), as well as Rev. Dr. Samuel Bobby, and Rev. Dr. John Bombaro (the last two not pictured). What we once learned at our LCMS seminaries stateside we are now privileged to pass on to the ever-growing group of students at Luther Academy, some 30 strong—from 18 countries. This past week I concluded Part Two of “Overview of the Bible,” the first semester having been taught by Dr. Bombaro. I immensely enjoyed instructing our students who live in Albania, Finland, Germany, Norway, Turkey and even Ukraine, and hail from those countries but also from Iran and Russia. I was particularly moved by the two students whose home countries are at war with one another (with both students agreeing that Russia is the aggressor). Our common language is English, but the language skills of the students vary, as does their familiarity with Lutheran doctrine. But one thing is certain: all of them aspire to become Lutheran pastors or deaconesses. May the Lord bless them all as they grow in their understanding of Lutheran Christianity, which they will one day—God willing—pass down to their own parishioners and perhaps even a new generation of church leaders!